AP - Fearing a backlash, Democrats worked to smooth the impact of sweeping health care legislation on working-class families Thursday as they pushed President Barack Obama's top domestic priority toward a crucial Senate advance. The most far-reaching overhaul in decades aims to protect millions who have unreliable coverage or none at all and to curb insurance company abuses.
AP - Across this coastal provincial capital, hardest hit by the latest earthquake to devastate Indonesia, mourners, survivors and rescue workers alike clawed through the rubble.
AP - David Letterman acknowledged on Thursday's show that he had sexual relationships with female employees and that someone tried to extort $2 million from him over the affairs.
AP - President Barack Obama on Thursday called landmark nuclear talks with Iran a constructive beginning, then challenged Tehran to match words with deeds by giving international inspectors "unfettered access" to a previously secret uranium enrichment plant within two weeks.
AP - Taking the stand for the first time since she was snatched from her girlhood bedroom seven years ago, Elizabeth Smart testified Thursday that her captor raped her three or four times a day, kept her tied up with a cable around her leg, and threatened to kill her if she tried to escape.
AP - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says anyone using harsh rhetoric to raise fears about health care reform should apologize and get on with writing policy, but said there's no reason to single out a Florida Democrat who said Republicans want sick Americans to "die quickly."
AP - The sister of an Oklahoma boy who says his mother locked him in apartment closets over four years said Thursday she would bring her brother food, but would tell him not to chew because their mother would check his teeth to see whether he had eaten.
AP - Nashville investigators are collecting evidence at the home of a newborn snatched after his mother says she was attacked by a woman posing as an immigration agent.
AP - Alex Ovechkin had two goals and an assist, and Jose Theodore stopped 19 shots to lead the Washington Capitals to a 4-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Thursday night in the season-opener.
Reuters - Talks between Iran and six major powers over Tehran's nuclear program on Thursday opened the door to improved relations as Iran agreed to allow U.N. inspectors into a newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant.
Reuters - Grieving Samoans buried their dead in unmarked beachside graves on Thursday as the gruesome task of recovering bodies from villages destroyed by four tsunamis continued and an aftershock shook the region.
Reuters - U.S. President Barack Obama's push for a sweeping healthcare overhaul edged closer on Thursday to a major victory in the Senate Finance Committee, but the fight in Congress is only beginning.
Reuters - Democrats in the U.S. Senate, who this week sketched out legislation to tackle global warming, now face the hard part -- convincing enough fence-sitters to join their cause.
Reuters - In a blow to President Barack Obama, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday to prohibit his administration from transferring terrorism suspects from the Guantanamo Bay military prison to face prosecution in the United States.
Reuters - The International Monetary Fund on Thursday declared that a global economic recovery has begun led by Asia, also cautioning that the strength of the rebound depended on a rebalancing of global growth.
Reuters - Support for abortion rights has slipped in America this year and now barely edges opposition, while the issue's importance has fallen, according to a new survey released on Thursday.
AFP - Indonesia said Thursday it feared thousands had died in a major earthquake as exhausted rescue workers clawed through mountains of rubble with their bare hands in a race to find survivors.
AFP - Iran agreed to allow UN access to a new nuclear plant at talks with international powers which included its highest level encounter with the United States in three decades, officials said.
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