Politics

With House leaders struggling to reach agreement on healthcare legislation, aiming toward a possible vote later this week, a new hurdle has emerged: abortion. Some conservative Democrats are threatening to pull their support from the massive healthcare bill unless their concerns over potential federal funding of abortion procedures are met.

South Africa's powerful Xhosa and Zulu nations sealed an important union as Nelson Mandela's great-grandnephew and King Goodwill Zwelithini's daughter wed. The marriage ceremony of Tembu Chief Nfundo Bovulengwe Mtirara and Princess Nandi Zulu completed its fourth and final day, as guests and neighbors presented gifts from cattle to DVD players.

A full-scale battle on Capitol Hill over the next Supreme Court nominee could still be months away, but skirmishes have been taking place all year. Conservative activists have brought the most explosive weapon in their arsenal -- the issue of abortion rights -- to bear against a trio of President Obama's nominees for other posts, offering a likely preview of what to expect when Obama's choice to replace retiring Justice David H. Souter comes before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The financial services industry is in trouble over its role in crashing the world economy, but that doesn't mean its lobbyists have lost all their muscle on Capitol Hill. Exhibit A: The Senate delivered a stinging rebuff to President Obama and consumer advocates Thursday by rejecting a measure to help homeowners facing foreclosure.

Since announcing her resignation, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been pummeled by critics who have called her incoherent, a quitter, a joke and a "political train wreck." And those were fellow Republicans talking. Palin has been a polarizing figure from the moment she stepped off the tundra into the bright lights last summer as John McCain's surprise vice presidential running mate. Some of that hostility could be expected, given the hyper-partisanship of today's politics.

A long-stalled bill that would expand the federal hate crime law to cover violent acts based on a victim's gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability is headed for approval in the Democratic-controlled Congress but faces a White House veto threat. The House on Thursday approved the measure, the first major expansion of the hate crime statute since it was enacted in 1968.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first six months has developed a style for his public events that is part rock concert, part car rally, and part reality TV. When Schwarzenegger moves around the state, he often appears in front of giant backdrops meant to convey his larger-than-life status and an on-the-move image. He shares the stage with roaring trucks, tanks, buses and giant military aircraft, and has driven himself to events in alternative fuel and farming vehicles.

President Bush on Wednesday appointed as his top regulatory official a conservative academic who has written that markets do a better job of regulating than the government does and that it is more cost-effective for people who are sensitive to pollution to stay indoors on smoggy days than for government to order polluters to clean up their emissions. As director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House Office of Management and Budget, Susan E.

Even as President Obama flies to the University of Notre Dame this weekend to give a commencement speech that promises to be marked by bitter abortion protests, he will be grappling with one of the most critical decisions of his presidency. With a new poll out Friday showing that for the first time a majority of Americans call themselves "pro-life," the decision of whom to nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court has grown even more complex.

Congress is considering a crackdown on financial planning strategies increasingly favored by middle-class families to shift the cost of nursing home care for elderly parents onto the federal government. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E.