AP News in Brief at 5:58 a.m. EDT

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AP News in Brief at 5:58 a.m. EDT

House Democrats to unveil health bill with government-run insurance, hefty sign-up requirement

WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of contentious negotiating, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi prepared to unveil a retooled health care overhaul plan intended to bridge differences among Democrats and open a history-making floor debate on extending health insurance to nearly all Americans.

Pelosi, D-Calif., wants to have the legislation on the floor next week, with a final vote before Veterans Day, Nov. 11, that would give President Barack Obama a bill to sign by year’s end, numerous Democratic officials said. She planned a formal announcement of the bill Thursday in front of the Capitol.

The bill would require nearly everyone by 2013 to sign up through their employer, a government program or a new kind of purchasing pool called an exchange. Tax credits would be available for most of those buying coverage through the exchange. They would have the option of picking a new government plan or private insurance.

During the transition years from 2010-2013, a temporary government program would help people turned down by private insurers because of medical problems, lawmakers said. After that, insurers no longer could refuse to provide coverage to the sick, nor could they charge more because of poor health of the insured.

The plan also calls for a significant expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health program for low-income people. And it would impose a requirement on employers to offer insurance to their workers or face penalties.

UN re-evaluates Afghan mission after bloody attack

KABUL (AP) — Traumatized U.N. staff in Afghanistan were under orders to stay home Thursday, one day after Taliban militants stormed a guest house in the capital and killed eight people in a brazen attack that is forcing the world body to re-evaluate its mission in the war-ravaged nation.

The attack underscored the risks facing U.N. and Afghan officials in organizing a runoff election following the fraud-marred first-round vote Aug. 20, and the massive challenge for the U.S.-led military force in curbing the determined Taliban insurgency. NATO said two members of its military operation in Afghanistan were killed in bomb blasts in the south Wednesday, including one American.

The guest house assault, which left five foreign U.N. staff and three Afghans dead, demonstrated the ease with which Taliban militants can penetrate the relative safety of Kabul. A Taliban spokesman said the attack was aimed at undermining the Nov. 7 presidential election runoff; the target was a small hotel home to the largest concentration of U.N. staffers working on the election.

U.N. spokesman Aleem Siddique said at least nine U.N. staff who survived the two-hour assault on the Bakhtar guest house will be evacuated to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.

The U.N. has ordered its employees to remain “on lockdown,” with their movements restricted, Siddique said Thursday, declining to give details for security reasons. Another U.N. staffer said that meant most staff were staying home.

Obama considers backing Afghan war commander’s strategy, but with fewer troops than requested

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is considering a scaled-down version of the war plan advanced by his top Afghanistan commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, U.S. officials say.

Such a narrowed military mission would increase American forces to accomplish the commander’s broadest goals of protecting Afghan cities and key infrastructure. But with fewer troops, the strategy likely would cut back on McChrystal’s ambitious objectives, amounting to what one official described as “McChrystal Light.”

Senior White House officials Wednesday stressed, however, that the president has not settled on any new troop numbers and continues to debate other strategic approaches to the 8-year-old Afghanistan war. The officials say Obama has not yet settled on the narrowed option or any other as his final choice for how to overhaul the war effort.

Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because Obama has not announced his decision, said the troop numbers probably would be lower than McChrystal’s preference, at least at the outset. The officials did not divulge exact numbers.

A stripped-down approach would signal caution in widening a war that is going worse this year than last despite intense U.S. attention and an additional 21,000 U.S. forces sent there on Obama’s watch.

Obama administration presses Congress for new powers to dismantle nonbank firms

WASHINGTON (AP) — A year after Lehman Brothers collapsed, helping to trigger the worst financial crisis in seven decades, the Obama administration is pressing Congress for the power to dismantle other nonbank firms considered so large and influential that they could bring down the entire economy.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was asking a House panel on Thursday to pass legislation that would enable federal regulators to identify and monitor big financial firms and step in to wind them down before they collapse.

The proposal, worked out in an agreement with House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., also will give new powers to the Federal Reserve to enforce tougher requirements for these “too-big-to-fail” companies.

The bill is aimed at preventing another Lehman situation in which government officials watched helplessly as nervous investors withdrew funds from money markets and credit lines froze.

The alternative would have been a hefty federal bailout, which the government later approved for insurance giant American International Group — another influential financial firm outside regulators’ control because it wasn’t a bank.

Clinton meets with Pakistani students in lively Q & A, but questions on drones are off limits

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that Pakistan had little choice but to take a more aggressive approach, starting last summer, to combatting Taliban and other extremist forces that threaten to destabilize the country.

In a lively give-and-take with students at the Government College of Lahore, Clinton said inaction by the government would have amounted to ceding ground to terrorists.

