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'Public option' backers gain momentum

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Prospects for a U.S. government-run "public option" health insurance plan have brightened considerably in recent weeks, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Momentum has shifted significantly, so much so that many members of Congress are now predicting that when President Barack Obama signs a healthcare reform measure, it will contain provisions for some type of government-sponsored plan for Americans who don't receive coverage from their workplaces, the newspaper said.

It reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Friday were both lining up support for expansive versions of the public option, which emerged months ago as a volatile flash point in Democrats' health reform efforts as opponents at August town hall meetings decried it as socialized medicine and predicted it would lead to rationing.

But that has changed dramatically, even after the Senate Finance Committee rejected two versions of the public option in its reform bill, the Post said.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., said that since the talk of "death panels" at the meetings, the political climate has changed as voters now understand "that all of this foolishness was just that -- foolishness. Nobody wants to pull the plug on Grandma."

Pakistan captures Mehsud's hometown

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- The Pakistani army has captured the South Waziristan hometown of the Taliban's leader, officials said Saturday.

Using warplanes and attack helicopters in the country's lawless tribal region, the army took the town of Kotkai after four days of fighting, the Voice of America reported. The town is the headquarters of Hakimullah Mehsud, who took over as Taliban chief when his father, Baitullah Mehsud, was slain this year.

Military officials reported that a suspected U.S. missile strike had killed at least 14 people in the Bajaur tribal region.

An army statement on Friday said 13 militants were killed in fighting in Kotkai and in other key militant-held towns, such as Makeen and Ladha, bringing the total Taliban killed since the assault -- known as Operation Rah-e-Nijat or Path to Salvation -- began on Oct. 17 to 150, the Press Trust of India reported. Some 20 Pakistani soldiers have reportedly been killed.

U.S. military analysts said Friday that the assault into Pakistan's tribal areas has run into stiff resistance from militants, who are holding off fire from the attack helicopters, The Washington Post reported.

CDC: 16 million flu vaccine doses shipped

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Manufacturing difficulties are delaying the delivery of vaccines for the H1N1 flu strain, with less than half of the total shipped so far, U.S. officials say.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that 16.1 million doses of H1N1 vaccine out of an expected total of 28 million to 30 million doses had been shipped to warehouses, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"We are nowhere near where we thought we'd be by now," CDC Director Thomas Frieden told the newspaper. "We share the frustration of people who have waited in line or called a number or checked a Web site and haven't been able to find a place to get vaccinated."

Frieden wouldn't give specific projections for delivery of more doses, but did indicate he expected the supply to be "much more widespread" within the next several weeks.

Manufacturers such as Glaxo and Novartis are reportedly encountering delays. Glaxo, expected to provide 7.6 million U.S. doses of vaccine, has yet to gain regulatory approval and Novartis, set to make 90 million doses, is seeing low yields from its "seed" virus, the Journal said.

Poll: More would vote for BNP after show

LONDON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- More people would consider voting for the ultra-right British National Party after its leader appeared on the BBC, a poll indicates.

A YouGov poll conducted for The Daily Telegraph showed 22 percent of voters would "seriously consider" voting for the BNP in a future local or European election -- up to 2 to 3 percent over last month -- after BNP Member of Parliament Nick Griffin appeared this week on the British broadcaster's flagship current affairs program, the newspaper reported Saturday.

The Telegraph said the findings would fuel accusations the BBC decision to allow Griffin a national platform backfired. On the show, Griffin discussed his views on immigration, the Holocaust, Islam and homosexuality as anti-facist protesters picketed outside the BBC studios.

Two-thirds of the poll's respondents said they would not consider voting for the BNP "under any circumstances," but more than half agreed the rightists "had a point" in wishing to "speak up for the interests of the indigenous, white British people ... which successive governments have done far too little to protect."

The newspaper said the poll was conducted in the hours after Griffin's Thursday appearance but did not supply its methodology.