Reid on auto bailout...Insurance group on Obama plan...Gunman's claim

Washington (AP) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he doubts there are enough votes to tap the $700 billion financial bailout fund to save the Big Three automakers. The auto giants and the UAW are working hard to sell lawmakers on a $34 billion aid plan. The union is promising concessions and the companies are offering restructuring in trying to woo skeptical lawmakers.

WASHINGTON (AP) The head of the largest trade group for insurers says it supports many of President-elect Barack Obama's plan for better health-care coverage. But the group, America's Health Insurance Plans, opposes a key part of it, a requirement for large and medium-sized employers to contribute to their workers' health coverage or pay into a public insurance plan.

MUMBAI, India (AP) Security officials say the only gunman captured during the terror attacks on Mumbai says he was promised that his impoverished family would get $1,250 if he died fighting for militant Islam. The 21-year-old Pakistani was arrested hours after the attacks began. Photos of him with an assault rifle made him a symbol of the attacks.

WASHINGTON (AP) A dozen retired generals have met with President-elect Barack Obama's top legal advisers pressing for reversal of some of the Bush administration's terrorism-fighting policies. They want him to rescind authority for the CIA to use harsh interrogation methods and they want to shut down the U.S.

prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) Angry environmentalists have launched an online campaign urging President-elect Barack Obama to undo a federal rule they say will let coal companies dump mining waste closer to streams. They call the change a "parting gift" from the Bush administration to the coal industry.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 12-03-08 1852CST | save this article / add to your favorites list