Month: October 2013

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate leaders are continuing to negotiate on legislation to raise the nation’s borrowing authority and provide temporary government funding but a deal is not expected to be announced on Tuesday, Senate aides said. Lawmakers said a deal was close but there remained details to be worked out. The Senate and House of Representatives are scheduled to hold sessions on Wednesday and they could debate any deal that Senate leaders ultimately strike. …

By Derek P. Jensen SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) – Jury selection began on Tuesday in the murder trial of a prominent Utah doctor accused of killing his wife with a cocktail of drugs so he could continue an extramarital affair. Martin MacNeill, 57, urged his wife to get a facelift then arranged for her to receive a deadly mix of prescription drugs while she recovered, so he could be with his alleged lover Gypsy Willis, according to a lengthy arrest affidavit. …

By Alexandra Hudson BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany's Greens ruled out any further coalition talks with Angela Merkel's conservatives early on Wednesday, leaving the chancellor to focus on discussions with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) in her efforts to form a new government. After almost six hours of detailed policy discussions the Greens concluded they simply did not have enough in common with Merkel's conservative bloc in areas such as energy, climate targets and taxation, to make further discussions fruitful. …

By Marti Maguire RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) – North Carolina has become the first state to cut off welfare benefits to poor residents in the wake of the partial federal government shutdown, ordering a halt to processing November applications until a deal is reached to end the federal standstill. More than 20,000 people – most of them children – receive monthly benefits aimed at helping them buy food and other basic supplies through North Carolina’s welfare program, called Work First, which is fully funded by the federal government. Recipients must reapply each month. …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic and Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate could announce a deal late on Tuesday to extend the government’s borrowing authority until February 7 and quickly re-open federal agencies that have been closed since October 1, a Senate aide said. The aide described a deal in line with provisions that were being negotiated in the Senate before a failed House of Representatives proposal suspended those talks. The provisions include a temporary government spending bill running through January 15. …

By Bill Cotterell TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) – Florida prison officials on Tuesday carried out what they described as the first execution in the United States using the sedative midazolam hydrochloride in a lethal injection. Midazolam was pumped into William Happ, 51, as the first of three drugs in a lethal injection cocktail designed to induce unconsciousness, paralysis and death by cardiac arrest, the Florida Department of Corrections said. He was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. …