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than a dozen countries.
• The plane left from Vienna shortly before noon Wednesday.
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Obama administration delays central element of health care law until after 2014 elections
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's health care law, hailed as his most significant legislative achievement, seems to be losing much of its sweep.
• On Tuesday, the administration unexpectedly announced a one-year delay, until after the 2014 elections, in a central requirement of the law that medium and large companies provide coverage for their workers or face fines.
• Separately, opposition in the states from Republican governors and legislators has steadily undermined a Medicaid expansion that had been expected to provide coverage to some 15 million low-income people.
• Tuesday's move -- which caught administration allies and adversaries by surprise -- sacrificed timely implementation of Obama's signature legislation but might help Democrats politically by blunting an election-year line of attack Republicans were planning to use. The employer requirements are among the most complex parts of the health care law, designed to expand coverage for uninsured Americans.
• "We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively," Treasury Assistant Secretary Mark Mazur said in a blog post. "We have listened to your feedback and we are taking action."
• ___
Investigators examining Arizona blaze that killed 19 firefighters looking at what went wrong
• PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) -- Three days after 19 firefighters perished in a wildfire, questions over what exactly went wrong loomed largest.
• Investigators from across the U.S. will be working this week to try to answer that, examining radio logs, the site of the tragedy, and weather reports. They'll also surely be talking to the sole survivor of the blaze, who warned his fellow firefighters and friends when he saw the wildfire switch directions and head straight for them.
• In the nation's biggest loss of firefighters since 9/11, violent wind gusts on Sunday turned what was believed to be a relatively manageable lightning-ignited forest fire in the town of Yarnell into a death trap that left no escape for the team of Hotshots, most of them in the prime of their lives.
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