Obama presses lawmakers on healthcare

WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Saturday urged Congress to pass healthcare reform that would improve care and lower costs without increasing the deficit.

In his weekly address, Obama called healthcare reform an "issue that affects the health and financial well-being of every single American and the stability of our entire economy."

His address came after 22 House Democrats said they opposed a surtax on the richest Americans to help pay for reform, expected to cost more than $1 trillion over a decade.

Obama, who did not mention the surtax in his address, disputed claims reform would increase deficits and took aim at "special interests" and other opponents who he said "would oppose reform no matter what."

He said families struggle to keep up with soaring out-of-pocket insurance costs and premiums rising three times faster than waves; workers worry about losing health insurance if they lose or change jobs; patients are denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

Democrats' reform proposals, Obama said, would cut hundreds of billions of dollars in unnecessary spending and "giveaways" to insurance companies in Medicare and Medicaid.

Obama repeated his assertion that offering a public health insurance option would increase competition and "keep insurance companies honest," and rejected arguments that reform would bring about government-run healthcare.

"I don't believe government can or should run healthcare," he said.

Jemaah Islamiyah suspected in hotel blasts

JAKARTA, July 18 (UPI) -- The sophisticated way in they were carried out indicates the bombings of two Indonesian hotels were perpetrated by a well-known terror group, officials say.

The state-run Antara news agency Saturday quoted Ansyaad Mbai, head of the anti-terror desk at the political, legal and security affairs coordinating ministry, as saying the government suspects the attacks were the work of a violent splinter group of Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesian terrorism network with links to al-Qaida, CNN reported.

"Although the modus operandi was conventional, it was carried out in a more sophisticated way, namely by infiltrating into the target area," Mbai said. "Previously, suicide bombings were conducted outside in a hotel's front yard, for instance. But this time, the perpetrators dodged a tight security system and came very close to their target."

Mbai reportedly named the group's reported officer, recruiter, bombmaker, and trainer Noordin Top, a Malaysian-born fugitive, as a likely suspect in the Friday blasts, in which six people were killed. The FBI also suspects Top was involved in a 2003 attack at one of the same hotels, as well as bombings of a Bali nightclub in 2003 and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004, CNN said.

McConnell to oppose Sotomayor nomination

WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says he will oppose Judge Sonia Sotomayor's bid to join the Supreme Court, even as other GOP lawmakers have endorsed her.

In prepared remarks to be delivered to Congress Monday, McConnell says Sotomayor has displayed an "alarming" willingness to treat people unequally under the law, CNN reported.

"Judge Sotomayor's record of written statements suggest an alarming lack of respect for the notion of equal justice, and, therefore, in my view, an insufficient willingness to abide by the judicial oath," McConnell said. "This is particularly important when considering someone for the Supreme Court since, if she were confirmed, there would be no higher court to deter or prevent her from injecting into the law the various disconcerting principles that recur throughout her public statements."

McConnell's move to oppose President Barack Obama's high court nominee came after three key Republican senators, Richard Lugar of Indiana, Mel Martinez of Florida and Olympia Snowe of Maine, said they would vote for Sotomayor's nomination, all but assuring her confirmation by the Senate, the broadcaster reported.

Lugar was the first Republican to say he would vote in favor of Sotomayor's nomination to the nation's highest court.

Clinton begins trip to India, Thailand

MUMBAI, July 18 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held a breakfast meeting with Indian business leaders Saturday as she began a five-day visit to the country.

The meeting was at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, where scores of people were killed last year in terrorist attacks. Clinton attended a memorial service at the hotel, one of the major targets, before breakfast, The Times of India reported.

Clinton arrived in Mumbai late Friday and is scheduled to travel Sunday to New Delhi for talks with the president and prime minister. From India, she will head to Thailand.

The secretary spent Friday night at the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Mandela celebrates 91st birthday quietly

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, July 18 (UPI) -- Former South African President Nelson Mandela is determined to keep a low profile Saturday as the world celebrates his 91st birthday, a spokesman said.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who fought the country's apartheid regime and become South Africa's first black president in 1994, would spend the day quietly, "with friends, family and comrades," as his backers marked with the launch of a new charitable initiative called Mandela Day, a spokesman told the British newspaper The Guardian.

To celebrate the occasion, the Nelson Mandela Foundation has called on the public to honor his 67-year career in serving the country by devoting 67 minutes to charitable causes.

Mandela's wife, Graca Machel told CNN the elder statesman remains active in working with his charities despite dealing with physical infirmities that have made him too frail to travel overseas for the New York kick-off of Mandela Day, which will feature a Radio City Music Hall concert with Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin.

"(Mandela) is a very proud person. He is vain so when he realizes that he can't walk tall and firm like he used to be, he doesn't like it," Machel told the U.S. broadcaster.

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