MANCHESTER, N.H., Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Winter storms are blamed for at least two dozen deaths and have left up to 1 million Americans without power and the bad weather isn't over yet.

The National Weather Service predicts the Northeast will be slammed, with parts of New Jersey expected to get up to 10 inches of snow, and neighboring states getting at least six. Sleet and freezing rain also are possible.

Forecasters say it could turn into a more significant coastal storm, possibly a nor'easter, during the weekend, the Union Leader in Manchester, N.H., said.

Another storm could deliver another blow to the Southwest, with Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas expected to be hit with more ice and sleet, newsroomamerica.com reported. Up to 1 million people -- 615,000 in Oklahoma alone -- were without power in the wake of an earlier ice storm that swept through the Midwest overnight Tuesday, the news Web site reported.

At least 24 deaths have been blamed on the storm since it developed last weekend, most coming from traffic accidents, newsroomamerica reported.

U.S. budget measure not linked to troops

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Democratic leaders said a budget deal containing funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is likely to pass without provisions for U.S. troop withdrawals.

Democratic lawmakers said Congress is likely to pass as much as $70 billion in war funding, but without measures calling for the redeployment of many of the U.S. troops in Iraq by the end of 2008, CNN reported Thursday.

Democratic leaders said the measure may spark controversy among the party faithful who have been outspoken against the war.

The base of the Democratic Party expressed concern of the lack of pressure exerted on U.S. President George Bush to change the Iraq policy.

Senate Republicans said they would block any budget deal that didn't contain at least some of the $200 billion in war funding requested by the Bush administration.

Democrats point to the measure as a victory that curtails the Bush administration's war effort.

"What is for sure is he will not get all $200 billion," said a senior Democratic. "Whatever number it is, it is much less than what the president asked for. For the first time in this war, he has received less than his request."

Iraqi bombers active outside Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- A suicide car bomber killed three Iraqi police bodyguards and injured six others Thursday in an attack on a police chief's convoy west of Baghdad.

The bomber crashed into the convoy of Col. Hekmat Kaoud Al-Namrawi in the city of Heit in Anbar province as Namrawi was headed home, police told Kuwait's KUNA news agency. The source said Namrawi survived the blast with minor injuries.

Iraqi security officials also reported two roadside bombs detonated late Wednesday night in the Khanqueen area near the Iranian border.

Four people were killed, including the son of a Kurdish tribal leader, and 12 others were wounded, the report said.

South of Baghdad in Amara, officials increased the death toll from Wednesday's triple car bombing to 28, CNN reported. More than 150 other people sustained blast and shrapnel injuries in the near-simultaneous blasts in the city where Shiite factions are battling for control.

Reports of violence in Iraq in recent weeks appear to confirm U.S. military claims last month that insurgents are fanning out from the capital, striking areas that had been relatively calm.

British PM announces shift in Afghanistan

LONDON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown shifted policy on Afghanistan by backing plans to reintegrate some Taliban, curb poppy cultivation and support NATO forces.

The prime minister told the House of Commons that British strategy would back plans to support the integration of "tier two" and "tier three" Taliban into the Afghanistan reconstruction effort, keep nearly 8,000 U.K. troops in the country and eliminate the aerial spraying of poppy fields, the Times of London said Thursday.

Critics oppose the eradication of opium through aerial spraying in favor of subsidizing farmers for halting cultivation.

Brown said he approved plans to release nearly $920 million in war funding to support training measures for Afghanistan's armed forces.

The move comes as international leaders expressed frustration over the lack of cohesion in the effort in Afghanistan. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the U.S. Congress that NATO allies were "unable to step up to the plate," while British officials counter U.S. operations leave British forces to "pick up the pieces."

Japan complicit in 1937 massacre

NANJING, China, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Chinese historians said there is "unassailable evidence" Japanese soldiers killed more than 300,000 people in the Nanjing Massacre 70 years ago.

Documents from humanitarian and charity organizations witness to the events as well as evidence seized from Japanese troops show invading forces killed nearly 200,000 civilians in 28 incidents and 150,000 in nearly 1,000 other random episodes in 1937 and 1938, the Xinhau news agency said Thursday.

"There is no doubt on the total number of victims, which has been confirmed by unassailable evidence in legal documents and the Japanese right wing's attempt to deny it is unacceptable," said the curator of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, Zhu Chengshan.

The Far East International Military Court that presided over the examination was established in 1949 to examine atrocities during the Japanese occupation of Nanjing in World War II.