SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California's revenue in February was $480 million or 8.7 percent above the estimate in Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's state budget plan, so tax refunds should be paid on time, State Controller John Chiang said on Wednesday.

ST. CHARLES, Missouri (Reuters) - President Barack Obama declared on Wednesday the "time for talk is over" and urged the Congress to vote on healthcare as his health secretary directly challenged insurers to forgo profits to make coverage more affordable.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the House of Representatives moved on Wednesday to limit the ability of lawmakers to tuck pet projects into spending bills amid mounting election-year ethics concerns.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Wednesday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had told him he would not enter indirect talks with Israel, only days after the Palestinian side had agreed to the contacts.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim is the world's richest person, knocking Microsoft founder Bill Gates into second spot, as the wealth of the world's billionaires grew by 50 percent over the last year, Forbes magazine said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With Governor David Paterson enveloped in scandal, New York's lieutenant governor is leading the notoriously difficult budget process and freeing up his boss to fight for his political life, experts say.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three American detained in Iran last year and accused of spying have been allowed to telephone their families, although formal consular access has not been granted, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Federal regulators said they were looking into a report of another runaway Toyota Prius, this one in Westchester County, New York, where police said a woman pulling out of a driveway zoomed across a busy street and into a stone wall.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania woman has been charged with plotting to kill a Swedish man and trying to recruit fighters via the Internet to commit violent attacks overseas, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.

JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Sporadic shooting rang out overnight in the central Nigerian city of Jos and witnesses said at least one person was killed by soldiers enforcing a curfew days after attacks on three nearby Christian villages.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Initial results from Iraq's national election are likely to be released by Thursday, Iraqi and U.N. officials said on Wednesday, as further signs emerged of a strong showing for Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland's opposition turned up the heat on the center-left government on Wednesday to hold out for a tough new "Icesave" debt accord with Britain and the Netherlands, after a referendum rejection of its previous deal.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will on Wednesday propose to force banks to reveal how many of their staff earn top wages, in steps that go further than previous proposals, financial services minister Paul Myners said.

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday he believed Britain would maintain its coveted top credit rating and announced a pay freeze for senior civil servants and military officers to help tame a record deficit.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. economists raised their forecast for economic growth in 2010 in March, the third straight monthly rise, while trimming their growth forecast for 2011, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

CANBERRA/JAKARTA (Reuters) - A suspected mastermind of the Bali bombings was killed in a police raid in Indonesia in the latest blow to an Islamist militant movement in the world's most populous Muslim country.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Media reports that Tiger Woods is working with his swing coach Hank Haney have leading golfers talking of a possible return to action for the world number one.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden publicly scolded Israel on Wednesday over a Jewish settlement plan, saying it was undermining peace efforts after Palestinians agreed to U.S.-mediated talks.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A television producer pleaded guilty on Tuesday to trying to extort $2 million from U.S. talk show host David Letterman by threatening to reveal his affairs with women who worked on his late-night program on CBS.

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations human rights investigators called on the Obama administration on Tuesday to prosecute the accused September 11 masterminds in a civilian court, declaring that U.S. military tribunals would not be fair.

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. and Russian arms control officials began on Tuesday what both sides hope will be a final push to clinch a treaty cutting their strategic nuclear arsenals, officials said.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FRONTENAC, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told troops in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday they would soon be part of a "decisive phase" in the war -- an operation to impose control over the Taliban heartland of Kandahar province.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday condemned Israeli plans to build 1,600 more homes on occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood, announced in the middle of his visit to help revive peace negotiations.

LONDON (Reuters) - No political party has enough support to win outright control of parliament in Britain's forthcoming election, raising the prospect of a period of unstable minority government, opinion polls showed on Tuesday.

JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria must prosecute those behind a weekend massacre and address underlying issues of poverty and discrimination if it is to end a cycle of violence in the zone between its Muslim north and Christian south, rights groups and diplomats said.

