UPI NewsTrack TopNews

Nelson gives Democrats 60 healthcare votes

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, the last Democratic holdout against the healthcare bill, announced Saturday he will support it, giving leaders enough votes for passage.

Nelson warned he would change his vote if parts of the House bill he considers unacceptable are in the final bill when the two versions are reconciled, The New York Times reported. The big sticking points for Nelson have been federal funding for abortion, which he opposes, and the possibility Medicaid expansion would increase expenses for his state, Nebraska.

"Change is never easy, but change is what's necessary in America," Nelson said at a news conference Saturday morning. "And that's why I intend to vote for healthcare reform."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has set Christmas as a deadline for passing a Senate bill.

A heavy snow storm added to the tension as the Senate convened for a third weekend session, the Times said. Senators appeared on the floor in boots, and 92-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., was cheered when he rolled his wheelchair into the chamber.

Reid introduced what he hopes will be his last amendments, 338 pages of them. One allows states to ban insurers from covering abortion in policies offered through government markets, while another is aimed at Nelson's anxieties about Medicaid cost.

Republicans moved to have Reid's amendments read on the floor, which had to be completed by midnight to get to a vote on the bill before Christmas.

President Obama, in a White House news conference, thanked Reid and other senators for their hard work. He said some of the recent changes to the bill make it stronger, including penalties for insurers who arbitrarily increase rates and other protections.

"These are big changes. They're fundamental reforms. They will save money. They will save lives," Obama said.

Winter storm paralyzes Washington

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- A storm moving up the East Coast brought Washington to its knees Saturday with a record-breaking snowfall in the nation's capital.

Snow was falling from Virginia to New York through the afternoon. Around the time the first flakes fell in New York City, the snow was ending in Richmond, Va.

By early afternoon, all bus service and most trains had stopped running and no flights were arriving or departing at Ronald Reagan National Airport and Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International, The Washington Post reported. Officials in the region asked residents to stay off the roads and a section of Interstate 95, the major north-south corridor, was closed in Virginia.

The storm brought heavy rain Friday to South Florida and dumped snow in the mountains of North Carolina before moving into Virginia. At least three deaths in the state were blamed on the weather, CNN said.

Thousands of people spent Friday night in their cars on Interstate 81, which runs up the Shenandoah Valley to Pennsylvania, Jeff Caldwell, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Transportation, told the Post. A tractor-trailer crash Friday blocked the highway.

But some government business continued in the capital. President Obama apologized for holding a news conference, telling reporters that after his years in Chicago, the snow was finally making Washington "feel like home."

Some coastal areas were hit hard. Ocean City, Md., got snow, which turned to rain and was expected to return to snow, The Baltimore Sun reported. The beach resort was under advisories for high surf and winter weather, as well as a coastal flood warning.

In New York and New England, the National Weather Service predicts the heaviest snowfall for Long Island and Cape Cod. The storm was expected to hit Massachusetts late Saturday.

Iran charges 3 with murder of detainees

TEHRAN, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Three protesters were beaten to death in an Iranian prison after the disputed presidential election in June, Iranian news agencies said Saturday.

At least 12 prison officials have been charged with abusing three protesters and three face murder charges.

A military court released a scathing report on the Kahrizak detention center, The New York Times said. It found the center "lacked necessary standards for housing detainees, and that beatings by the guards worsened this bad situation."

Before the charges were brought, the Iranian government had denied widespread abuse of people who were detained following anti-government protests earlier this year. The demonstrations were sparked by anger at the presidential election, widely viewed as fraudulent.

Officials had earlier suggested those who died in detention were victims of meningitis.

Opposition groups say 73 people were killed during protests or in detention, while the government says no more than 30 died and some were members of the security forces.

The three charged with murder allegedly killed Mohsen Ruholamini, who was the son of a conservative leader; Amir Javadifar; and Mohammad Kamrani. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered Kahrizak closed after Ruholamini died there.

Copenhagen delegates recognize pact

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- U.N. climate change summit delegates in Copenhagen, Denmark, voted Saturday to recognize a non-mandatory pact aimed at reducing greenhouse gases.

After an up-and-down, all-night bargaining session, the summit adopted a resolution that "took note" of the non-binding document, called the Copenhagen Accord, which sets up a system for monitoring and reporting progress toward national pollution-reduction and sets a goal of limiting the global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2050, The New York Times reported.

The adoption was followed by adjournment. But, the newspaper said, the summit's final day was marked by a bitter struggle between nations that favored the compromise -- cobbled together Friday by U.S. President Barack Obama and leaders from Brazil, India, South Africa and China -- and a group of counties -- including Venezuela, Sudan and Cuba -- that loudly objected to the process used to reach it.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the document makes progress on the four benchmarks he had set at a special meeting on climate change in September: a limit on global temperature rise, commitments to cut emissions, steps to halt deforestation and aid for poor countries. He called the pact "an essential beginning."

Obama said a good agreement is not enough in the long term.

"Going forward we're going to have to build on the momentum that we established in Copenhagen to ensure that international action to significantly reduce emissions is sustained and sufficient over time," he said."At home, that means continuing our efforts to build a clean energy economy that has the potential to create millions of new jobs and new industries."