Storm crawls into New England, leaving mess behind

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A fierce weekend storm dropped record snowfall and stranded travelers up the coast from Virginia to New England, but its timing helped minimize headache-inducing work commutes and left many with the prospect of a very white Christmas.

Residents throughout the mid-Atlantic and Northeast mostly holed up for the weekend, then dug out from as much as 2 feet of snow to find sunny, mostly calm skies under a blanket of white unspoiled by car exhaust and passers-by.

Matthew Laquinta was vindicated by the 15 inches of snow outside his Providence home, where his daughter Emma, 7, didn't believe the night before that the weather might keep them from visiting relatives on Sunday.

"I was like, 'Come on, where's the snow?'" Emma said. "And I didn't think there'd be any."

Nevertheless, they still planned to make the two-hour trek to visit family in Massachusetts.

Neighbors shoveling snow in front of their homes Sunday in the east side of Providence shrugged it off as a mild inconvenience that had the decency to come on a weekend.

"It's less of a disruption," said Chloe Kline, a 35-year-old musician. "I don't have to get out to go to school or work or anything like that."

To the south, others struggled with the aftermath of the storm that stranded hundreds of motorists in Virginia and knocked out power to thousands, but could have been much worse.

On the cusp of the winter solstice, the storm dropped 16 inches of snow Saturday on Reagan National Airport outside Washington — the most ever recorded there for a single December day — and gave southern New Jersey its highest single-storm snowfall totals in nearly four years.

The National Weather Service said the storm gave Philadelphia, which began keeping records in 1884, its second-largest snowfall: 23.2 inches. Even more was recorded in the Philadelphia suburb of Medford, N.J., at 24 inches.

The 13.4 inches that fell Sunday at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, just south of Providence, easily eclipsed the date's previous record — 6.3 inches in 1995, according to the National Weather Service.

Around New York City, the brunt of the storm hit Long Island, with whiteout conditions and 26.3 inches in Upton, a record since measurements began in 1949. Nearly 11 inches of snow fell on New York City, and the storm could be the worst the city has seen since about 26 inches fell in February 2006, National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Maloit said.

Pragmatic New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg encouraged residents and holiday visitors to take advantage of cancellations by seeing a Broadway show. The mayor said city retailers weren't hard hit because the snow held off until late Saturday.

Even as the storm wound down in the New York area, conditions remained treacherous and drivers were advised to stay off the roads, Maloit said. Bus, subways and trains were delayed — including a Long Island Rail Road train stalled for more than five hours before backing up and unloading its 150 passengers.

Airports in the Northeast that were jammed up Saturday were working their way back to normal operations. About 1,200 flights at the New York City area's three major airports remained canceled despite clear conditions on the runways.

Two of the four runways at Dulles International Airport in Washington reopened Sunday, spokeswoman Tara Hamilton said. Reagan National reopened its main rainway, which handles all commercial traffic.

Baltimore-Washington airport struggled to get back up to full speed, with some airlines still canceling flights. At Boston's Logan airport, where it was still snowing Sunday morning, spokesman Phil Orlandella said flights have been "on and off." Monday looked to be a normal day, he said.

Philadelphia International Airport shut down Saturday night but reopened early Sunday.

The School District of Philadelphia and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia canceled classes for 195,000 public school and Roman Catholic school students to give the city another day to clear roads and sidewalks.

Al Wachlin, 70, lives in Philadelphia but grew up in Maine and was well prepared for the storm, with a truck and an attached plow. With a scraper in one hand and a brush in another, he worked to clear off his truck.

"This part of it's great," said Wachlin, who has lived in the city since 1960. "It's the cleanup, the rutted streets where you go sliding into the intersection, that's the whole problem."

Some states reported major power outages. An estimated 200,000 electric customers remained without power Sunday in West Virginia and Virginia.

In many places the problem was where to put the snow. On south Philadelphia's narrow streets, residents shoveling sidewalks resigned themselves to the snow eventually returning as traffic displaced it from the street.

Merchants feared they'd take a hit as the storm blew through on the last weekend before Christmas. Shoppers who did venture out made the most of it.

James Phyfe, 35, of Cranston, R.I., took advantage of the meager crowds at the Providence Place mall to buy some gifts, including a toy soccer ball, for his toddler son.

"I came out because I knew there'd be no crowds around," he said.

In Washington, police investigated why a plainclothes officer drew a gun during a snowball fight organized on Twitter. Witness Lacy MacAuley told The Washington Post the fight was harmless fun until the officer arrived.

The storm began wreaking misery Friday in South Florida, where it caused flooding and knocked out electricity in the Carolinas before turning to snow as it moved north.

One person in Virginia was killed in a traffic accident, and authorities said the weather may have contributed to another traffic death there. A third death in Virginia is believed to have been caused by exposure. In Ohio, two people were killed in accidents on snow-covered roads. And in western North Carolina, a 52-year-old man was killed when his car slid down an embankment.

