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Verdict in landmark rendition case: Guilty

MILAN, Italy, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- An Italian court Wednesday convicted 23 people of arranging a Muslim cleric's kidnapping from Milan and flight to Egypt, where he said he was tortured.

In announcing the convictions of 22 CIA operatives and a U.S. Air Force colonel, Italian judge Oscar Magi said Wednesday three other Americans were covered by diplomatic immunity, The Washington Post reported.

The Americans were tried in absentia. A Milan prosecutor said the Italian Justice Ministry would consider later whether to seek the Americans' extradition from the United States.

The case is the only instance in which CIA operatives faced a criminal trial for extraordinary rendition, when terror suspects are seized in one country and transported to another without judicial oversight, the Post said.

Prosecutors said the Americans snatched Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, a radical Egyptian imam, in 2003 from a Milan intersection in broad daylight. Nasr was flown to Cairo, where he said he was subject to electroshock and physical abuse, prosecutors said.

In his closing argument Wednesday, deputy prosecutor Armando Spataro said it was "unthinkable" the U.S. practice of extraordinary rendition should trump Italian law forbidding kidnapping.

"Here, Italian law rules, not American law or any other law," he said.

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Critics: Not enough health cost reductions

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Healthcare reform measures being debated in the U.S. Congress don't go far enough to rein in runaway costs, critics say.

Legislation emerging from the Democratic-controlled Congress shy away from price controls and instead focus on President Barack Obama's preference for moving away from Medicare's fee-for-service payments, meant to break the cycle of rewarding providers for doing more procedures. Instead, proposals would establish a coordinated system that pays doctors and hospitals for gaining better results, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

But the newspaper said critics say measures to control costs are tepid and likely ineffective, such as the Senate plan's refusal to eliminate tax exemptions for employer-sponsored coverage and a watered-down proposal to set up a new Medicare cost-cutting commission.

The Post reported that healthcare cost reduction advocates also contend that moves to "save" $110 billion by simply cutting reimbursements to the private Medicare Advantage program hardly represent a fundamental refashioning of the healthcare system.

"These bills do very little in terms of reining in long-term cost growth," Ralph Neas, head of the non-partisan National Coalition on Health Care, told the newspaper, adding, "There is not enough in the public sector and virtually none in the private sector."

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Obama discusses U.S. education system

MADISON, Wis., Nov. 4 (UPI) -- The administration has ponied up $4 billion for education reform, challenging states to commit to educational changes, U.S. President Obama said Wednesday.

"We're saying, if you're committed to real change in the way you educate your kids; if you're willing to hold yourselves more accountable; if you develop a strong plan to improve the quality of education in your state, we'll offer you a big grant to help make that plan a reality," Obama said when explaining the Race to the Top award before an audience at a public charter middle school in Madison, Wis.

A quality education no longer is just a door-opener, it is a necessity to enter the 21st century global job market, Obama said.

"The prosperity of our nation has long rested on how well we educate our children. But this has never been more true than today," he told the audience at Wright Middle School. "In the 21st century -- when countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow -- there is nothing that will determine the quality of our future as a nation or the lives our children will lead more than the kind of education we provide them."

States applying for grants, available sometime after Jan. 1, will be scrutinized to make sure they measure up, Obama said. Criteria include commitment to higher standards and better assessments; commitment to putting "effective teachers in the classroom and effective principles at the helm of its schools;" progress toward raising graduation rates, and the state's focus on improving lower-performing schools.

"These are the four challenges that states must take up to win a Race to the Top award," Obama said. "And these are the four challenges that our country must meet for our children to out-compete workers around the world, for our economy to grow and prosper, and for America to lead in the 21st century."

Improving educational opportunities will take more than federal government -- it will take the work of state and local officials, principals and teachers, parents and children, Obama said.

"It will take each and every one of us doing our part on behalf of our kids, our country, and the future we share," he said.

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Writer challenges critics of Obama's style

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- One of the architects of President Obama's historic 2008 campaign win said saying Obama governs as an incrementalist instead of a visionary is preposterous.

Former campaign manager David Plouffe told USA Today if Congress passes healthcare and energy reforms, "that story line will go away,"

"There's nothing incremental" about either initiative, he said in an interview with the newspaper published Wednesday.

Plouffe's new book, "The Audacity to Win," was released Tuesday, nearly a year after Obama was elected on a pledge to bring sweeping change to government.

Plouffe's 387-page book tracks the campaign that began on a shoestring budget and a candidate with little national experience and bloomed into a high-tech, grassroots venture that raised $750 million and recruited millions of volunteers.

In the book, Plouffe recounted how the campaign handled sticky situations from the controversy over sermons by Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, to Republican John McCain's choice of then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate. It also describes how Obama chose Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his vice president and how Obama got back into the race after a crushing loss in the New Hampshire primary.

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No serious injuries in Philly train fire

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- No one was seriously hurt Wednesday morning when a fire broke out on a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority train, officials said.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported while as many as 700 passengers were on board the SEPTA R5 Paoli train when flames erupted in the train's first car, all passengers were evacuated safely.

SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said the cause of the fire was electrical and likely originated from a heater or a traction motor.

Williams assured the public the fire on the train, which went into service in 1965, was not linked to the ongoing strike by Philadelphia's mass transit workers.

"I can tell you there is absolutely no indication it is strike related," Williams said.

Data entry clerk Alicia Boyd, a passenger on the train's first car, told the Inquirer she and her fellow passengers were moved from the car before flames became visible.

"It was smoking when we got on," Boyd, 40, said. "It smelled like burning rubber."

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Bush and Clinton agree to debate

NEW YORK, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will take part in a debate at Radio City Music Hall next February, MSG Entertainment says.

The two ex-presidents have been booked to appear on the same New York stage as part of MSG Entertainment's third annual "Minds That Move The World," speaker series, the New York Daily News reports.

The debate will have a moderator and cover "topics ranging from the economy, to foreign policy, to the current administration," said a statement released by MSG Entertainment Tuesday.

Tickets for the Feb. 25 event will go on sale via Ticketmaster Nov. 16.

Seat prices will range from a low of $60 to a high of $1,250 for a special package that includes a pre-debate cocktail reception attended by the former presidents and a photograph with the two leaders.