MEDELLIN, Colombia (CNN) -- This city's drug underworld is littered with "poseurs" -- lowlife triggermen pretending they're the real hard cases. But a longstanding and trusted source, with intimate knowledge of Medellin's violent subculture, assured me the two men I was about to meet were the real deal. My destination: a single-story home in the city's notorious "Commune 13" district where I had set up a meeting with two hit men, who have for years hired their lethal services out to the cocaine cartels. Inside the house, a man called "Red" sat on a couch toying a fully loaded 9mm Ruger pistol. "This will stop somebody nicely," he said, as I glanced at it. His face and arms were covered in burn marks. He said it was a testament of the day a barrel of acid spilled onto him as he was working in a clandestine cocaine processing lab in northern Colombia. Red explained that after the accident, the lab foreman tossed him out, half-dead, into a jungle clearing. What little strength he had left, he said he used to bat away vultures. And, against the odds, he made his way to safety and slowly recovered. When Red left the clinic months later, he said he went straight back to the drug lab and gunned down the foreman and three of his henchmen. That wasn't his first killing though, he told me. When he was just 11 years old, Red recounted, he took a razor to the throat of a neighborhood drug pusher who had been molesting his little sister. The other man, "C", sat quietly as I listened to Red. Like Red, my source told me, "C" was also the so-called "chief" of a number of neighborhoods -- running local drug-peddling operations, extortion rackets and organizing hits for a big cartel boss he simply referred to as "El Cucho," or "The Old Man." Don't Miss * Power vacuum fuels vicious drug war It was a hot morning and he was shirtless. His chest was branded with a tattoo of the Virgin Maria Auxilatrix, known in Colombia as the "Virgin of the Assassins." Hitmen, or "sicarios" as they call them here, revere her and pray to her for protection against arrest or death and for help to carry out their killings. During our time with the hit men they offered a fascinating insight into their violent world -- from how much they get paid to what their mothers think of their lifestyle: Penhaul: Why are Medellin's drug bosses and the street gangs in a war right now? "RED": "These problems come about because they're looking for a good man to run things. We have to find him and, in order to find him, what's happening right now has to run its course." "C": "Medellin has exploded right now because different groups want to control it and earn money and gain territory. The authorities locked up, extradited, or cut cooperation deals with the big guys, the ones who controlled all this. Those were the ones people respected. Now there's no respect and anybody who has a bunch of money is grabbing a few kids from a poor neighborhood and putting them to work." Penhaul: What are the cartel bosses paying for a contract killing now? "C": "If you're talking about a contract hit then right now you can get four or five million pesos (between US$2,000 and $2,500) to kill some idiot slimeball. Then of course there are bigger hits where you can earn 15 (million) or 20 million (between $7,500 and $10,000). Some of those hits pay pretty well. There's a lot of people around here with a lot of money and they're using it for bad things. Sometimes even the politicians will pay for a hit to get somebody out of their way." Penhaul: Why did you get into this lifestyle? "Red": "People need to eat and there's a lot of hunger. We don't just want the crumbs. That's the big problem. There's a lot of idle hands around here and many people think they have a chance if they have a gun in their hand." "C": "I grew up in a slum and every time I stepped outside the door there were guys from the local gang smoking (marijuana) joints. They had guns, the best motorbikes and money so I started running errands for them." Penhaul: Didn't you have any big dreams when you were kids? "Red": "I always said when I grow up I would build a house for my old lady with a cement roof and plaster and paint on the walls. I dreamed I'd be able to give her money to go to the supermarket every week." "C": "I dreamed of being a professional soccer player. I was pretty good. But I never got the chance." Penhaul: Do you think you've made your mothers proud by killing people? "Red": "I once gave my mum a wad of cash after I did a job. She took the wad and slapped me in the face and told me not to bring that cursed money into the house. She begged me to get out of that life. She was afraid they would kill me." "C": "My mum knows nothing about this. I guess she imagines because she tells me to take care otherwise I'll wind up dead. But she doesn't know for sure." Penhaul: What did your first contract hit feel like? "Red": "You kill the first one and you panic for a few days. You're nervous. But then you kill the second one and that's a kind of a medicine. It takes the pain away that you were feeling after the first killing." "C": "The first time is really f***ed up. I nearly went mad. You see a cop and think he's going to arrest you. I was 16 or 17. That was my first time. I hardly even wanted to eat. But then you carry on and kill this one and that one. You earn money. After I killed somebody the first time I bought my first decent pair of sneakers. "It's not so tough now. Sometimes you kill somebody and you know they were going to kill you. It's not a question of conscience. It's a question of kill or be killed." Penhaul: Don't you feel any remorse? "C": You know you messed up when you go to the wake and see people crying and you know it's your fault. But I don't back down from a killing because I know if somebody comes after me they won't back down." "Red": "I've got feelings and sometimes you sit down and think what a shame. But the person who's trying to shoot you isn't going to think the same. You're not killing somebody for the fun of it. If you don't mark your territory then you're a nobody." Penhaul: So, apart from the money, why do you do it? "C": "To gain respect round here you have to be a mother f***er. You've got to be a bastard so people respect you. If you're quiet and respectful everybody takes advantage. But if they know you're a mother f***er who'll bust their ass at the first sign of trouble then they respect you and your family." Penhaul: Are you killing innocent people? "C": "I never kill somebody who doesn't deserve it. Sometimes I'll hunt down a "patient" for a week just so that I don't make any mistakes. You can't go and kill somebody just because you want to. You have to ask for permission from the big guys who control us. You explain to the "old man" and he gives the final word." Penhaul: Are you ever on the receiving end of bullets? "Red": "They once shot me four times at point blank range. I heard them laughing as they walked away and one came back and kicked me in the head for good measure. When I got better he was the first one I killed. I've been shot 17 times. Well let's call it 19 if you count the ones that just graze you. They say some bodies have divine protection. Let's hope mine is one of them." Penhaul: Why don't normal citizens just turn you in? Because they're afraid? "C": "The community collaborates with us. We give them food parcels and we throw parties for them and give toys to the kids. We don't mistreat everybody, just the ones who deserve it. We don't kill innocent people." Penhaul: Do you want to get out of this life? "C": "I know you should pay what you owe. But I don't want to pay for all those deaths. I'll be absolutely f***ed if I have to pay. I want to get out of this but I want a clean slate. If I pay my debt to the law then that means jail and if I pay on the street then that means death. I don't want to go to jail or to die." advertisement Penhaul: Do you see any quick end to the current cartel violence in Medellin? "C": "We've survived one war, then another and now this one. I can't see it all ending. I don't think that will happen. If you kill two or three people there's four or five more behind him who want to kill you."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The health care reform debate reached a new milestone Tuesday as a key congressional committee passed an $829 billion plan projected to extend coverage to an additional 29 million Americans.
"Now's not the time to pat ourselves on the back," President Obama says at the White House on Tuesday.