Greyhound shut down service Saturday in Washington, D.C., and farther north, and ferry service in Delaware and New Jersey was canceled. Attractions such as the Smithsonian museums in Washington and the Philadelphia Zoo were closed both Saturday and Sunday.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, N.J.; Sarah Karush in Washington; Dena Potter in Chesterfield, Va.; Jacob Jordan in Atlanta; David Porter in Atlantic City, N.J.; Bruce Shipkowski in Trenton, N.J.; Ron Todt and Patrick Walters in Philadelphia; and AP photographer Jacquelyn Martin in Arlington, Va.

US pushes for 'additional pressure' on Iran

WASHINGTON — The administration of President Barack Obama pushed Monday for tougher sanctions on Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions after driving home the point that its near year-long diplomatic engagement with Tehran had yielded little.

However, it was not clear if the administration can yet rally the support it needs for a fourth round of UN sanctions when it said China is unable to join the United States, Russia, Britain, France and Germany in Brussels on Friday.

Both Russia and China, which a US official said had a scheduling problem barring it from attending the six-power meeting, have been more reluctant than the other four powers about tightening sanctions.

The group is known as the P5-plus-1, or the permanent five veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany.

With a year-end deadline, the administration signaled Friday that time is running out for Iran to seize its offer of diplomatic engagement for resolving nuclear and other issues.

Following up on pessimistic comments she made last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Obama's engagement policy had yielded few, if any results.

"We have reached out. We have offered the opportunity to engage in meaningful, serious discussions with our Iranian counterparts. We have joined fully in the P5-plus-1 one process. We've been at the table," Clinton said.

"But I don't think anyone can doubt that our outreach has produced very little in terms of any kind of positive response from the Iranians," the chief US diplomat said.

If engagement fails under what is called a dual-track strategy, the United States will try to rally the international community to press Iran into changing course on its nuclear program, she recalled.

"And certainly additional pressure is going to be called for in order to do that," she said Monday during a press briefing with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos.

In an interview Friday with Al-Jazeera English channel, Clinton said the world community will now turn toward using "more pressure, like sanctions" against Iran to halt its nuclear program.

Clinton said Iran has taken actions that show little sign it will respond to Obama's efforts to engage them as it has failed to build confidence in recent months, including since an October 1 meeting with the P5-plus-1 in Geneva.

For example, she said Iran has balked at a US-backed International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) proposal to ship abroad low-grade nuclear fuel so it can be further enriched and returned to refuel a Tehran medical research reactor.

Also undermining international confidence, she said, is Iran's continued crackdown on peaceful opposition to Iran's disputed election in June that gave incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad another term in office.

She said Iran also fanned fears about its intentions when it failed to come clean on a secret uranium enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom, and noted that Iran has subsequently announced plans for 10 to 20 new nuclear plants.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters that a P5-plus-1 meeting "won't be possible this year" because of a scheduling difficulty, raising questions about how soon the six could agree on concerted action.

A State Department official later confirmed it was China that "couldn't come on December 18" for a political directors meeting in Brussels.

But the official also said plans were afoot for a P5-plus-1 teleconference call on Iran, probably by next week.

The US Congress sent Obama on Sunday a giant spending bill that also requires periodic reports on the status of diplomatic efforts to freeze Iran's nuclear program as well as on US and global sanctions on the Islamic republic.

Obama urges Dems to pass health care overhaul

WASHINGTON – Casting health care overhaul as a legacy for the American people and failure as politically unthinkable, President Barack Obama on Sunday rallied Senate Democrats to deliver on their party's half-century quest to expand the social safety net by providing access for all.

At the Capitol during a rare Sunday session of the Senate, Obama delivered a closed-door pep talk to the fractious Democratic caucus that lasted about 45 minutes. Deep divisions remain over abortion coverage, but there was hope for compromise on whether the government should directly offer health insurance in competition with private companies.

"They're going to get it done," Obama said as he left. He avoided specifics in the meeting with senators and took no questions.

The health care legislation — Obama's signature domestic policy goal — would provide coverage to more than 30 million additional people over the next decade with a new requirement for nearly everyone to purchase insurance. There would be new marketplaces where people could shop for and compare insurance plans, and lower-income people would get subsidies to help them afford coverage.

The federal-state Medicaid program for the poor would be expanded, and there would be a ban on unpopular insurance company practices such as denying coverage based on medical history.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who had invited Obama, sounded confident.

Republicans "want this to be, as one senator said, President Obama's Waterloo," Reid told reporters. "And it's not going to be."

White House spokesman Bill Burton said Obama thanked lawmakers for their work and encouraged them to move ahead on "this historic opportunity." Democrats are keenly aware of former President Bill Clinton's failure to pass health care legislation in 1994, and their repudiation at the polls that November.

