1. House Republicans scrap direct vote on Senate payroll tax plan.
Congress showed little sign Tuesday morning of resolving its partisan standoff over the payroll tax-cut extension as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives refused to hold a vote on a Senate proposal, and leaders in the Democratic-controlled Senate insisted they won't go along with a new House plan. As the clock ticked down on a particularly acrimonious legislative year, nobody seemed to know how to break the logjam. The Senate voted 89-10 in favor of a two-month tax-cut extension on Saturday, but that short-term compromise has slammed into a conservative roadblock in the House, where rank-and-file Republicans are fuming over the short-term nature of the plan, among other things.
2. S. Korea expresses sympathy to N. Korean people.
The South Korean government expressed its sympathy to the people of North Korea following the death of Kim Jong Il, South Korea's unification minister said Tuesday. In a televised press conference, Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik also said Seoul will not send a government delegation to North Korea. However, the South will allow bereaved family members of the late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the late Hyundai Group Chairman Chung Mong-hun to visit the North in return for a visit by North Korean delegates to the funerals of the two South Korean figures.
3. Women march in Cairo to protest violence.
Egypt's capital remained engulfed in tension on Tuesday, as security forces and protesters clashed and demonstrators at a "Million Women" march railed against the regime and assaults on citizens. Security forces wielding batons, firearms and tear gas attacked defiant protesters Tuesday on the fifth consecutive day of clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square, witnesses told CNN. Sherif Barakat, a businessman, heard machine gun fire early in the morning and saw the unrest from the balcony of his home above Tahrir Square. He saw security forces charge, firing tear gas and beating people with batons.