Report: Over 85,000 Iraqis died in war
BAGHDAD, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Five years of war in Iraq left more than 85,000 Iraqis dead, a government ministry said in a report.
The Iraqi Human Rights Ministry said 85,694 people were killed from 2004 to Oct. 31, 2008, while the number of wounded was 147,195 for the reported period, CNN said Thursday
The two figures include civilians and Iraqi security forces, but not insurgents and militias.
The ministry released the report, considered the first official review conducted by Iraqis, Tuesday and posted the findings on its Web site.
Officials and other reports have indicated the death toll in Iraq is higher and also disagreed about the counting of casualties, CNN said.
A Human Rights Ministry official said its numbers may be conservative, but they were confirmed and documented.
"Keep in your mind that there are a lot of missing people who we believe that they are dead, but can not confirm it," the official told CNN. "(There) are many people who have died and their families buried them without reporting it."
Clinton viewed more favorably than Obama
PRINCETON, N.J., Oct. 15 (UPI) -- More Americans have a favorable view of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton than President Obama, a Gallup Poll released Thursday suggests.
Clinton, who lost the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination to Obama, pulled a favorable rating of 62 percent favorable rating to Obama's 56 percent, results showed.
"Clinton's current favorable rating ranks among her best in the 17 years Gallup has polled Americans about her," the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.
The flip in the relative popularity of Clinton and Obama could reflect their roles in national government, Gallup said.
Obama came into the office of president with a 78 percent favorable rating, Gallup said. His rating steadily slipped to 56 percent as he made or confronted thorny issues such as passage of an economic stimulus package, the auto industry bailout, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and healthcare reform.
Meanwhile, Clinton helped advance Obama's foreign policy in a less glaring spotlight, the pollster said. Her favorable rating of 62 percent has changed little since she became secretary of state.
Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews with 1,013 adults conducted Oct. 1-4. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.
Public health option has lots of options
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Inter- and intra-party debate is heating up in the U.S. Congress on whether to have a public option in healthcare reform and, if so, what it will look like.
Now that reform measures have passed out of five House and Senate committees -- three in the House and two in the Senate -- the focus shifted to reconciling elements of the bills into ones each chamber can consider. Among the matters to be considered is what form the public option -- demanded by liberal Democrats and chastised by Republicans -- would take.
When the Senate Finance Committee passed its version Tuesday, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, was the lone Republican to side with all committee Democrats. However, she said she was moving to advance the discussion, not the bill.
She favors a trigger option that would establish a government-run plan in states where at least 5 percent of residents can't access affordable care. -- an idea that's generating a lot of buzz, The New York Times reported Thursday.
Two senior administration officials said the White House is looking favorably on the Snowe plan, while liberals argue Snowe is gaining undue influence over the talks.
"It's one vote. She won't make the commitment on the final product, and she says she's got to have the trigger," said Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, D- Ariz., who heads the House effort to secure votes for a government plan similar to Medicare. "I think the administration has put her in the driver's seat; it's very disconcerting."
Because public health coverage has split the Democrats, several compromises are being floated, such as non-profit cooperatives in the Senate Finance Committee bill and letting states decide whether they want to participate in a public option, another discussion point gathering steam among centrist Democrats, the Times said.
North Korea warns South of naval battle
SEOUL, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- North Korea renewed its warning to South Korea Thursday of a possible naval clash despite signs of a widening thaw between the two nations, officials say.
The North accused South Korea of repeatedly sending warships into its territorial waters off the west coast in a deliberate move to raise tensions. Skirmishes in that area turned bloody in 1999 and 2002, reportedly killing dozens of sailors on both sides, the South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.
South Korean military officials deny their Navy has intruded past the Northern Limit Line. North Korea, on the other hand, refuses to respect the 1953 truce line that was drawn by an American general at the end of the three-year Korean conflict.
North Korea's warning came one day after talks with South Korea in which the North expressed regret over a flood that swept six South Korean campers to their deaths Sept. 6. Observers say it is rare for the North to express regret over its actions.
Obama urged to take firmer hand in Sudan
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Human rights groups and lawmakers are stepping up pressure on the Obama administration over its approach to ending violence in Sudan, observers say.
Critics have told the Washington Post the White House and the State Department are moving too cautiously in dealing with the matter.
In a separate communique, Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-Va., a member of the House Sudan caucus who has long been critical of the Khartoum regime, called on President Barack Obama to personally intervene to make sure no U.S. lobbying firm is allowed to represent the country.
Earlier, a coalition of U.S.-based advocates focused on the Darfur region, who blame the Sudanese government of continuing genocide, sent a letter to Obama demanding the replacement of retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration as special envoy to Sudan.
The group charges his "good-intentioned yet soft approach" to engage the country's leaders "is wrong and deadly."
