Obama shifts White House spotlight to unemployment 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama turns his attention on Thursday from Afghanistan to the battle against unemployment which has sapped his popularity and may shape his political future.
Obama is hosting a forum with business leaders at the White House to discuss how to boost jobs after U.S. unemployment hit a 26-year peak of 10.2 percent in October. But the gathering has been dismissed by critics as a public relations exercise.
The president's public approval ratings have dipped as joblessness has grown, alarming members of his Democratic party who face congressional elections next year. Republicans say his economic recoveries policies have failed to deliver.
Second Opinions Doctors Divide on Bill
Even though the American Medical Association offered qualified support for the Senate health care bill this week, many other medical groups are unqualified in their opposition.
A coalition representing 240,000 physician specialists, like the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, said it “must oppose the bill as currently written.”
The group sent a letter this week to the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, taking issue with a variety of provisions in the Senate bill.
Senate boosts preventive care for women
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate backed a plan on Thursday to make it easier for women to get preventive health screenings such as mammograms as it cast its first votes on a sweeping healthcare overhaul.
On the fourth day of a sometimes bitter debate, the Senate voted 61-39 for an amendment to improve access to women's screenings for diseases like cancer and diabetes by eliminating insurance co-pays and deductibles for them.
The move follows last month's controversy over federal task force recommendations that women delay regular mammograms for breast cancer and from a doctor's group that women delay pap smears for cervical cancer.
Executive privilege is tested by Salahi case
On his second day in office, President Obama pledged to create "an unprecedented level of openness in government" -- an executive memorandum that his administration now says does not apply to calls for his social secretary to testify on Capitol Hill.
The scandal over the state dinner breach by a Virginia couple hardly evokes the weight of Watergate or 9/11. But that has not stopped some in Congress from demanding an in-person explanation from social secretary Desirée Rogers, who was in charge of the dinner.
Obama's top aides -- echoing former president George W. Bush and other past Oval Office occupants -- say the idea of sending the woman in charge of White House parties to a congressional committee runs counter to years of history and to the separation of powers built into the Constitution.
New York state lawmakers vote against gay marriage
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York state lawmakers voted against legalizing gay marriage on Wednesday, dashing gay rights activists' hopes that it would become the sixth U.S. state to allow same-sex couples to wed.
The New York state senate voted down the legislation 38 votes to 24. Governor David Paterson, a Democrat who supports gay marriage, had said he would have signed the bill into law if it had passed.
"This is an enormous victory," said Maggie Gallagher, the leader of the National Organization for Marriage, which opposed the law. "What you saw was the will of the people .... The culture really hasn't shifted on gay marriage."
UPDATE 1-New York state lawmakers vote against gay marriage
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NEW YORK, Dec 2 (Reuters) - New York state lawmakers votedagainst legalizing gay marriage on Wednesday, dashing hopes ofgay rights activists that it would become the sixth U.S. stateto allow same-sex couples to wed.
The New York state senate voted down the legislation 38votes to 24. Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat who supports gaymarriage, had said he would sign the bill into law if it werepassed.
Pakistan officials wary of Obama's strategy for Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's government expressed confusion and concern Wednesday about President Obama's new Afghan strategy, which calls for Pakistan to step up its cooperation against terrorism in exchange for a pledge of a long-term partnership "after the guns fall silent."
Obama's long-awaited speech at West Point was broadcast live on TV here just after dawn, but the Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry waited nearly 12 hours to issue a cautious response that stressed the "need for clarity" in the new U.S. policy and sought to "ensure that there would be no adverse fallout on Pakistan."
The Pakistani government is fearful that this country could be further destabilized by a reinvigorated military campaign in next-door Afghanistan. A growing tide of urban bombings and terrorist attacks have killed hundreds of people in Pakistan in the past several months.
Senate Breaks Health Stalemate; First Votes Today
WASHINGTON — At the end of a third day of Senate debate over sweeping health care legislation, Democrats and Republicans said Wednesday night that they had broken an impasse over the seemingly simple question of how and when to vote on the first amendments.
But even as lawmakers announced an agreement to begin voting Thursday, Democrats accused Republicans of stalling debate and obstructing the legislation.
In a closed-door meeting of his caucus, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, told Democrats that Republicans were not interested in passing a bill. In effect, he prepared them for trench warfare, saying the Democrats must stick together and should be ready to work weekends to finish the bill before Christmas.
Excerpts from e-mails of WH gate crashers
Excerpts from e-mails exchanged between Tareq and Michaele Salahi and Michele Jones, special assistant to the defense secretary, as part of their effort to obtain an invitation to the Obama administration's first state dinner last week.
Friday, Nov. 20, 4:15 p.m.
To the Salahis' attorney Paul Gardner from his office manager Rosalind Tyner.
Gay marriage bill suffers a decisive defeat in NY State Senate
NEW YORK -- Opponents of gay marriage celebrated a decisive vote in the New York State Senate, where a proposal to legalize same-sex marriage was defeated 38 to 24 on Wednesday.
The unexpectedly wide margin was delivered in a relatively liberal state where the other chamber of the legislature has thrice approved the measure and the governor, David A. Paterson, had been poised to sign it into law. The vote prompted pronouncements that the momentum for gay marriage had been not only halted, but also effectively reversed. Same-sex marriage is legal in Iowa, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and, most recently, New Hampshire, where it goes into effect Jan. 1.
"I think you put it all together and it most likely spells the end of the idea that you can pass gay marriage democratically anywhere else in the United States," said Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, which spearheaded opposition in Albany. "I think the gay marriage lobby will have to go back to a court-based approach.
