High court may intervene in drug funding fight

WASHINGTON -- Fifteen states are urging the Supreme Court to take the unusual step of immediately intervening to resolve a dispute between states and the federal government over the costly new Medicare prescription drug program. Justices were told Friday that states should not be forced to help fund the program, which could cost them billions of dollars over the next two years. Traditionally, such lawsuits are filed first in a federal district court. Texas, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri and New Jersey asked the Supreme Court for permission to file what is called an original case to get the issue directly before the justices. "I don't know if the Supreme Court is going to want to be the first court to get into this dispute. It seems controversial and political," said Neil Siegel, a Duke University law professor and former Supreme Court clerk.

Report: Clampdown hurts U.S.-Russia cooperation

WASHINGTON -- Russia's emergence as an increasingly authoritarian state could impair U.S.-Russian ability to cooperate on key international security issues, according to an analysis by a major foreign policy organization. Continuation of Russia's drift away from democratic norms under President Vladimir Putin "will make it harder for the two sides to find common ground and harder to cooperate even when they do," said the report, issued by the Council on Foreign Relations. The report recommended that the United States go beyond mere expressions of concern about the rollback of Russian democracy. It urged that Washington step up support for organizations committed to free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections in 2007-2008.

DeLay sees rare primary challenge to re-election

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Tom DeLay has rarely faced a serious challenge in the 22 years he has held office, dispatching opponents with seemingly little effort. This year, after being forced out of his job as House majority leader amid corruption and campaign finance scandals, DeLay, R-Texas, has waged an aggressive campaign to defeat three opponents in Tuesday's primary election. The winner would face former Democratic congressman Nick Lampson in November. Two of DeLay's Republican opponents, Mike Fjetland and Pat Baig, are considered long shots. So DeLay has aimed most of his political vitriol at attorney Tom Campbell. Campbell has gone straight for DeLay's ethics jugular. In one television ad, he contends DeLay was distracted by his legal troubles. In another, residents of DeLay's district repeatedly describe Campbell using the word "integrity."

Thousands protest attack in Nazareth

NAZARETH, Israel -- Thousands of Israeli Arab protesters marched through the streets of this biblical town Saturday demanding better protection for holy sites after a troubled family set off firecrackers inside a major Christian shrine. The emotional reaction to the attack on the Basilica of the Annunciation reflected the fragile status of Israel's Arab minority, which has long claimed it suffers discrimination at the hands of the Jewish majority. Many protesters accused the government of failing to prevent the attack, and rejected the official claim that Friday's attack was driven by personal distress, and not politically motivated.

U.S. general praises reaction of Iraqi troops

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's president said Saturday that he had been assured that American troops will stay in his country as long as needed, while at least 14 people were killed in explosions and gunfire nationwide as vehicle restrictions were lifted in Baghdad. A top U.S. general, meanwhile, said he was "very, very pleased" with the response of Iraqi armed forces in containing recent sectarian bloodshed, disputing critics who said too little was done to quell attacks that killed more than 500 people the past week. Iraqi security forces blunted the sectarian killing with an extraordinary daytime curfew in four flashpoint provinces last weekend, followed by a driving ban in Baghdad on Friday. But with the ban lifted on Saturday, violence resumed, with a bomb exploding at a bus terminal in southeastern Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 25.

China's leaders pledge help for rural poor

SHANGHAI, China -- There are no official statistics tallying the toll in suffering, but by most accounts, after nearly two decades of neglect, China is confronting a rural health crisis on a monumental scale. Up to 90 percent of the 800 million people in China's countryside lack affordable medical care. Children go unvaccinated. AIDS patients can get free drugs, but can't afford the monitoring and additional medicine they need. Communist leaders are now promising to rebuild a rural health care system that has fallen apart with the decline of farm cooperatives during two decades of economic reform. It's part of a package of policies to redress the huge gap between China's fast-growing cities and the rural areas where protests over poverty and corruption are spreading.

Official: U.N. food agency to run out of food

EL WAK, Kenya -- The U.N. food agency will soon run out of food needed to feed some 3.5 million Kenyans facing prolonged drought because it has received a fraction of the required funding, officials said Saturday. The World Food Program has enough cereal to last until April but will run out of other staples by month's end, program spokesman Peter Smerdon said. The program needs $225 million to buy more than 33,000 tons of food each month until February 2007 but has received only $28 million, he said. "If we don't get any more food aid it will be a catastrophe," Smerdon said. "We are already on the edge because food is running out and we are supposed to be feeding people until February next year."

-- From wire reports