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Texas won't implement federal health care law<p></p>

 
Published July 10, 2012

DALLAS

texas won't implement health law

Gov. Rick Perry said Monday that Texas won't establish an online marketplace for patients to shop for insurance or expand Medicaid, two key elements of the federal health care overhaul. In a letter sent to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the Republican governor and former presidential candidate said both elements "represent brazen intrusions into the sovereignty of our state."

Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the nation, with about 6.2 million residents — a quarter of the state's population — lacking health insurance.

West Bank

Arafat's remains will be dug up, tested

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has given final approval to dig up Yasser Arafat's remains and is also pressing for an international investigation of Arafat's mysterious 2004 death, a top aide said Monday.

The decision came days after a Swiss lab detected elevated traces of a lethal radioactive agent on clothing said to be Arafat's.

Testing Arafat's bones could offer the last chance to get to the bottom of Palestinian claims that their leader was poisoned, though some experts cautioned it may already be too late for conclusive answers.

Several Palestinian officials have charged that Israel poisoned Arafat, 75. The French doctors who treated Arafat in his final days did not present a clear cause of death, while Israel emphatically denied it killed the Palestinian leader.

Elsewhere

Indianapolis: Episcopal bishops approved a prayer service for blessing same-sex couples at a national convention on Monday that also cleared the way for transgender ordination.

BOISE, Idaho: Firefighters gained ground on a number of wildfires across the West but struggled in southern Idaho, where winds fanned a fast-moving blaze across nearly 300 square miles of sagebrush and dry grass, officials said Monday. More firefighters were heading to the blaze.

Myanmar: Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi attended her first session of Myanmar's parliament as a lawmaker on Monday after she and her party won April by-elections.

Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez said Monday that he's free of cancer and that physical limitations stemming from his recuperation will not affect his re-election campaign.

Times wires