“If you want to see your territory shrink, that’s your choice,” she said, adding that she believed it would be a bad choice.

Clinton likened Pakistan’s situation — with Taliban forces taking over substantial swaths of land in the Swat valley and in areas along the Afghan border — to a theoretical advance of terrorists into the United States from across the Canadian border. It would be unthinkable, she said, for the U.S. government to decide, “Let them have Washington (state)” first, then Montana, then the sparsely populated Dakotas, because those states are far from the major centers of population and power on the East Coast.

Clinton was responding to a student who suggested that Washington was forcing Pakistan to use military force on its own territory. It was one of several questions from the students that raised doubts about the relationship between the United States and Pakistan.

Obama honors return of fallen soldiers at Dover Air Force Base as Afghan war toll rises

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) — President Barack Obama made a midnight dash to this air base Wednesday to honor the return of fallen soldiers, absorbing the ultimate cost of war as the United States endures its deadliest month of the Afghanistan campaign.

On a clear fall night, Obama flew by Marine One helicopter to Dover Air Force Base to greet the flag-draped cases of 18 Americans killed in action this week.

After landing, the president, wearing a dark topcoat, got into a motorcade to a base chapel, where he met privately with families of the fallen Americans. He had arrived on the base at 12:34 a.m. Thursday and was expected to be back at the White House before dawn.

Obama was taking part in a solemn process, to unfold in four movements: the transfer of the fallen 15 soldiers and three Drug Enforcement Agency agents from the back of the C-17 to a transport vehicle to a base mortuary.

As part of the official party, Obama was to go on the plane, each time witnessing silently as a chaplain said a prayer for the fallen, the family, the country and the war effort.

4 teens charged in alleged gang rape of Calif. girl could appear in court as early as today

RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) — Four teens could appear in court as early as Thursday after being charged in the alleged gang rape of a 15-year-old girl outside her high school homecoming dance in Northern California.

The four — ages 15, 16, 17 and 19 — were charged Wednesday with rape and enhancements that they acted in concert, which could make them eligible for life in prison.

“These are people who played a significant role in the incident,” Richmond Police Lt. Mark Gagan said. “I’m confident that more arrests will be made.”

Besides rape, the 19-year-old, Manuel Ortega of Richmond, was charged with robbery and assault causing great bodily injury. It was unknown if he had an attorney.

The other three face one count each of felony rape with a foreign object. They were charged as adults because of the severity of the crime, Gagan said. The 16-year-old also faces robbery charges.

STIMULUS WATCH: US government’s claims of 30,000 stimulus jobs overstated by thousands

WASHINGTON (AP) — An early progress report on President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan overstates by thousands the number of jobs created or saved through the stimulus program, a mistake that White House officials promise will be corrected in future reports.

The government’s first accounting of jobs tied to the $787 billion stimulus program claimed more than 30,000 positions paid for with recovery money. But that figure is overstated by least 5,000 jobs, according to an Associated Press review of a sample of stimulus contracts.

The AP review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.

For example:

— A company working with the Federal Communications Commission reported that stimulus money paid for 4,231 jobs, when about 1,000 were produced.

Fox News Channel, Obama administration talking; Fox news executive meets Obama press secretary

NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News Channel and the Obama administration are talking.

The network confirmed a Politico report that Fox news executive Michael Clemente met at the White House on Wednesday with Robert Gibbs, President Barack Obama’s press secretary. There were no details given about the meeting.

Fox has been battling with the administration, which contends the network operates more like a wing of the Republican Party than a news organization.

The meeting came a day after Fox anchor Shepard Smith apologized for a “lack of balance” following a political report where the Republican candidate for New Jersey governor was interviewed and the Democratic incumbent wasn’t.

Fox correspondent Shannon Bream had wrapped up a live interview with GOP candidate Chris Christie on Smith’s afternoon news show Tuesday when the anchor asked, “When will you be interviewing Jon Corzine?”

Lee comes up aces, Utley homers twice as Phillies beat Yankees 6-1 in World Series opener

NEW YORK (AP) — Look out for Cliff Lee, Chase Utley and this New Red Machine. Lee outdueled CC Sabathia, Utley homered twice and the Philadelphia Phillies kept rolling through October, beating the New York Yankees 6-1 on a misty Wednesday night in the World Series opener.

The defending champion Phillies shut down Alex Rodriguez & Co. in the first Series game at the new billion-dollar Yankee Stadium. Trying to become the first NL team to repeat since Cincinnati in 1975-76, the Phils’ 17-4 postseason run is the best in league history.

Big Red Machine, meet your match.

“We have confidence. We know we have a good team,” Utley said.

Game 2 is Thursday night, with wily Pedro Martinez pitching for the Phillies against jumpy A.J. Burnett.