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Senate Passes Healthcare Overhaul, Compromise with House Bill Looms

Al Jazeera English - Americas - US senate passes healthcare bill : "The US senate has approved new healthcare legislation, backing sweeping changes in the medical insurance market that will offer new coverage for tens of millions of uninsured Americans. On a party-line 60-39 vote on Thursday, senate Democrats supported the most dramatic shifts in health policy in four decades."

Garowe Online - Home : "Somalia’s hardline insurgent Al-Shabaab group claims that they have fought with an Ethiopian rebel group in Somali southern border town of Dhobley. According to a senior Al-Shabaab official, the fighting broke out on Saturday between the group’s militia that control the town and fighters from Ogaden National Liberation Fronts (ONLF), which fights in eastern Ethiopia. “We have attacked the ONLF militia to stop them from attacking and seizing Dhobley town,” said the official who requested anonymity. The official said the fighting continued for an hour and they have inflicted heavy casualties on their rivals, adding that they have received the support of the locals to devastate the ONLF militia led by Sheikh Ahmed Madobe. Sources told Garowe Online that at least 10 people, mostly combatants from both sides have been killed and over a dozen others injured in the fighting. However, eyewitnesses in town, which strategically situated between Somalia and Kenya bord...

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Deaths in Yemen raid on al-Qaeda : "At least 30 suspected al-Qaeda fighters have been killed in a dawn air raid by Yemeni forces in the eastern Yemeni province of Shabwa. Among those thought to have been killed in the raid early on Thursday was Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim preacher, who according to a Yemeni security official was linked to a man who killed 13 people at a US army base in Texas. 'Anwar al-Awlaki is suspected to be dead [in the air raid],' the unnamed Yemeni official was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying. According to US officials, al-Awlaki had contacts to Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a US soldier, who shot dead 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in the US state of Texas. But Abdullah al-Faqih, a professor of political science at Sanaa University, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that he was sceptical of the claims being made about al-Awlaki. 'He is the son of a colleague of mine at Sanaa University. His father is an ad...

Somali militants enforce Taliban-style dress code | Antiwar Newswire : "Residents of a southern Somali town say Islamists are enforcing a Taliban-style dress code. Kismayo resident Abdulahi Omar Dhere says members of the al-Shabab insurgent group are targeting young men who have long hair, no beards and wear Western-style trousers below the ankle. Dhere said Wednesday that Islamists are publicly cutting off parts of trousers that violate the order and giving haircuts to anyone with long hair. The group has ordered men to grow beards and shave mustaches. Al-Shabab has already banned movie theaters, musical ringtones and dancing at weddings — echoing rules ones imposed by the Taliban when they ruled most of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, though the group didn't oppose long hair."

The Daily Star - Politics - Yemeni rebels say they'll leave Saudi Arabia if attacks end : "DUBAI: Yemeni Shiite rebels are willing to withdraw from Saudi territory in exchange for an end to cross-border attacks by the Saudi military, a rebel spokesman said on Wednesday. “We are prepared to withdraw from sites if … Saudi Arabia does not attack any one of us from its territory,” said the rebel spokesman, Mohammad Abdel-Salam. On Tuesday, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan gave Yemeni rebels, who are known as Houthis, the name of their leader, 24 hours to withdraw from the border village of Al-Jabiri. “They have 24 hours to surrender, or we will destroy them,” he said. The rebels mocked the ultimatum in a statement on their website late on Tuesday, asking why Saudi forces had not already moved against the village. “The question is: what have you been doing these past days?” the statement said. The rebels’ spokesman said their key grievance against Saudi Arabia...

U.N. council sanctions Eritrea over Somali rebel aid - Yahoo! News : "UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on the Horn of Africa state of Eritrea on Wednesday because of aid that council members say it has given to Islamist insurgents in nearby Somalia. A resolution supported by 13 of the 15 council members slapped an arms embargo, asset freezes and travel bans on Eritrea and individuals and firms to be designated by an existing sanctions committee. Those hit would include members of the country's leadership. The United States and other nations accuse Eritrea of supplying al Shabaab rebels with funds and arms as they fight to topple a fragile U.N.-backed transitional government in Somalia, a state that has been virtually lawless for 18 years. Eritrea has repeatedly denied the allegation. Libya, which has no veto in the council, voted against the resolution, while veto-holder China abstained. Wednesday's resolution demands that Eritrea ...