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Reid: Compromise reached on public option

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Democrats in the U.S. Senate reached consensus late Tuesday on a replacement for the "public option" insurance plan in the House healthcare bill, leaders said.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., refused to go into details until the proposal is vetted by the Congressional Budget Office, The Washington Post reported. But he said there is "broad agreement" in the caucus.

"Tonight we've overcome a real problem that we had," he said, while adding that "not everyone is going to agree on every piece."

With exactly 60 votes in the Senate, counting independents Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernard Sanders of Vermont, the Democrats need everyone on board to bring a healthcare plan to the floor, avoiding a Republican filibuster. But the public option has been a major sticking point, with some liberals saying they would not vote for a bill without it and moderates asserting the reverse.

During the weekend, one compromise being floated was a plan that would be offered by private insurers.

Coakley, Brown square off in Mass.

BOSTON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley won the Democratic primary Tuesday in the race to fill the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy's seat, results showed.

Coakley, 56, will now face Republican state Sen. Scott Brown, 50, in the final special election Jan. 19.

With about half of precincts reporting, The Boston Globe called the Democratic race for Coakley. Her 47 percent easily out-distanced U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano (28 percent), Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca (13 percent) and City Year co-founder Alan Khazei (13 percent).

Likewise, Brown easily turned back the challenge of Jack E. Robinson on the GOP side, the Globe said.

Turnout was reported to have been low.

The winner of January's election will take over the seat Kennedy held for 47 years. He died in August of brain cancer.

Pope: Mass media produces 'poison'

ROME, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI, appearing at a ceremony in Rome, accused the mass media Tuesday of producing "poison" that makes people less sensitive to violence.

The pope made his remarks to an audience of thousands as he celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Piazza di Spagna, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. The historic square contains a statue of the Virgin Mary erected in 1854 when Pope Pius IX proclaimed the doctrine of the immaculate conception.

''It recounts, repeats and amplifies evil, making us accustomed to horrendous acts, desensitizing us and, in some ways, poisoning us,'' he said. ''This poison makes our faces darker and makes us smile less, stopping us from greeting one another or making eye contact.

Benedict also accused the media of exploiting the desperate while failing to celebrate everyday goodness.

''Every now and again, people who are usually invisible end up on front page or on our television screens, and they are wrung for every last drop, until the news and their image no longer attracts attention,'' he said.

2nd day of student protests rock Iran

TEHRAN, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- University students at many Iranian universities held a second day of demonstrations Tuesday, with violent confrontations on many campuses, observers said.

The protests pitted students who oppose the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against police and the semi-official Basji militia, The New York Times reported.

In contrast to demonstrations immediately after the June presidential election, many protesters appeared to be calling for an end to theocratic government, the report said. They burned pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and Ayatollah Khomeini, the 1979 revolutionary leader. Some students waved Iranian flags with the emblem for Allah excised.

More than 200 people were arrested Monday.

"So far, we have shown restraint," Gholam Mohseni-Ejehi, the chief prosecutor, told the official Islamic Republic News Agency. "Anyone who in any way endangers security must be dealt with."

Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister and lead opposition candidate for president in June, was barred from attending protests Monday. A group of men, some of them masked, confronted him outside his office Tuesday, chanting slogans supporting the government.

"You are on a mission -- do your job, threaten me, beat me, kill me," Mousavi said after facing off against the men, ignoring advice from his own security guards.