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Brown: Britain's nuke stockpile may be cut

L'AQUILA, Italy, July 10 (UPI) -- Britain's nuclear stockpile could be cut as part of a global initiative to induce Iran and North Korea to give up nuclear aspirations, the prime minister said.

Officials said U.S.-sponsored talks in 2010 designed to prevent nuclear arms proliferation could provide an avenue for Britain to reduce its 160-warhead arsenal in exchange for proof that the two nations had halted their weapons programs, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

U.S. President Barack Obama invited nearly three dozen nations to Washington next March to discuss halting the spread of nuclear material to rogue states and terrorist groups.

Speaking at the Group of Eight summit in L'Aquila, Italy, Prime Minister Gordon Brown Thursday intimated the number of British warheads and nuclear-armed submarines could be reduced as part of a new international agreement.

"What we need is collective action by the nuclear weapons powers to say that we are prepared to reduce our nuclear weapons, but we need assurances also that other countries will not proliferate them," he said.

Obama meets the pope

VATICAN CITY, July 10 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican Friday and received a document outlining the Church's opposition to abortion.

The Pope's private secretary Father George Gaenswein said the U.S. president was given the pamphlet to "help him better understand the position of the Catholic Church," the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi confirmed that the pope had stressed the need to defend life at all stages and the right to conscientious objection in his meeting with the U.S. president.

The two leaders talked for 40 minutes in the pope's private study.

Following the session, the pope was introduced to First Lady Michelle Obama and the couple's two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

Obama gave the pope a liturgical stole that was draped on the remains of John Nepomucene Neumann at the national shrine dedicated to him in Philadelphia.

The Bohemian-born Neumann was proclaimed a saint in 1977.

Dems at odds over paying for healthcare

WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- Senate Democrats have all but dismissed raising revenue to pay the $1 trillion, 10-year cost of sweeping U.S. healthcare reform legislation, insiders say.

A House panel is close to endorsing a sliding-scale surcharge beginning at 2 percent on taxpayers with incomes higher than $250,000 while backing off other potential revenue streams, including a tax on soda, and a payroll tax underwritten by employees and employers, The New York Times reported Friday.

Senators, meanwhile, reversed field on possibly taxing some employer-provided health benefits after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other party leaders voiced opposition. Senate negotiators reportedly were focusing on a plan that would tax the most generous employer-provided health plans -- those worth $25,000 or more a year -- as well as a modified limit on tax deductions proposed by President Barack Obama.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who made two trips to Capitol Hill this week to discuss healthcare proposals with House Democrats, said Obama would prefer the legislation's costs be paid for within the healthcare system.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D- N.D., a key figure in negotiations, said senators were being deliberate in reviewing a full range of payment options.

"Time spent on reconnaissance is never wasted," Conrad told the Times.

1,400 die a week in Sri Lankan camp

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, July 10 (UPI) -- The weekly death toll at the Manik Farm prison camp in Sri Lanka holding Tamil refugees averages 1,400, international aid officials said.

The average toll adds to international concerns that the Sri Lankan government hasn't ended humanitarian issues since announcing victory over Tamil Tiger militants in May, The Times of London reported Friday.

"There are allegations that the government is attempting to change the ethnic balance of the area," said Mangala Samaraweera, an opposition member of parliament and the country's former foreign minister. "Influential people close to the government have argued for such a solution."

The Manik Farm was meant to house the largest number of the 300,000 mainly Tamil civilians forced to flee the northeast area as army forces mounted an offensive against the Tigers, fighting to establish an ethnic Tamil homeland for 26 years.

Aid workers and the British government warned that conditions at the site are inadequate, the Times said. Senior relief workers said the majority of the deaths resulted from water-borne diseases, particularly diarrhea.

News of the death rate came as the International Red Cross said Sri Lankan authorities asked the organization to scale back its operations, the British newspaper said.

Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka's minister of disaster management and human rights, said a different set of challenges exist now.

"Manning entry and exit points and handling dead bodies, transport of patients, in the post-conflict era are no longer needed," Samarasinghe said.

Levi Johnston: Palin wants to make money

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, July 10 (UPI) -- Levi Johnston, the teenage father of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's grandson, says she quit to cash in on her celebrity and spend more time with her family.

Johnston, 19, spoke to reporters from several news organizations Thursday at a session arranged by his lawyer, the Anchorage Daily News reported. He described statements Palin allegedly made while he was still engaged to her daughter, Bristol.

Palin "had talked about how nice it would be to take some of this money people have been offering us and just run with it, and saying forget everything else," Johnston said. He suggested she was talking about "books, talk shows, whatever."

He described the governor as hardworking.

"I've seen how stressful this job was for her and she came home late at night and things like that," Johnston said.

Johnston and Palin have traded barbs since the breakup with her daughter, and his interview appears likely to add fuel to the fire.

"It is interesting to learn Levi is working on a piece of fiction while honing his acting skills," said Meghan Stapleton, Palin's spokeswoman.

Swim club president downplays camp comment

PHILADELPHIA, July 10 (UPI) -- The head of a swim club said Friday he regrets how he explained why his site would not host kids from a predominantly minority day camp in Philadelphia.

Valley Club president John Duesler said he did not intend to make it appear his suburban swim club was severing its contract with the Creative Steps Day Camp because the camp was predominantly black and Hispanic, the Philadelphia Inquirer said.

"This is a terrible misinterpretation of what I stand for. This is just wrong," Duesler said of his prior comment. "That was a terrible choice of words, I admit."

"There is a lot of concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion ... the atmosphere of the club," Duesler had originally told a Philadelphia TV station about his club's severed contract with Creative Steps.

Duesler said his original comment was intended to detail how his site simply does not have an adequate number of lifeguards to properly supervise the visiting campers, the Inquirer reported.

"It was just too many kids on top of each other," said Duesler, whose Huntingdon Valley, Pa., club has been tabbed for a racial discrimination investigation by a state agency. "Many of them couldn't swim."