Reuters Politics

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization authorized Brazil Thursday to impose trade sanctions on the United States over its support for cotton, as Brazil ratcheted up pressure on Washington over the illegal subsidies. But Brazil is not yet ready to levy the sanctions, as it considers which U.S. products to target and analyses U.S. data on subsidies which will determine the size of retaliation. The formal move at the WTO's dispute settlement body (DSB) brought Brazil one step closer to retaliating against the United States, the world's biggest cotton exporter, in the highly sensitive 9-year-old row. The reduction of rich countries' cotton subsidies ... Read Full Story

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress edged closer on Wednesday to creating new government powers to break up giant financial firms, which Europe is already doing, while a U.S. derivatives market crackdown got more complicated. More than a year since the collapse of Lehman Brothers and massive government bailouts of firms such as American International Group, the Congress is slowly working its way through more than a dozen financial regulation reform proposals from the Obama administration. The House of Representatives has been up to its ears in debate and amendments for weeks, while the Senate only recently has begun to gear up for tackling ... Read Full Story

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday to boost Medicare payments to physicians in a move that could help shore up support from doctors for a sweeping Democratic-backed healthcare overhaul. The House voted 243-183 for the bill that would stop a 21 percent Medicare pay cut for doctors next year and put in place an updated payment formula that would better reward primary care physicians and reflect the sharp increase in healthcare costs. Democratic backers said the pay boost was necessary to ensure that the elderly enrolled in the government's Medicare healthcare program did not lose access to doctors. Republican ... Read Full Story

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are seeking a government investigation into recent price increases of brand-name prescription drugs, as Congress finalizes health reform overhaul. The leaders of the House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees, in a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), said they would probably seek another analysis of price trends after reform measures are implemented. The letter was sent late Tuesday after the nation's top lobbying group for elderly Americans criticized an estimated 9 percent hike in prices for some of the most-widely used medicines. Drugmakers "may be artificially raising prices for ... Read Full Story

KABUL (Reuters) - Death sentences imposed by Iran over unrest after disputed elections in June were unfortunate and distressing, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday. Iran's state broadcaster reported Tuesday five people had been sentenced to die over the post-election protests, and another 81 had received jail terms of up to 15 years. The protests, by supporters of defeated opposition candidates who accused the authorities of rigging the vote, were the worst unrest Iran had seen since its Islamic revolution in 1979. "It is a very unfortunate, distressing development to see these sentences handed down in Iran, imposing the death penalty on ... Read Full Story