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House approves sweeping healthcare reform

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- The U.S. House Saturday night narrowly passed a sweeping overhaul of the healthcare system that backers say would provide coverage to almost all Americans.

The measure passed 220-215 about 11:15 p.m. after a day of intense lobbying, including a visit to the U.S. Capitol by President Barack Obama, who has made healthcare reform his top priority.

"For generations, the American people have called for affordable, quality healthcare for their families," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said on the House floor before the vote. "Today, the call will be answered."

The first major reform of the U.S. healthcare system in four decades would provide insurance to 36 million more Americans, so 96 percent of the nation's population would be covered, supporters said. The plan, which would cost more than $1 trillion over a decade, would add a government-run health insurance option and provide subsidies for poor people to buy insurance.

The House measure has drawn sharp criticism from Republicans, who say it would amount to a government takeover of healthcare and reduce the quality of care.

"This is one of those bills that takes a system that is the best in the world and will turn it on its head, and I don't believe this is what the American people want," said Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee. "To me, this doesn't make any sense and I know it doesn't make any sense to the vast majority of people out there."

Obama and Democratic supporters in Congress, however, say the bill would reduce costs and improve care.

The reform measure would limit how much people can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses. And it would forbid insurance companies to cancel coverage because someone gets sick, deny coverage because of a pre-existing condition or put annual or lifetime caps on coverage.

The measure would be paid for through added fees, tax increases and some cuts in Medicare.

An alternative Republican healthcare plan failed Saturday.

Democrats agreed late Friday to allow members of the party who oppose abortion to offer an amendment that would effectively block federal funds from being used for the procedure. The amendment would ban the "public option" plan from covering abortions and bar anyone getting a subsidy for insurance from buying a private plan that pays for them.

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Investigators believe Hasan acted alone

FORT HOOD, Texas, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- The massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, was not part of a terrorist plot, investigators have tentatively concluded.

But Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist accused in the shooting rampage, may have believed he was carrying out an extremist suicide mission, investigators told The New York Times reported Saturday.

Investigators said Hasan, 39, may have suffered emotional problems worsened by the stress of counseling returning veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress brought on by witnessing the horrors of war. The psychiatrist's work with veterans seems to have contributed to his anger and to his militant views as he adopted more extreme Islamic beliefs, investigators told the Times.

The investigators, the newspaper said, concluded such emotional, ideological and religious pressures appeared to "boil over" when Hasan was assigned to serve in Afghanistan. He has spoken openly about his opposition to U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Investigators who scoured Hasan's computer and interviewed family members, co-workers and neighbors focused on a key question: whether he had had contact with extremists. The investigators have found no evidence Hasan had e-mailed known terrorists or anyone who urged him to open fire at the military post or helped him plan the shootings, and he did not travel overseas to meet with extremists.

Hasan had visited Web sites that supported radical Islamic ideas and had e-mailed people with similar views and may have written postings, under his name, that indicated a favorable view of suicide attacks. But investigators remain uncertain whether he wrote the postings.

But a senior intelligence official, who requested anonymity, told the Times investigators knew of no co-conspirators. "Hasan is the only name that's emerged so far," the official said.

Fort Hood officials said Hasan opened fire Thursday, killing 13 people and wounding more than 30.

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Palestinians threaten return to violence

TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Fatah, a major branch of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, may return to violent protests, a senior operative of the Middle East group said Saturday.

After Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would not run again, many within Fatah are calling for popular warfare if progress is not made in the peace process, a Fatah source told the Israeli news site Ynetnews.com.

"We are not talking about terror attacks and weapons, but we are talking about protests and (throwing) stones, like the anti-fence protests, and about strikes and protests by the people, so that the world understands that the next step will be unpleasant and we go back to the way things were before Oslo," the source said.

The Oslo accords of 1993 set the framework for all future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Fatah is not planning another intifada (uprising) like 2001's, the operative stressed, but "there are people who understand that clinging to the peace process damaged Fatah," he said. "It presented us at best as people clinging to a failing process, with Israel giving us the finger time and time again, and at worst as collaborators with Israel."

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Afghans: 7 soldiers killed by NATO strike

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- A NATO air strike killed seven Afghan security force members searching for two missing U.S. soldiers, officials said Saturday.

A spokesman for NATO confirmed the deaths, first reported by the Afghan Defense Ministry, The New York Times reported. The spokesman said the operation Friday in Badghis province also wounded five U.S. and 15 Afghan soldiers, two Afghan police officers and an Afghan civilian who was part of the mission, which arrived in the area Thursday.

NATO is investigating whether its air support was responsible for the deaths and injuries.

A Taliban commander gave his own version of events, the Times said. Maulvi Ghulam Farouk says the missing soldiers were attacked by the Taliban when they went to pick up supplies from an air drop.

"On Friday, they came with Afghan forces, looking again for their dead soldiers. It was afternoon when they came, and there was fighting for half an hour or maybe even one hour," Farouk said. "Then the aircraft came. And when the aircraft came, we Taliban dispersed and they bombed where the Afghans and their NATO soldiers had been fighting. There were many casualties."