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AP Top News at 3:36 a.m. EST

Senate Democrats at odds over health care bill

WASHINGTON (AP) - Moderate Senate Democrats threatened Sunday to scuttle health-care legislation if their demands aren't met, while more liberal members warned their party leaders not to bend. The dispute among Democrats foretells of a rowdy floor debate next month on legislation that would extend health care coverage to roughly 31 million Americans. Republicans have already made clear they aren't supporting the bill.

Miners' families want answers in China mine blast

HEGANG, China (AP) - Grieving miners' families demanded answers Monday from mining officials about the underground gas explosion that left at least 104 men dead in northeastern China. The massive blast Saturday in Hegang city in frigid Heilongjiang province erupted at night when some 500 miners were working below ground. Most escaped, but 104 were confirmed dead and an additional four were missing and feared dead, the official Xinhua news agency reported Monday.

Kennedy dispute reveals divide among Catholics

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A bitter dispute over abortion that prompted Rhode Island's Roman Catholic bishop to ask Rep. Patrick Kennedy not to receive Holy Communion has revealed the depth of the divide among Catholics over how politicians should reconcile their faith with their public duties. Bishop Thomas Tobin on Sunday said he made the request because of the Democratic lawmaker's support for abortion rights. The news prompted debate among Catholics around the country and within the bishop's flock in the nation's most Catholic state about whether it was right for Tobin to publicly shame Kennedy for breaking with the church on what its leaders consider a paramount moral issue.

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FBI wants public's help in civil rights killings
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Over the last three years, the FBI scoured faded documents, interviewed aging lawmen and tracked down witnesses from killings that occurred decades ago, many of them involving white police officers who shot black men or teenagers. Now, the agency is at a dead end in the search for relatives in at least 33 civil rights-era cases, and the FBI needs the public's help. Agents are appealing for relatives of the victims to come forward, the latest challenge in a three-year-old effort to right historical wrongs.

Lawyer: 9/11 defendants want platform for views

NEW YORK (AP) - The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday. Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer for accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but "would explain what happened and why they did it."

NRC: Three Mile Island radiation not significant
MIDDLETOWN, Pa. (AP) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the small amount of radiation detected at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant is not significant. Specialist John White has told ABC News that there is no indication that radiation at the plant exceeded or even approached regulatory limits.

Iran begins war games to protect nuclear sites
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran on Sunday began large-scale air defense war games aimed at protecting its nuclear facilities from attack, state TV reported, as an air force commander boasted the country could deter any military strike by Israel. It said the five-day drill will cover an area a third of the size of Iran and spread across the central, western and southern parts of the country.

Study: kids watching hours of TV at home daycare
SEATTLE (AP) - Parents who thought their preschoolers were spending time in home-based day cares, taking naps, eating healthy snacks and learning to play nicely with others may be surprised to discover they are sitting as many as two hours a day in front of a TV, according to a study published Monday. When added to the two to three hours many parents already admit to allowing at home, preschoolers in child care may be spending more than a third of the about 12 hours they are awake each day in front of the electronic baby sitter, said Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle and a researcher at the University of Washington.

Michael Jackson wins 4 at AMAs; Swift top artist

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Michael Jackson made history by posthumously winning four American Music Awards on Sunday night, but he couldn't beat Taylor Swift as the year's favorite artist and the evening's top winner. The 19-year-old took the show's top award, giving Jackson his only loss of the night, and giving her five trophies in all.

Johnson wins 4th straight NASCAR championship

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) - Jimmie Johnson was chasing much more than a championship. He was also chasing NASCAR history.