Police Chief Dhahi Khalfan Tamim led the Dubai assassination investigation, using the latest tools and sleuthing skills to discover who killed Hamas official Mahmoud Abdul Raouf Mohammed.
Democratic leaders and White House officials were feverishly continuing to line up the votes they will need as they entered the final 48-hour countdown on their yearlong health care overhaul effort.
AP - President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders lobbied intensively for historic health care legislation Friday, striving to resolve a last-minute dispute over Medicare while gaining another precious "yes" 48 hours ahead of a climactic vote.
AP - President Barack Obama described the stakes of this weekend's health care vote in stark terms Friday, using words uttered so rarely out of the White House that they seem all but banned: "If this vote fails."
AP - Seven years after the first bombs in the war to oust Saddam Hussein, Iraqis went about their business Friday with little observance of the anniversary, looking to the future with a mixture of trepidation and hope.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spent 40 minutes on the phone with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday night. The contents of the call have not been divulged but it is thought Netanyahu proposed a series of confidence building measures designed to defuse the diplomatic crisis with the U.S. The prime minister apparently did not promise to cancel the recently announced plan for 1600 new homes in the Jewish settlement of Ramat Shlomo. Instead it is widely reported, although not confirmed by the prime minister's office, he agreed to delay the start of construction and that other plans for settlements in East Jerusalem will not be made public in what many commentators are calling a "don't ask – don't tell" policy.
Two Russian veterans of the Soviet Afghan war privately warned General Stanley McChrystal last summer that the key to winning the war would be to pay off the Taliban. The official who wrote up a summary of two meetings between the Russians and U.S. military commanders also wrote that one of the "key take-aways" from the meetings was that extra troops were not the key to victory.
President Obama made an urgent plea for health reform ahead of Sunday's vote. Also: • More lawmakers announced decisions • Pelosi predicted 'significant victory' • Boehner called the vote 'tight'
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