Obama said this is "the most significant social legislation in decades — so don't lose it," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. Obama was accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden and other senior administration officials.

Obama "pledged to work with us in any meaningful way that he can," Reid told reporters.

Reid has 58 Democrats and two independents in the Democratic caucus. He may be able to get one or two Republican votes, at the most. He is still short of the 60 votes he needs to shut off debate and move to a final up-or-down vote on the bill.

At Reid's request, moderate and liberal lawmakers are trying to find a compromise on the government insurance plan that could also potentially attract Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, the one Republican to vote for the Democrats' health bill in committee.

A new idea under discussion involves national nonprofit insurance plans that would be administered by the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the popular Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

Snowe called the possible compromise "a positive development" because it would give consumers more options for buying insurance. Underscoring the chase for 60 votes, and the possibility that she could break ranks with the GOP, Obama met with Snowe at the White House on Saturday.

"Progress is being made and that's not just talk," Reid said. After three hours of negotiation Sunday evening, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said "we're not there yet," but he was encouraged.

At least one moderate Democrat was unpersuaded by Obama's appeal.

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., objects to Reid's provisions on abortion coverage, to a government insurance plan now in the bill, and to a new long-term care insurance program.

"For those who have made a decision to be supportive, I think (Obama) was persuasive," Nelson said. "There are still issues that have to be resolved."

Nelson said he expects a vote Tuesday on his amendment, which would restrict abortion coverage to cases of rape, incest or where the life of the mother is in danger. It is similar to language passed by the House last month. The Senate bill now would allow insurance plans operating in a new federally supervised health insurance marketplace to cover abortion, provided they use only funds from premiums paid by beneficiaries.

Win or lose, Nelson's amendment won't be the end of the abortion debate.

Republicans who are nearly unanimous in their opposition to the health care bill said there was plenty of raw political pressure.

"The Democrats are trying to squeeze every one of their members to swallow a very bitter pill for the American people," said GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Senators weary from months of debate said Obama made an impression.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said senators were moved to "deep reflection, and even some tears."

"He talked about how this would be a legacy, that each of us could look back to having been part of, 10 or 20 years from now," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., a fiscal conservative.

While negotiations continued behind the scenes, the Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., to limit the tax deductions insurance companies take for what they pay their top executives. The vote was 56-42 on a measure that needed 60 votes.

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Honduras Congress rejects return of ousted leader

TEGUCIGALPA — Honduran lawmakers rejected the reinstatement of ousted President Manuel Zelaya during a heated debate which revisited details of the June 28 coup which polarized the nation.

A simple majority of 65 lawmakers in the 128-member body had voted against Zelaya's return to the presidency shortly before 730 pm (0130 GMT), after more than six hours of debate.

The decision came amid pressure to resolve the five-month crisis, and after many Latin American governments warned they would not restore broken ties unless Zelaya was allowed to finish his term, which ends January 27.

The vote, however, put an end to a US-brokered crisis deal between Zelaya and de facto leader Roberto Micheletti, who took over after the coup.

Micheletti, who stepped down briefly over the elections, said before the vote that Zelaya was "history."

As the political drama played out in the Congress, dozens of security forces faced off outside with backers of Zelaya, who has been holed up in the Brazilian embassy since returning in September.

Despite angry speeches from several deputies who slammed both the coup and a military crackdown which followed, only nine lawmakers had backed Zelaya's return when the majority against it was reached.

The same Congress, along with the Supreme Court, business leaders and the military, had backed Zelaya's expulsion over his plans to change the constitution, which they saw as a bid to undo term limits.

Lawmakers had received advice from the attorney general and the Supreme Court, which has said that criminal charges against Zelaya still stand.

"As far as I know, the Congress does not have the capacity to make this decision," Zelaya told local Radio Globo ahead of the vote.

Zelaya had suggested that he would not resume the presidency even if Congress voted him back in, saying a US pact which left the decision to Congress had failed.

Divisions in the Central American nation have remained wide since controversial weekend elections held under the de facto regime, in which conservative Porfirio Lobo claimed a solid victory.

Lobo, who backed the coup, has vowed to work for national reconciliation.

His National Party, with 55 seats in Congress, voted against Zelaya's return.

Lobo, who lost to Zelaya in 2005 elections, has not spoken out on the issue, prefering to leave the decision to Congress.

Zelaya suffered from splits within his Liberal Party which has a majority in Congress but is deeply divided over his swing to the left under the influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The United States, a key business partner and donor, and the European Union, also a key donor, said they saw the weekend polls as an important first step forward out of the crisis, but many in Latin America, starting with powerhouse Brazil, said they served to whitewash the coup.

Rights groups said the elections were marred by the lack of international consensus, and slammed a military crackdown on journalists and activists since the coup.