"Now's not the time to pat ourselves on the back," President Obama says at the White House on Tuesday.
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The Senate Finance Committee's bill would subsidize insurance for poorer Americans, establish nonprofit health care cooperatives, and create health insurance exchanges to make it easier for small groups and individuals to purchase coverage.

Among other things, it would cap annual out-of-pocket expenses and prevent insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.

The plan is financed by a combination of reductions in spending for Medicare and other government programs, as well as higher taxes on expensive insurance policies and new fees on the health industry.

The committee passed its long-awaited plan Tuesday with a 14-9 vote. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, was the lone committee member to cross party lines, breaking with other Republicans to vote for the measure. All the committee's Democrats supported the bill. Video Watch why there was applause after the vote »

The Finance Committee was the last of five congressional panels to consider health care legislation before formal debate begins in the full House and Senate.

President Obama expressed satisfaction, but said more work remains.
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"We are now closer than ever before to passing health reform, but we're not there yet," he told reporters in the White House Rose Garden. "Now's not the time to pat ourselves on the back."

Instead, he said, it is time to "dig in and work even harder to get this done." Video Watch Obama laud action, call for more work »

Obama singled out Snowe "for both the political courage and the seriousness of purpose that she's demonstrated throughout this process."

Democratic leaders in each chamber have now started the politically delicate task of melding together five pieces of legislation -- two in the Senate and three in the House.

Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the Finance Committee's bill would cut the national deficit by roughly $80 billion over the next 10 years while expanding coverage to 94 percent of the country's non-elderly population.

