GOP maps healthcare plan before WH meeting
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Congressional Republicans, prepping to meet with President Barack Obama to discuss healthcare, have mapped out their plan to reform the U.S. system.
Their ideas to make health insurance more accessible and affordable would emphasize tax incentives and state innovations, wouldn't include federal mandates and would modestly expand the federal safety net, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Congressional Republicans will meet with Obama Feb. 25 at the Blair House to hash out their differences on healthcare reform during a televised session. The House and Senate already passed Democratic versions of healthcare reform.
Republicans rely on the market more than on the government in their vision of healthcare reform. Among other things, they wouldn't require employers to provide insurance, oppose a large Medicaid expansion sought by Democrats, seek tort reform and would allow insurance companies to sell policies across state lines.
There are areas of agreement between Republicans and Democrats, including the need to emphasize wellness and preventive health programs, providing more transparency for price and quality data on doctors and hospitals, and to speed approval of generic and less expensive versions of high-cost medicines, the Times said. Many Republicans indicated they would join Democrats in requiring insurers to let dependent children remain on parents' policies through age 25 or 26.
In a letter to the White House Monday, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia said members of their party would be "reluctant to participate" in the meeting if the bills passed by the House and the Senate were the starting point. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., the ranking minority member of the Budget Committee, while welcoming the invitation, expressed concern that the meeting would become "an arena for political theater."
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Kremlin: No troops to Afghanistan
MOSCOW, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Russia will not send troops to Afghanistan to battle the Taliban but will help in other ways, a top Kremlin official said Tuesday in Moscow.
Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev reiterated Russia's long-standing vow to never again send soldiers to Afghanistan, where the former Soviet Union lost 14,500 military personnel in its 1979-1989 campaign against Taliban insurgents, RIA Novosti reported.
The comments came after NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen suggested Sunday at a Munich, Germany, security conference that he didn't rule out the possibility of Russia joining NATO's anti-Taliban operations.
"We are strongly opposed to our military's role in operations in Afghanistan," Patrushev told the Russian news and information service. "A key to the Afghan problem lies in the political rather than military domain."
But he said Russia wants to help by allowing land transits of non-lethal NATO supplies to Afghanistan, noting the Kremlin has promised more Afghanistan help by expanding transits, supplying helicopters and training Afghan security forces.
Philippines mass murder charges sought
MANILA, Philippines, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- The Philippine Justice Department Tuesday recommended 57 counts of murder against Andal Ampatuan Sr. and 197 others in the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 people.
The panel said Nov. 23 slayings in Maguindanao province met the criteria for murder and the charges should be filed against Ampatuan and others who allegedly participated directly or indirectly in the incident, GMANews.tv reported.
The panel also recommended multiple murder charges be filed against Ampatuan's sons Andal Ampatuan Jr, Datu Unsay mayor; Zaldy Ampatuan, governor of autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao; and Sajid Ampatuan, governor of Maguindanao, as well as 11 other members of the Ampatuan family. Also included in the list of respondents were 62 police officers and four soldiers.
The eight-member panel listed the required circumstances -- treachery, cruelty, and pre-meditation -- necessary for the killings to be considered murder, the broadcaster said. Another qualifying circumstance cited in the resolution was the reliance on armed men, which was demonstrated by about 100 members of the Ampatuan clan's purported private army.
"From the witnesses presented by complainants, it can be deduced that the commission of the crime was planned deliberately by the perpetrators and that, until its consummation, there was an inexorable resolve to kill," the 78-page resolution said.
The 57 victims died when their convoy was attacked as it traveled to file a certificate of candidacy in an upcoming election.
Medical evacuation of Haitian kids slows
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Documentation concerns are delaying private airlifts of critically ill Haitian children because officials say they don't want to be accused of kidnapping.
Before 10 U.S. missionaries were arrested as they tried to take children out of Haiti to the Dominican Republic in January, the largest pediatric field hospital in Haiti was airlifting 15 injured children aboard private flights to the United States daily. Since the arrests, the hospital has evacuated only three children on private flights, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Hospital administrator Elizabeth Greig said at least 10 children have died or become sicker while waiting to be airlifted out of the country that was ravaged by a 7-magnitude earthquake Jan. 12.
Before the arrests, doctors, pilots and aid workers airlifted children with life-threatening conditions out of Haiti after triage, then completed the paperwork after the children were stabilized. The arrests changed all that, officials told the Times.
Now, some doctors said they are being asked by U.S. and Haitian officials for documents proving that the children were orphans or that an adult traveling with them was a parent, a daunting task because records remain buried under rubble.
"Everything has slowed down, and most pilots are backing out of these medical missions with kids," said Scott Dorfman, a U.S. pilot who has flown 50 flights since the earthquake, transporting supplies, doctors and patients. "No matter what, I'm not taking off until I know we have those papers in hand. If it means the patient doesn't go, that's what it means."
Russia 'concerned' over U.S.-Romania plans
BRUSSELS, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Russia says it is concerned about U.S. plans to place anti-ballistic interceptor missiles in Romania, but remains open to an explanation.
Vladimir Chizov, Russia's envoy to the European Union, told Tuesday's EUObserver that the plans are "a source of concern for us."
But, he reportedly added, Russia is still interested in participating in a "common assessment" of threats with Europe and the United States.
Romanian President Traian Basescu announced last week he had accepted an invitation by the Obama administration to host land-based anti-ballistic missiles as part of U.S. plans to defend Europe against Iran and other threats.
The EUobserver said Russia's reaction was muted compared to its vehement denunciation of Bush administration efforts to place anti-Iranian missile defense shield elements in Poland and the Czech Republic.
"One could argue that Romania is somewhat closer to Iran than Poland, but still, according to our information Iran will neither now nor in the foreseeable future posses any missiles capable of reaching Romania," Chizov told the publication. "Not to mention Poland, central Europe or the United States."
Pentagon officials disagree, however, saying Iran has missiles capable of hitting European targets.
Czechs offer help on Mideast peace
PRAGUE, Czech Republic, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- The Czech Republic could be an effective mediator in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer said Tuesday.
Speaking at a Prague conference marking the 20th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic relations between the Czech Republic and Israel, Fischer said his country's uniquely friendly relations with both the Israeli and Arab camps could prove effective in peace talks, the Czech news agency CTK reported.
"Our participation in the Middle East process is given both by our friendly links and a quite pragmatic interest in our own future. These are communicating vessels," Fischer said.
The prime minister also said that the European Union needs to find a coordinated approach to the Mideast peace process.
"The EU is looking for the position and I dare to say that it has not fully found it," CTK quoted Fischer as saying. "I believe this will be one of the serious tasks of the future foreign policy of European integration."