India expects US to lift technology transfer sanctions

WASHINGTON — India said Wednesday that it expected the United States to lift "significant" restrictions on American technology transfer to the Asian giant following talks between leaders of the two nations.

US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed after talks in Washington Tuesday that "strengthening high technology trade between their countries is in the spirit of their strategic dialogue and partnership," a joint statement said.

Expanding on the statement, Singh's economic advisor Montek Singh Ahluwalia said Wednesday that on the economic front, "the principal action" the United States had to take to advance collaboration was "removal of the technology transfer controls."

He said the US government had assured India that a "high level review" of the technology restrictions was underway, four years after the two countries signed a landmark civilian nuclear agreement.

"We are very hopeful that as a result of that review there will be a significant easing of technology controls," said Ahluwalia, speaking at a forum held by the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

The controls were part of the 1998-imposed economic sanctions on India after it conducted a series of nuclear weapons tests.

They prohibit American companies from exporting certain goods and services to various Indian entities without first obtaining an export license.

However, relations between the two countries have improved significantly in recently years.

They signed a landmark pact in 2005 for export of US nuclear technology to India but implementation has been delayed as the two countries work out complex international regulations governing such trade.

"Many of our companies still have impediments put in their way in a matter of transfer of technology," said Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Indian government's planning commission.

He said that even in US circles, "these restrictions are actually not achieving any security enhancement kind of concerns."

Obama and Singh had said in a joint statement that while they agreed that strengthening high technology trade was in line with the new spirit of partnership, "shared commitment to technology security" was critical.

Singh said the lifting of US export controls on high technology exports to India "will open vast opportunities for giant research and development efforts."

"It will enable US industry to benefit from the rapid economic and technological transformation that is now underway in our country," he said.

On the civilian nuclear deal that was clinched during the administration of Obama's predecessor George W. Bush, Ahluwalia said, "there are two or three things that have to be done to make it fully operational from the point of view of the US."

One critical component of the deal, expected to open up 150 billion dollars worth of businesses mainly to American companies, is for the United States and India to sign a nuclear fuel reprocessing agreement.

The two countries "continue to negotiate reprocessing arrangements and procedures," the US State Department said in a statement Wednesday.

Citing talks between Obama and Singh, the department said "the United States is confident that the arrangements and procedures will be concluded well in advance of the August 2010 deadline."

Obama has reaffirmed to Singh his administration's commitment "to fully implement" the nuclear agreement, dispelling any notion that there might be less of a commitment from his administration in seeing the deal through.

Indian officials said they too did not see any major problem for their parliament to approve legislation effectively limiting the liability of suppliers in the event of a nuclear accident.

Obama addresss N.Korea, trade and Iran at meeting

SEOUL — US President Barack Obama said Thursday he would send US envoy Stephen Bosworth to North Korea for direct talks on December 8, naming a date for the mission for the first time, during a visit to Seoul.

"We will be sending Ambassador Bosworth to North Korea on December 8 to engage in direct talks with the North Koreans," Obama told reporters after talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.

Speaking at the Seoul visit Obama addressed the issue of a free trade deal with host nation South Korea saying that a number of issues still needed to be worked out before it could be ratified in Congress.

During the event Obama also said the United States and its partners were now discussing "consequences" in the form of toughened sanctions on Iran after its apparent rejection of a nuclear deal.

NATO-led troops say woman killed in error

KABUL — NATO-led troops mistakenly killed a female civilian during an operation against militants in eastern Afghanistan, the force said Saturday.

The woman died during a raid against suspected militants by Afghan and international troops Friday in Zabul province, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

"After repeated calls for occupants to exit one of the compounds, the joint force used an explosive charge to enter it. The charge inadvertently wounded an Afghan woman who was standing on the other side of the door," ISAF said.

She later died from her wounds, it said.

"The search of the compound resulted in a couple of enemy wounded in action and a handful of suspects detained."

In a separate incident, which occurred early Saturday, ISAF denied killing civilians but said an armed woman died during a clash with insurgents in Shindand district of western Herat province.

ISAF said a joint force of Afghan and international troops encountered resistance, killing one insurgent, during a search.

"The force was then fired upon while clearing the compound, and several armed insurgents were killed. One of the individuals killed was a woman who was armed," it said.

"The security force protected several women and children present in the compounds, and no civilians were harmed during the operation."

But Lal Mohammad Omarzai, the district governor, said three civilian members of one family were killed and three children wounded.

An AFP photographer saw three wounded children at the local hospital, where a doctor said they were hurt during a clash between US and Taliban fighters.

Omarzai said the civilian casualties came after patrolling American soldiers were attacked by Taliban who "were using a civilian house as their position."

Four Taliban militants were killed, he said.

Civilians are regularly caught in the crossfire as international forces battle a worsening Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, provoking anger among the population and Afghan authorities.