LUXEMBOURG/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European policy makers played down on Tuesday the idea of creating a European Monetary Fund, saying it was at most a long-term project that did not offer a solution to Greece's immediate debt problems.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp on Monday sought to discredit an outside study critical of its electronic safety systems and said it had found no flaw with its throttle controls.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama launched a sharp attack on health insurers on Monday and called on his fellow Democrats to rise above politics and pass a healthcare overhaul in the next few weeks.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new poll on Monday found signs of trouble ahead for President Barack Obama and his Democrats on national security issues such as the handling of terrorism suspects.

LISBON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Portugal became the latest euro zone country to announce austerity measures to rein in a ballooning budget deficit on Monday as debt-stricken Greece urged global action to curb speculation in credit default swaps.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden began a visit to Israel and the West Bank on Monday, assuring Israelis in a newspaper interview that Washington would close ranks with them against any threat from a nuclear-armed Iran.

KABUL (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates cautioned against over-optimism despite "bits and pieces of good news" from Afghanistan, warning of hard days ahead as he arrived on Monday to meet generals and President Hamid Karzai.

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan's Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack on a police intelligence unit in the eastern city of Lahore that killed at least 13 people during Monday's morning rush hour.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Greece will not need foreign help to deal with its debt problems, central bank governor George Provopoulos said in a German newspaper interview released Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama dispatched his vice president to the Middle East on Sunday to try to build support for reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks despite deep skepticism on both sides.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cablevision Systems Corp customers were able to watch the live broadcast of the Oscars on Sunday after the cable company reached a last-minute deal to return WABC-TV to air in a dispute over fees.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Turnout in Iraq's parliamentary election was 62 percent, higher than in last year's provincial ballot, despite attempts by Sunni Islamist insurgents to disrupt the vote with attacks that killed 39, officials said on Monday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Yorkers were in suspense on Sunday afternoon over whether they would get to watch the 2010 Oscars telecast as Cablevision Systems Corp and Walt Disney Co's ABC had not yet agreed on a new contract.

KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistani security agents have arrested an American al Qaeda spokesman wanted in the United States for treason for threatening violence unless al Qaeda demands are met, Pakistani officials said on Sunday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Academy Awards have long been dominated by men and their movies, but Hollywood's women may steal the spotlight Sunday when the final curtain falls on the top film honors watched around the world.

HARARE (Reuters) - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Sunday Zimbabwe should invite international observers and a peacekeeping force to ensure that its next national election is free and fair.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's top healthcare official on Sunday seized on a new report to urge quick passage of healthcare reform legislation, but a top Democrat said they did not yet have the votes in Congress.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Government planners and international experts are racing to produce a blueprint this week to reconstruct Haiti's economy after the earthquake that killed up to 300,000 people and devastated its infrastructure.

SANAA (Reuters) - An al Qaeda suspect tried to shoot his way out of hospital in Yemen's capital on Sunday and killed a guard, while security forces and separatists clashed in the south of the country with five wounded.

MARJAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai made an unannounced visit to the southern town of Marjah Sunday, promising angry elders that he will rebuild the former Taliban stronghold after a big NATO operation.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Sunday it will bolster its atomic arsenal and was no longer bound by the cease fire that ended the Korean War due to joint U.S.-South Korean military drills, which start this week.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, speaking at a rare news conference in Tehran, has urged Iraqis to take part in Sunday's election to help pave the way for Iraq's "liberation" from U.S. forces.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp will start operating its new plant in Mississippi as early as June 2011, the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper said on Sunday, as the Japanese automaker works to regain trust in the United States.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bomb blasts and rocket and mortar fire killed 38 people as Iraqis voted on Sunday in an election they hoped would distance their nascent democracy from years of sectarian slaughter as U.S. troops pack up to leave.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Sunday that relations with the United States had been "seriously disrupted," after a rise in friction between the two big powers.