U.S. health bill passes crucial Senate test

A broad healthcare overhaul passed its first crucial test in the U.S. Senate on Monday, with 60 Democrats voting to put President Barack Obama's top legislative priority on a path to passage by Christmas.

In a middle-of-the-night vote in a snowbound U.S. capital, Democrats unanimously backed the first in a series of three procedural motions to cut off debate and move the bill to a final vote by at least Christmas Eve.

Monday's vote was the first test of whether Democrats could secure the 60 votes needed to overcome unified Republican opposition and muscle healthcare reform through the Senate.

Republicans acknowledged they could not stop the bill, which would spark the biggest changes in the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system since the 1965 creation of the Medicare health program for the elderly.

The bitter healthcare debate has consumed the U.S. Congress for months and raised the stakes for Obama, with his political standing and legislative agenda on the line less than a year into his first term.

The Senate cast the vote in a formal roll call, with senators calling out their votes from their desk. Democrats hugged and shook hands in celebration afterward, while Republicans headed home quickly.

Democrats were assured of victory on Saturday after their last holdout, Senator Ben Nelson, agreed to a compromise ensuring federal funds would not be used to pay for abortions and sending extra healthcare money to his home state of Nebraska.

With 60 votes in hand, the only drama in the early Monday vote was whether all of the Democrats would make it through the snow-packed streets of Washington to the Capitol.

North. Korea says may open fire near border

North Korea Monday warned South Korean ships to avoid the disputed Yellow Sea border area where a clash broke out last month, saying its coastal artillery would target the area in firing exercises.

Tensions have remained high off the west coast since a brief but intense gunfight on November 10 left a North Korean patrol boat in flames. There were deadly naval gun battles there in 1999 and 2002.

The North refuses to accept the border known as the Northern Limit Line which was drawn by United Nations forces after the 1950-53 war.

It demands the border be drawn further to the south and said Monday it would recognize only its own frontier line.

The North has long been bitterly hostile to the conservative government which took office in Seoul in February 2008 and which scrapped a policy of near-unconditional aid. But relations had been improving recently.

Last Friday South Korea shipped swine flu medicine worth 15 million dollars to its impoverished neighbor, the first direct government aid for nearly two years.

Big crowd turns out for Iran cleric's funeral

Tens of thousands of people have turned out for the funeral on Monday of Iran's leading dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, an Iranian website reported.

The Ayande website, seen as close to conservative politician (SAID),a car carrying Montazeri's body had left his home in the holy city of Qom for the funeral procession.

People gathering near Montazeri's home and in surrounding streets shouted slogans in support of the cleric, a fierce critic of the Islamic Republic's hardline leadership.

The report could not be independently verified. as foreign media have been banned from travelling to Qom for the event.

Meanwhile, Internet connection slowed to a crawl, as has been the case whenever the authorities anticipate opposition demonstrations.

Montazeri is to be buried in the shrine of Masoumeh, a revered Shiite figure, in Qom, All Media have been banned from covering the ceremony.

Once designated as the successor to the founder of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Montazeri came out in bold support of the Iranian opposition when it rejected the re-election of Ahmadinejad in June.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offered condolences to his family although Montazeri was also critical of him and questioned his credentials for being the country's highest religious authority.

Montazeri had long been critical of the concentration of power in the hands of the supreme leader and called for changes to the constitution, which he helped draw up after the 1979 Islamic revolution, to limit his authority.

The grand ayatollah also often criticised hardliner Ahmadinejad over his domestic and foreign policies, including Tehran's nuclear standoff with the West.