WASHINGTON – The Senate Finance Committee rejected a Republican effort yesterday to delay a final vote on a broad healthcare overhaul as it slowly battled through a crush of amendments on its cost, size and timing.
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BEIJING/LONDON – State-run Chinese companies are selling gasoline to Iran, a move that could undermine US pressure on Tehran to give up its nuclear programme, traders and a newspaper report said yesterday.
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OSLO/LONDON – A summit of world leaders has dimmed hopes for a strong new UN climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen in December, with details looking ever more likely to be left for 2010.
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JERUSALEM – US President Barack Obama’s brief Middle East summit looked like a victory of sorts to many Israelis yesterday, angered Palestinians and raised deep questions about what kind of peace talks, if any, might follow.
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HAMBURG/BERLIN – Chancellor Angela Merkel looks on track to win a second term in a German election on Sunday and may be able to form the centre-right government that eluded her four years ago, final polls before the vote showed.
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MOGADISHU – Fighting in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu killed at least 12 people and wounded 17 others after Islamist insurgents attacked government forces and African Union (AU) peacekeepers, witnesses said yesterday.
