BREAKING NEWS
2ND LD: 8th Japanese dies, Busan shooting range fire death toll up to 12+ LEAD: Fire at Tokyo restaurant kills 4+ Polls open in Romanian presidential election Separated twins beat the odds Crisis forcing hard-up Spaniards to sell their hair Teenage girl dies after new-flu infection+ Hugo Chavez invites Fidel Castro to Venezuela 3-alarm Atlantic City boardwalk fire under control Kan against cutting FY 2010 budgets for children, supercomputer+ Desperate retailers seek holiday season rescue Figure skating: Takahashi, Suzuki make Grand Prix Final+ UC Santa Cruz protesters still occupy building Motown caps 50th anniversary with hometown gala Police: Man fatally stabbed over NYC subway seat Congressman Fattah: Thanks to Specter, Casey for a Major Step Along History's Path US helps build anti-Taliban Afghan militias: report Patient Files Suit Against St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City as a Result of the Alleged Use by the Hospital of an HIV Infected Device During a Routine Procedure Cal beats No. 14 Stanford 34-28 in Big Game International Emmys to honor David Frost China coal mine blast death toll jumps to 87
Oops: Republican jumps gun on health care vote
US President Barack Obama's Democratic allies got an unlikely vote of confidence Saturday, as a top Republican foe prematurely declared defeat in the fight over remaking US health care.
Copyright AFP 2008, AFP stories and photos shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium
Mike Pence, the number three Republican in the House of Representatives, put a statement on his official Internet site denouncing final House passage of White House-backed legislation -- hours before the vote was expected.
Pence's office described the statement as coming "after the Democrat Majority in the House of Representatives passed HR 3962" -- the bill's designation.
"I am proud that all House Republicans stood by the American people in opposition" to the proposal, the statement quoted Pence as saying.
The error came hours before the divided House was to vote on the health care plan, with Democrats struggling to paper over intra-party feuds on volatile issues like abortion.
Copyright AFP 2008, AFP stories and photos shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium
