WASHINGTON (AP) - Moderate Senate Democrats threatened Sunday to scuttle health-care legislation if their demands aren't met, while more liberal members warned their party leaders not to bend. The dispute among Democrats foretells of a rowdy floor debate next month on legislation that would extend health care coverage to roughly 31 million Americans. Republicans have already made clear they aren't supporting the bill.
NEW YORK (AP) - The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday. Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer for accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but "would explain what happened and why they did it."
Iran begins war games to protect nuclear sites TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran on Sunday began large-scale air defense war games aimed at protecting its nuclear facilities from attack, state TV reported, as an air force commander boasted the country could deter any military strike by Israel. It said the five-day drill will cover an area a third of the size of Iran and spread across the central, western and southern parts of the country.
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - The Roman Catholic bishop of Rhode Island says he asked Rep. Patrick Kennedy to stop receiving Holy Communion in 2007 because of the lawmaker's support for abortion rights. That revelation Sunday proved an ugly climax to a simmering feud between Kennedy and his staunch critic, Bishop Thomas Tobin.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Since the 1997 international accord to fight global warming, climate change has worsened and accelerated - beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then. As the world has talked for a dozen years about what to do next, new ship passages opened through the once frozen summer sea ice of the Arctic. In Greenland and Antarctica, ice sheets have lost trillions of tons of ice. Mountain glaciers in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa are shrinking faster than before.
Demonstration at UC Santa Cruz ends peacefully SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) - Officials at the University of California, Santa Cruz say dozens of protesters who were occupying the university's main administrative building have ended their protest. Campus spokesman Jim Burns says the nearly 70 or so protesters who had occupied the university's Kerr Hall since Thursday in a demonstration over fee hikes walked out of the building around 8 a.m. Sunday.
NEW YORK (AP) - Fewer people are expected to fly this holiday season, but travelers shouldn't expect a full reprieve from the horrid flight delays of Thanksgivings past, especially if they need to land anywhere near New York City. Despite some recent improvements, the Big Apple's three major airports continue to be the country's worst air travel bottleneck.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The vampire romance "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" sucked up $140.7 million in its first three days and pulled in a total of $258.8 million worldwide, according to studio estimates Sunday. The No. 1 domestic debut for Summit Entertainment's "New Moon" was more than twice the $69.6 million haul over the same weekend last year for "Twilight," the first in the franchise based on Stephenie Meyer's novels.
Canadian woman loses benefits over Facebook photo BROMONT, Quebec (AP) - A Canadian woman on long-term sick leave for depression says she lost her benefits because her insurance agent found photos of her on Facebook in which she appeared to be having fun. Nathalie Blanchard has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, for the last year.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints keep on rolling. Brees threw for three touchdowns and the Saints shrugged off a slow start defensively to remain unbeaten Sunday with a 38-7 rout of the struggling Tampa Bay Buccaneers and young quarterback Josh Freeman.
