Senate passes expansion of hate crimes
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate, on a 68-29 vote Thursday, approved language that would add federal penalties for attacks on gays and lesbians.
The language, part of a conference committee report on the Pentagon budget, would broaden the current definition of federal hate crimes to include those based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability, The Washington Post reported. It also would create a new federal crime to cover attacks against U.S. military personnel because of their service.
The House passed the same bill Oct. 8. It now goes to President Barack Obama for his consideration.
The current definition of federal hate crimes covers attacks motivated by race, color, religion or national origin. Gay rights groups praised the Senate's action.
"We look forward to President Obama signing it into law -- our nation's first major piece of civil rights legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.
Social conservatives argued that the bill violated First Amendment free speech and was a move toward a broader gay rights agenda. Congressional Republicans said they objected to Democrats' attaching the language to the defense authorization measure, calling it cynical, the Post said.
The defense bill appropriates a $680 billion budget for the Pentagon in fiscal year 2010, including $130 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Senate bill may include public option
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Top Democrats are leaning toward including a publicly funded health insurance option in a healthcare reform bill in the U.S. Senate, sources said Thursday.
Following a meeting of Senate leaders and administration officials, two senior Democratic senators told CNN Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is leaning toward a government-run public option that states could opt out of, the sources said. Reid is preparing to take a healthcare bill to the full Senate.
Republicans and some conservative Democrats have consistently opposed a public option. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine -- the only Republican who has supported any healthcare reform proposal to date -- told CNN through a spokesman she opposes even a public option with an opt-out provision.
Democrats argue a non-profit public option would lower healthcare insurance costs through competition and make coverage more accessible. Opponents say a public option would eventually eliminate private health insurance and result in a government takeover of healthcare.
Congressional committees have approved five different versions of health care reform, and four of them include a public option.
NATO cool to adding troops in Afghanistan
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Germany has no plans to pull its troops from Afghanistan, but also has no plans to add more than those it has committed, Germany's defense minister said.
The 4,250 German soldiers participating in the Afghan NATO mission will be increased to 4,500 troops, Franz Josef Jung told U.S. Justice Department independent newspaper Stars and Stripes. But that's all he would say about it, the newspaper reported.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meeting with NATO allies in Bratislava, Slovakia, said Thursday he would urge increased economic and security aid to Afghanistan, independent of troop numbers.
The U.S. has about 68,000 troops in Afghanistan and NATO nations have 36,000 more.
U.S. President Barack Obama is considering whether to increase the number of U.S. forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan or focus more specifically on suspected al-Qaida terrorists hiding in Pakistan.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged 500 troops, in addition to the 8,300 already there -- but only if other NATO nations did their share and Kabul recruited more Afghan soldiers, Stars and Stripes said.
Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa told the newspaper Corriere della Sera he agreed with the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who requested tens of thousands more troops and beefed-up training of Afghan forces. But La Russa said the additional troops would "not necessarily" include more Italian troops.
French President Nicholas Sarkozy told Le Figaro that France, which has about 2,800 troops in Afghanistan, would send "not a single soldier more" to fight in an 8-year-old war that French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said "there is no military prospect" of winning.
Hundreds arrested in Mexican drug probe
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A 44-month U.S. investigation of a violent Mexican drug cartel has led to almost 1,200 arrests, and the seizure of drugs and money, officials said Thursday.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced Project Coronado at a news conference in Washington. He said 303 of the total were picked up Wednesday and Thursday in a series of raids in 19 states.
Holder described the target of the operation, La Familia, as "the newest and most violent of the Mexican drug cartels."
The operation combined the resources of law enforcement on both sides of the border, including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with state and local police.
"This organization, the newest of Mexican cartels, is directly responsible for a vast majority of the methamphetamine pouring into our country across our southwest border, and has had a hand in fueling the cycle of violence that is wracking Mexico today," said Michele Leonhart, acting director of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Total seizures included $32 million in U.S. currency, more than 2,700 pounds of methamphetamine, nearly 4,500 pounds of cocaine, 16,000 pounds of marijuana, 29 pounds of heroin and almost 400 weapons, Holder said.
