WORLD briefs

WASHINGTON. Barack Obama pledged Wednesday that health care legislation he is seeking will bar insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions and include numerous provisions to hold down the cost of care for consumers.

With the president traveling to two states, a sheet produced at the House said insurance companies would have to obey limits on the out-of-pocket costs they could demand, and would not be permitted to charge co-pays or other fees for preventive care they would offer, such as checkups or mammograms.

NEW YORK. One of the 44 people arrested last week in a sweeping federal probe of political corruption and money laundering in New Jersey that netted several city mayors and rabbis has been found dead in suspicious circumstances, authorities said.

Jack Shaw, 61, a longtime Democratic political consultant, was discovered dead at his Jersey City home on Tuesday afternoon in circumstances Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio called "suspicious."

MADRID. A car bomb exploded outside a Civil Guard barracks in the northern Spanish city of Burgos on Wednesday, injuring 46 people, including children, in an attack authorities blamed on Basque separatist rebels ETA.

TURKS AND CAICOS. Rescue teams scanned the clear blue waters off the Turks and Caicos Islands Wednesday with fading hopes of finding dozens of Haitian migrants whose sailboat struck a reef, causing it to shatter amongst the waves.

Authorities have rescued more than 100 people, some clinging to the sharp reefs that surround the Atlantic archipelago, but "the more time the human body spends in the water, the opportunity for survival grows less," said U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer Johnson.

OCOTAL, Nicaragua. The U.S. government has turned up the pressure on the interim government of Honduras to accept the return of exiled President Manuel Zelaya, suspending the diplomatic visas of four Honduran officials a month after a military coup. The interim regime showed no signs of relenting, saying the suspensions would have no effect.