From Kevin Flower
CNN
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(CNN) -- The United Nations Human Rights Council will hold a special session Thursday to reopen discussion of Israel's three-week offensive against the Islamic militant group Hamas in Gaza.
In his speech Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the report an "absurd claim."

In his speech Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the report an "absurd claim."

According to a statement from the council, the meeting request came from the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and is co-sponsored by 18 members of the 47-member body based in Geneva, Switzerland.

The council commissioned South African Judge Richard Goldstone to lead a fact-finding mission into the hostilities in Gaza that lasted from December 27, 2008, to January 18, 2009.

Goldstone's group issued a report last month which concluded that both Israel and Hamas had committed "actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity."

The council received the report September 29, but took no action, after a request by the Palestinian Authority to defer discussion for six months.

The Palestinian Authority government of Mahmoud Abbas came under withering criticism by Gaza Palestinians for the move.

Abbas defended his request in a televised speech Sunday and vowed to work "to punish everyone who was responsible for the hideous crimes committed against our children, our men and women -- especially in our dear Gaza."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a speech Monday at the opening session of the Knesset, called the war crimes charge "an absurd claim."
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"We will not agree to a situation where the [Israel Defense Forces] commanders and soldiers will be treated as war criminals after valorously defending the citizens of Israel against a loathsome enemy," he said.

Netanyahu said that if the report ultimately is referred to the U.N. Security Council or the International Criminal Court, it would deliver "a mortal blow" to the peace process.

There is an ongoing dispute about the number of people killed in the three-week military offensive that Israel called Operation Cast Lead.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights put the death toll at 1,419 and said 1,167 of those were "non-combatants."

The Israeli military released its own figures earlier this year, claiming 1,166 people were killed, and 60 percent of those were "terror operatives."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry said Tuesday he will offer a new explanation and clarification of a $7.5-billion Pakistan aid bill that has prompted a firestorm of anti-American sentiment inside Pakistan.
A member of an Islamic fundamentalist party protests the aid bill October 2 in Pakistan.

A member of an Islamic fundamentalist party protests the aid bill October 2 in Pakistan.

Opponents say the United States is meddling in Pakistani affairs.

Kerry, D-Massachusetts and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stood beside Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday afternoon to announce that he and other congressional leaders would release what Kerry called "report language with the force of law" to clear up questions about the nonmilitary aid bill.

The explanation would accompany the bill, which was passed unanimously by the House and Senate, when it is formally sent to President Obama to sign into law, something that could happen in coming days.

"If there are misrepresentations, we're going to clarify this," Kerry told reporters after he and Qureshi met in private.

The United States says the aid bill makes no new demands on Pakistan, but some Pakistani politicians say it will result in American micromanagement of Pakistan civil and military affairs.

Kerry said the multibillion-dollar aid package would provide "deeper, broader, long-term engagement with the people of Pakistan." He said the aid is a sign of friendship and was never intended to interfere with Pakistan's government.
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Kerry and the Pakistani foreign minister are set to meet again Wednesday. The statement of clarification will probably be submitted jointly by Kerry; Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee; and Rep. Howard Berman, D-California and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

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.

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.