WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Democrats on Tuesday cast doubt on their chances of meeting the White House's March 18 deadline for voting on a stalled healthcare overhaul, but said they are moving as fast as they can. With Democrats scrambling to line up support and determine what to include ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leader of the House of Representatives -- a persuasive arm-twister and deal maker -- faces her toughest challenge yet in the coming weeks: getting 216 votes to pass final legislation revamping the U.S. healthcare system. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is scrambling to hit ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York voters think scandal-tarred Governor David Paterson should remain in office but cannot do a good job, and that he acted unethically but will not get a fair hearing, a poll said on Tuesday. The Democratic governor is the target of official queries into whether he ...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinians told U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday that Israel's new plan to build 1,600 homes for Jewish settlers challenged Washington's efforts to get indirect peace talks underway. In Jerusalem, an Israeli cabinet minister apologized for what he termed ...

BISHKEK (Reuters) - U.S. General David Petraeus arrived in Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday, a day after the United States said it would build an anti-terrorism training center for the former Soviet republic in Central Asia. Both the United States and Russia have military air bases in Kyrgyzstan, and the ...

Obama will unveil the proposal during a visit to St Cloud, Missouri on Wednesday to rally popular support for his key domestic policy objective, as the bitter battle over healthcare enters its final weeks. The White House said the new effort to root out improper payments in Medicare and Medicaid, ...

New York's financial situation will worsen over the next five years because spending is expected to rise 7.5 percent but revenues will only climb 3 percent, Paterson told reporters. "That would put us at $65 billion in the hole," he said.

Biden also said he was unsure how much power hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wields during an interview with MSNBC's "Hardball" program conducted while he was in Jerusalem on a Middle East tour. "The question is, we're not even sure what he controls," Biden said ...

The 66 to 34 vote allows the Senate to move toward a final vote for the bill, part of what Democrats call a "jobs agenda" to bring down the country's 9.7 percent unemployment rate before November congressional elections. The Senate is expected to pass the bill within the next few days ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, weighing in on the Senate's efforts to pass a climate change bill, gathered Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday to try to jumpstart an overhaul of U.S. energy policy. Obama called the meeting at the White House with influential senators and ...