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26 hurt as plane makes emergency stop

MIAMI, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Four people were listed in serious condition at Miami area hospitals Monday after turbulence forced a Continental Airlines plane to make an emergency landing.

Officials said Flight 128 was en route from Rio de Janeiro to Houston when it flew through fierce turbulence, injuring 28 of the 168 passengers and forcing the plane to divert to Miami International Airport for an emergency stop, The Miami Herald reported.

Fourteen of the injured were taken to hospitals, which listed four people in serious condition, fire officials said. The rest of the injured were treated at the scene.

An airline catering truck was used to take some of the passengers from the plane, said Lt. Elkin Sierra, a Miami-Dade fire rescue spokesman.

"It has a solid, large platform to bring patients down," Sierra told the Herald. "It's safer for them and our personnel."

The Boeing 767 was about 50 miles north of the Dominican Republic when it encountered turbulence, said Kathleen Bergen, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman.

"The crew reported hitting severe turbulence and elected to divert to Miami," Bergen said.

FAA investigators were at Miami International Airport to examine the plane and talk to crew members, the newspaper said. The investigation also will look into whether other planes in the area around the same time as Flight 128 experienced turbulence, Bergen said.

Obama to note new GI Bill in effect

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Comprehensive educational benefits for U.S. veterans and their families are part of the new GI Bill now in effect.

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and others were to mark the implementation of the Post 9/11 GI Bill Monday at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

More than 25,000 U.S. military personnel have pre-applied to transfer unused educational benefits in the GI Bill to family members, the Pentagon said. The transfer of unused benefits became effective Saturday.

The bill gives military personnel 36 months of educational benefits under certain circumstances. Service members can use or transfer as much of their educational benefits as they like, and they can revoke or re-designate the benefits' recipient any time, a Pentagon official said.

After the event at George Mason University, Obama will meet one-on-one with Sheik al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, emir of Kuwait, in the Oval Office. Obama and Biden also will lunch with the emir in the Old Family Dining Room.

Healthcare debate bites dog days of August

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. healthcare debate will move from Washington to local venues as Congress heads home for the August recess.

The Obama administration, Republicans, Democrats and special interest groups will use the time to explain their points of view to the public via town hall meetings, television advertising and grass-roots lobbying, The New York Times reported Monday.

"I think what we want to communicate is that this is going to give people who have insurance a degree of security and stability, the protection that they don't have today against the sort of mercurial judgments of insurance bureaucrats," senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said of the administration's and supporters' efforts.

Republicans will be busy as well, with Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and John Barrasso of Wyoming, both physicians, taking their Internet program, "Senate Doctors Show" on the road to argue that the Democratic plan won't improve care or drive down costs, the Times said.

House Republican leaders distributed an information packet to colleagues Friday, urging them to argue the Democrats' plan would include "more than $800 billion in new tax hikes" and "harmful cuts" to Medicare, the Times said.

12 dead in Afghan bomb attack

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- A roadside bomb explosion Monday in Herat, Afghanistan, killed 12 people and wounded 20 others, officials said.

CNN reported the attack targeted district security chief Khwaja Issa but he escaped injury. Among those killed were two police officers, the report said.

The explosion went off as Issa's vehicle passed the attack site in Herat, about 400 miles west of Kabul, the report said.

The violence is the latest in a series of recent attacks ahead of the Aug. 20 presidential elections.

The New York Times said the attack comes in the wake of similar violent incidents during the weekend in which six Americans and three other NATO soldiers died.

The roadside bomb and other attacks made July the deadliest month for the allies in the eight-year-long campaign with 75 reported killed.

Car bomb kills 3 in Fallujah, Iraq

FALLUJAH, Iraq, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- A suicide bomber detonated a bomb-laden car near a checkpoint in Iraq's Anbar province Monday, killing three people, police said.

The car exploded near the entrance of a town near Fallujah, west of Baghdad, the Kuwait News Agency KUNA reported.

Two police officers were among the dead, China's official Xinhua news agency reported. Five officers were among the wounded. The blast also damaged several houses, shops and vehicles, Iraqi officials said.

Monday's attack came one day after a car bomb explosion in a marketplace in Haditha, also in Anbar province, in which seven people died and 20 were wounded.

Mass. most Democratic, Utah, Wyo. most GOP

PRINCETON, N.J., Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Massachusetts is the most Democratic state in the nation, along with the District of Columbia, while Utah and Wyoming are the most Republican, a poll indicates.

An analysis of Gallup Poll Daily tracking data from the first six months of 2009 determined that only four states showed a sizeable Republican advantage in party identification, while 29 states plus the District of Columbia indicated significant Democratic advantages, numbers that remained unchanged from last year.

The pollsters said that, as in 2008, most states are currently Democratic in their party orientation, with the greatest number -- 30, including the District of Columbia -- classified as solidly Democratic, with an additional 8 states leaning Democratic. Only four states can be considered solidly Republican -- Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Alaska -- with Alabama falling into the leaning Republican category.

Gallup said eight states are competitive in terms of party identification, including Mississippi, North Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Arizona, Texas, South Carolina, and Montana.

The pollsters said the results were based on interviews with more than 160,000 U.S. adults conducted between January and June 2009, including a minimum of 400 interviews for each state. The margin of sampling error for most states was 3 percentage points.