"Ours is a balanced plan," said committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana. "Now is the time that will tell whether things are merely said, or whether something is actually done. Now is the time to get this done."

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the committee's top Republican, said he wished he "felt better about the substance of the bill," which is "moving on a slippery slope to more and more government control of health care." Video Watch what Grassley had to say about health care reform before the vote »

Snowe indicated she has concerns with several aspects of the bill, but didn't want to see the reform process derailed.

"Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it," she said. "Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls. And I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress [taking] every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time."

On Monday, an insurance industry trade group questioned several of the assumptions underpinning the bill. America's Health Insurance Plans released a report stating that, if enacted, the bill would increase premiums for families by an extra $4,000 by 2019. It said premiums for individuals would rise by an additional $1,500.

The analysis, conducted by the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, threatens to undermine Obama's assertion that it is possible to expand coverage while slowing the rate of medical inflation.

A Finance Committee spokesman slammed the analysis, calling it "a health insurance company hatchet job, plain and simple." Snowe said it was "surprising" the insurance industry "would issue that kind of condemnation when you are trying to create a constructive approach" potentially worth billions of dollars to private companies.

The committee's plan, initially drafted by Baucus, is the only one under serious consideration that excludes a government-run public health insurance option. Several top Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have questioned whether it is possible to contain costs without creating a public option to serve as a check on private insurers.

Republicans and some conservative Democrats oppose the government-run insurance option, saying it would drive private insurers from the market and eventually bring a government takeover of the health care system.

Baucus has said the more conservative Senate lacks the votes to pass a public option; Pelosi has repeatedly insisted the more liberal House will pass a bill that includes one.

The Finance Committee plan was partly the result of months of negotiations between Baucus and five other panel members -- three Republicans and two Democrats. The proposal from the "Gang of Six" has been widely viewed as the only one with the potential of attracting any Republican support.

The vote came after the committee spent two weeks debating 130 amendments. Committee members boosted the bill's overall price by more than $50 billion in part by expanding insurance subsidies for individuals and families with lower incomes.

They also voted to exempt senior citizens from higher taxes on medical expenses.

The sweeping bill would be paid for in part by cutting spending on several health care programs -- including Medicare -- by roughly $400 billion. Another $200 billion would be generated by imposing a new tax on high-end health care policies, dubbed "Cadillac" plans by critics.

At the same time, new fees would be imposed on drug and insurance companies, medical device manufacturers and other industries tied to the health care sector.

Individuals would be required to purchase coverage or face a fine of up to $750.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's goal is to emerge with a single bill that can overcome a potential filibuster by winning at least 60 votes in the Senate. He wants to meet Obama's goal of designing a bill that will cost no more than $900 billion over the next decade.

Senate aides expect that effort to take a couple of weeks.

Joining Reid in the decision-making will be Baucus; Sens. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Tom Harkin of Iowa; senior Democrats on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; and Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff.

Other key senators -- including Snowe, one of the Gang of Six -- are also expected to be involved.

Aside from wrestling with the public option, Democratic leaders have to resolve sharp differences over how to pay for a reform plan. Top House Democrats oppose a tax on high-cost policies, which they fear would affect many union members. They have instead proposed a tax surcharge on individuals with annual incomes over $500,000, or families earning more than $1 million.

To get a bill passed, Reid could implement a legislative option known as reconciliation, which would require only 50 votes instead of 60. However, Republicans have promised a "minor revolution," in the words of GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, if Democrats resort to that rarely used tactic.
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Republican leaders, who have criticized the various Democratic plans for their size and scope, won't be involved in the upcoming negotiations. One senior Republican leadership aide recently quipped that she would be in her office with her feet on her desk during the talks because she wasn't going to be invited to offer suggestions.

If the House and Senate manage to pass health care reform bills, a conference committee would then negotiate a final version requiring approval from both chambers before going to Obama for his signature.

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The economic might of India may bring to mind technological savvy and overseas call centers. But to understand the Indian economy, a visit to a roadside dentist like Raj Kishore is more illuminating.
The Indian economy is fueled by independent workers such as Radha Kumar.

The Indian economy is fueled by independent workers such as Radha Kumar.
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"I can extract, I can fill up, I can scale, I can make dentures, I can make bridge metal or non-metal." Kishore said as he fitted dentures for a customer.

