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AP Top News at 6:56 a.m. EST -Sunday, December 20, 2009

Storm continues to wallop East Coast, heads north

CHERRY HILL, N.J. (AP) - A slow-moving storm that blanketed swaths of the mid-Atlantic with nearly 2 feet of snow headed northward Sunday, continuing its assault on the East Coast after causing at least five deaths, crippling travel and leaving empty stores normally crammed with holiday shoppers. The storm approached New England on the cusp of the winter solstice, having already caused flooding in South Florida and knocked out electricity for more than 85,000 customers in the Carolinas on Friday. On Saturday, it dropped 16 inches of snow on Reagan National Airport outside Washington - the most ever recorded there for a single December day - and gave southern New Jersey its highest single-storm snowfall totals in nearly four years.

Senate Dems look to close deal on health overhaul

WASHINGTON (AP) - Outnumbered Republicans are vowing to delay passage of historic health care legislation as long as possible after jubilant Democrats locked in Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson as the 60th and decisive vote. Nelson's backing puts President Barack Obama's signature issue firmly on a path for Christmas Eve passage. Democrats will need to show 60 votes on two additional occasions, with the next - and most critical - test vote set for about 1 a.m. Monday.

Iranian dissident cleric Montazeri dies

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who emerged as the spiritual father of its reform movement, died on Sunday. He was 87. For years, Montazeri had accused the country's ruling Islamic establishment of imposing dictatorship in the name of Islam, and he persisted with his criticism following June's disputed presidential election.

China: Climate talks yielded 'positive' results

BEIJING (AP) - China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, lauded Sunday the outcome of a historic U.N. climate conference that ended with a nonbinding agreement that urges major polluters to make deeper emissions cuts - but does not require it. The international climate talks that brought more than 110 leaders together in Copenhagen produced "significant and positive" results, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said.

Senators OK defense budget bill, much left to 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate cleared its year-end plate of some must-do work Saturday as it passed a critical budget bill that blends money for the Pentagon with additional help for the jobless. The early morning 88-10 vote, taken as a blizzard buffeted the Capitol, permitted lawmakers to resume their acrimonious debate on health care, which Democrats now expect to finish by Christmas. The spending measure now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Thousands of Taiwanese protest China envoy's visit

TAICHUNG, Taiwan (AP) - Tens of thousands of opposition demonstrators marched through the streets of the central Taiwanese city of Taichung on Sunday, ahead of the arrival of a senior Chinese envoy for five days of talks with local officials. Under a leaden gray sky, the demonstrators chanted pro-independence slogans and waved anti-China banners to protest the visit of China's top Taiwan negotiator, Chen Yunlin, whom they view as a stalking horse for Beijing's proclaimed policy of bringing Taiwan back into its fold. The sides split amid civil war in 1949.

Iraq says Iranian troops left disputed oil well

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi troops escorted workers back to a remote oil well Sunday after Iranian forces withdrew as a standoff on the two countries' disputed border appeared to wane. Two Iraqi government officials and an employee at the site said about 11 oil workers returned to well No. 4 at the al-Fakkah oil field, seized by Iranian forces on Thursday. Al-Fakkah is one of the largest oil fields in Iraq, and is located in the southern province of Maysan.

March over: Cowboys send Saints to first loss

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A perfect record would have been lagniappe, as they say in Louisiana - a little something extra. The history-making achievement the Saints and their fans really covet is a first Super Bowl appearance, which is all that's left to accomplish now that Tony Romo and Dallas ended their December doldrums at New Orleans' expense.

White-collar jobless join FedEx, UPS for holidays

NEW YORK (AP) - Ed Gullo never thought he'd be on this side of a package delivery. Gullo, 61, of Newburgh, N.Y., is driving a truck for FedEx during the holiday shipping rush that started after Thanksgiving. Gullo is no veteran truck driver. He's a news writer with experience at ABC and CNN, who found gigs hard to come by in the weak economy.

Report: Kevin Jonas, ex-hairdresser marry in NY

NEW YORK (AP) - A report says the oldest sibling of pop group the Jonas Brothers and a former hairdresser have married at a French-style chateau in suburban New York. People magazine reported a heavy snowstorm bore down on Saturday's wedding between 22-year-old Kevin Jonas and 23-year-old Danielle Delesea at Oheka Castle, a 109,000-square-foot estate in Cold Spring Harbor.

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