WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Only 11 of the 50 U.S. states have moved to implement new consumer safeguards under President Barack Obama's healthcare law, raising questions about how major health insurance reforms will be enforced, a report released on Friday says. The report by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund found 39 states have yet to pass laws or issue regulations on seven reforms, including coverage for people with preexisting medical conditions, a ban on coverage waiting periods and limits for out-of-pocket consumer costs. ...

I stopped betting against Hillary Rodham Clinton 23 years ago when I watched her crush one man’s ambitions to preserve her husband’s career.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Civil libertarians filed suit in Alaska on Thursday to challenge an Anchorage ban on sitting or lying on public sidewalks they said was enacted partly as a response to one man's prolonged protest outside City Hall. The lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court by the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, called the 2011 ordinance a violation of the right to free speech and peaceful assembly. The suit also targets a related ban on panhandling in downtown Anchorage. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is set to meet with Syrian opposition leader Mouaz Alkhatib during a European trip in coming days and will discuss U.S. concerns about the Syrian conflict with Russia as well, White House officials said on Thursday. It would be the highest-level U.S. meeting with the Syrian opposition, which is fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad in a 22-month-old war that has killed more than 60,000 people and forced more than 700,000 to flee Syria, according to the United Nations. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday voiced doubt that Argentina and Iran's planned "truth commission" would bring to justice those responsible for the deadly 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center. Argentine courts have said Iran was behind the attack on the Jewish center, which killed 85 people. The commission agreement, announced over the weekend but subject to the approval of Argentina's Congress, outlines plans for Argentine officials to interview suspects in Iran rather than in a third country, as originally proposed by Argentina. ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's Hispanic population will equal that of whites this year before becoming the state's largest demographic group in 2014 for the first time since statehood in 1850, a government report showed on Thursday. That change in the most populous U.S. state will make it the third where whites do not comprise a plurality of the population, after New Mexico and Hawaii. The shift is occurring alongside nationwide growth in the Hispanic population, which grew to 16.7 percent of the total in 2011 from 12.5 percent in 2000, according to U.S. Census figures. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Iran and Russia on Thursday to rethink their support for Syria, saying the most dire scenarios of the conflict spilling beyond its borders could come to pass. Clinton told reporters there are signs Iran is sending more people and increasingly sophisticated weaponry to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his 22-month battle against rebels seeking to end his family's four-decades of authoritarian rule. ...

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's vice premier Jiang Yih-Huah will replace premier Sean Chen, the presidential office said in statement issued late on Thursday, as part of a cabinet reshuffle that could see a new central bank chief. Central bank chief Perng Fai-nan wants to retire as part of the reshuffle, two lawmakers told a Taiwanese television station on Thursday. A central bank official refused to comment on Perng's possible retirement. Perng's third five-year term is due to end in February. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group in the U.S. House of Representatives is attempting to craft a bill that would give millions of illegal immigrants a way to become citizens, House aides said on Thursday, mirroring an effort in the Senate. One of the aides said the House legislation would be tougher in some ways than the plan put forward on Monday by four Democrats and four Republicans in the U.S. Senate. ...