One thing he can't do is show a license to practice -- like many roadside dentists sitting on sidewalks awaiting customers.

While information technology and outsourcing has earned India the nickname as "the world's back office," the sector employs a fraction of India's population -- only 2 million of India's more than 500 million workers, according to NASSCOM, an IT and business process outsourcing trade organization.

So where do the majority of people work in India? The International Labor Organization and economists say as many as 95 percent of the workforce makes a living in what is known as the informal or unorganized sector.

"Roughly today about 50 percent of the production is from the unorganized sector," says New Delhi-based economics professor Arun Kumar, referring to jobs and services that exist without a storefront, union to represent the workers, or corporate structure.

Although things are changing and the economy has boomed in recent years, Indians are still emerging from poverty. Finding employment can be tough so people have literally created jobs out of sheer necessity, such as roadside dentist Kishore.

Kishore says he learned his trade from a dentist and a dental course but he does not have a degree in dentistry. He and those around him provide a service to customers who couldn't dream of affording a licensed dentist in an office.

That is just one of thousands of jobs that make up India's informal economy.
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Radha Kumari is a Mehandi artist. She uses henna to make intricate traditional designs on women's hands and feet. It's an old art that is steeped in tradition and is typically worn by brides the day before the wedding ceremony but is also popular during other Indian holidays and with tourists. She learned the trade from her sister at age 10 and started working as a teenager.

"I started doing this work because I was needy. I have no parents; my sister has done everything for me so it was very important for me to work," said Kumari, a mother of two, while she swirled henna on the hand of a customer.

She makes 25 to 50 rupees (50 cents to $1) per hand, she said. She and other henna artists are often "troubled" by city authorities or police who come to kick them off of the sidewalks or ask for bribes -- technically Kumari and others are breaking the law by setting up shop on government property.

City government authorities showed up while CNN was interviewing Kumari, causing the henna artists around her to pack up and run away.

It's a tough life. "If there can be anything better, I would definitely love to do it," she said. "Here there is no certainty. Today I'm allowed to sit here, tomorrow I may not be." But Kumari says it's better than nothing at all.

Experts say the informal economy helped keep India out of recession, since it is not tied to the global markets. While the ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit has help the Indian economy growing, the largely unregulated workforce promises to have negative impacts on the Indian economy as well, as transactions are often in cash and difficult to trace and tax.
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But the working conditions and low pay leave millions living in poverty.

"Their conditions are very poor because they have no protective gear of any kind, they have no real social security of any kind," said Arun Kumar, an economics professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University. "They face a lot of hardship of all kinds in terms of their existence, where they stay, what do they do, their health conditions, et cetera."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has been asked to investigate whether Panama tortured an Ecuadorian citizen who was being held as an illegal immigrant, an official hemispheric human rights organization said.

Jesus Tranquilino Velez Loor was arrested November 11, 2002, and deported to Ecuador on September 10, 2003. During that time, he was held without receiving procedural guarantees, the right to be heard and the right to present a defense, said the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

"The case also involves the lack of investigation of complaints of torture presented by Mr. Velez Loor before the Panamanian authorities, as well as the inhumane conditions of detention under which he was held in several Panamanian penitentiaries," the human rights commission said in a release Tuesday.

The human rights panel, which is part of the 35-nation Organization of American States, said it referred the case to the court last week because Panama did not adopt sufficient measures to address issues raised in a previous commission report.

Velez Loor "was sentenced to a prison term for having repeatedly entered Panama illegally. ... Panamanian law provides that foreign nationals, who repeatedly enter Panama, without the necessary papers, will be imprisoned for two years and then deported," Panama said in a 2006 report.

Velez Loor admitted he had gone into Panama without proper papers or visas.

The commission said it received an e-mailed complaint from Velez Loor on February 10, 2004, "in which he claims to have undergone torture, forced isolation, and mistreatment at the hands of Panamanian police officers at two Panamanian detention centers without being given the opportunity to defend himself, without the benefit of any court of law, without being allowed to make a telephone call and while being deprived of all medical care."

Panama denied those allegations in the 2006 human rights commission report.

Officials at the Panamanian embassy in Washington did not return a telephone request Tuesday from CNN for comment on the latest development.

The human rights commission consists of seven members who act in a personal capacity, without representing any country, and who are elected by the OAS General Assembly.