By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
The young drop coverage to avoid higher premiums
In the midst of talking black history with Grammy-winning singer Alicia Keys, Maya Angelou breaks out singing a hymn a cappella.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that the United States and Russia are committed to trying again to get President Bashar Assad's regime and the rebel opposition to talk about a political transition in Syria, setting aside a year and a half of U.S.-Russian disagreements that have paralyzed the international community.
Gunmen killed the brother of Syria's parliament speaker in a hail of bullets as he drove to work in Damascus on Tuesday, the state news agency said, as the international envoy for Syria warned the country could become another Somalia.
Syrian warplanes and artillery struck rebellious suburbs east of Damascus, while rebels attacked regime positions elsewhere near the capital Sunday, violence that marred the third day of what was meant to be a four-day holiday truce, activists said.
The current international peace plan seeking to stop Syria's civil war suffered a major setback Wednesday, when an al Qaeda-inspired militant group rejected a cease-fire proposed by the international envoy.
The international envoy to the Syrian conflict on Wednesday called on President Bashar Assad's regime to take the lead in a cease-fire during a major Muslim holiday later this month, calling it a "microscopic" step toward ending a crisis that he said could consume the whole region.
The international envoy to the Syrian conflict on Wednesday called on President Bashar Assad's regime to take the lead in implementing a cease-fire during a major Muslim holiday later this month.
The large number of deeply divided rebel groups is one of the main obstacles to a U.N. mission's efforts to broker an end to Syria's 18-month crisis, the Damascus representative of the new international envoy said Monday. Activists reported an air raid on a northern town killed at least 21 people.
Syria grabbed the spotlight as world leaders at the United Nations on Monday heard a dire warning from international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi that the war is getting worse and threatening to spill across the Mideast. But he also voiced a note of hope, saying he thinks there may be a way forward despite the deadlock in the U.N. Security Council.
The death toll from a car bomb in Syria's largest city has risen to 30, state media said Monday, as the new international envoy to the country said the Syrian people are desperate to see peace and stability.
A Jordanian militant leader linked to al Qaeda warned Sunday that his extremist group will launch "deadly attacks" in neighboring Syria to topple President Bashar Assad, as Damascus lashed out at France for backing Syrian rebels.
Government warplanes bombed a town in northern Syria on Monday, killing at least 18 people, activists said, while the new U.N. envoy to the country acknowledged that brokering an end to the nation's civil war will be a "very, very difficult" task.
The U.N.'s new envoy to Syria said on Saturday that President Bashar Assad's regime should realize that the need for change was both "urgent" and "necessary" and that it must meet the "legitimate" demands of the Syrian people.
Syrian troops backed by tanks and helicopters broke into a Damascus suburb on Thursday following two days of shelling and intense clashes as part of a widening offensive by President Bashar Assad's forces to seize control of parts of the capital and surrounding areas from rebel fighters, activists said.
Syrian government forces heavily shelled the cities of Aleppo and Daraa and a suburb of Damascus on the second day of a major Muslim holiday Monday, killing up to 30 people, rights groups and activists said.
But the truce broke down soon after it started, and the two sides returned to all-out war, although Mr. Annan said the regime was the main aggressor.
