Elections

WASHINGTON - Majority Leader Harry Reid is considering a plan for higher payroll taxes on the upper-income earners to help finance health care legislation he intends to introduce in the Senate in the next several days, numerous Democratic officials said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - States are jockeying for a new $5 billion pot of education money even before the contest has begun.

WASHINGTON - Though the suspect in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood could face the death penalty, he will be prosecuted in a military justice system where no one has been executed in nearly a half-century.

WASHINGTON - Much like its death-defying dives for fish, the brown pelican has resurfaced after plummeting to the brink of extinction.

WASHINGTON - A group of doctors overseeing Nidal Malik Hasan's medical training discussed concerns about his overly zealous religious views and strange behavior months before the Army major was accused of a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, that left 13 dead and 29 wounded.

ARLINGTON, Va. - On a cold, rain-soaked Veterans Day, President Barack Obama walked slowly through the white, stone markers at the section of Arlington National Cemetery reserved for troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the two wars he oversees as commander in chief.

SAN DIEGO - A decorated Marine veteran famously photographed smoking a cigar after the fall of Baghdad is running for Congress in California's most southern district.

WASHINGTON - First lady Michelle Obama said on Wednesday that many veterans serve their communities and nation in ways that "make their entire life a tour of duty."

WASHINGTON - Heavy government stimulus spending and near-zero interest rates did little to end a "lost decade" of stagnation and mushrooming debt in Japan. Some economists and lawmakers say the U.S. may wind up following the same trajectory.

WASHINGTON - John J. O'Connor III, the husband of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, has died.

WASHINGTON - Vice President Joe Biden says it is the "sacred duty" of the United States to provide for active-duty members of the military as well as care for their families.

WASHINGTON - Far from winding down, the numbers of U.S. soldiers coming home wounded have continued to swell. The problem is especially acute among those fighting in Afghanistan, where nearly four times as many troops were injured in October as a year ago.

WASHINGTON - The commander of the U.S. Central Command says a decision is near on sending more American forces to Afghanistan.

Dede Scozzafava, the GOP nominee who dropped out of New York’s special election last week to endorse Democrat Bill Owens, said Wednesday that the attacks against her from fellow Republicans were “vicious.”

WASHINGTON - The White House says President Obama spent more than two hours with his war council talking about how long it would take to implement various strategies he has been presented.

Barack Obama ran for president on a promise of saving the typical family $2,500 a year in lower health care premiums.

WASHINGTON - The call came in from Rome, just as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her top lieutenants were scrambling to round up scarce votes to pass their sweeping health overhaul.

WASHINGTON - Abortion rights supporters in Congress are asking President Barack Obama for a meeting next week on abortion restrictions included in the House health care bill.

Abortion-rights advocates are calling in the cavalry to help fight off an anti-abortion provision House Democratic leaders swallowed in order to win passage of their health care reform bill.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. critics of China's currency policy said on Wednesday they were skeptical of a hint from Beijing that it could soon let its yuan rise against the dollar again after an 18-month hiatus.

WASHINGTON — As job losses continue to slow the nation's economic recovery, labor experts and economists are urging Congress and the Obama administration to boost funding for a little-known program that 17 states are using to avert layoffs and keep workers in their jobs.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Most Americans oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan, as President Barack Obama nears a decision on whether to ramp up US engagement in the eight-year war, a poll suggested on Wednesday.

SINGAPORE (AFP) - The United States Wednesday urged Asian nations to pressure Myanmar to hold free and fair elections next year, ahead of a historic summit involving President Barack Obama and the junta's premier.

WASHINGTON - Dozens of volunteers and passers-by are stopping by an American Red Cross building on Veterans Day to sign holiday greetings cards for U.S soldiers around the world and veterans.

FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - President Barack Obama vowed on Tuesday to make sure the gunman who killed 13 people in a rampage at a U.S. Army base in Texas pays for his crimes.

SINGAPORE - Amid rising tension between North and South Korea after a naval skirmish, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday urged calm and said diplomatic efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff with the North would continue.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama still has the approval of a majority of Americans, but it's an increasingly pessimistic nation.

TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States and Japan will agree this week to review their decades-old security alliance to tighten ties long term, a Japanese newspaper said Wednesday, as the two countries struggled to keep a feud over a U.S. military base from spoiling their leaders' summit.