Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) signaled Sunday that he is ready to give up on a bipartisan health-care plan, and that Obama is also considering “alternatives” to a Republican-approved reform bill. On NBC's Meet the Press, Schumer said Obama and Democratic leaders are "bending over backward" to create a bipartisan bill, but might have to resort to a "reconciliation" process to pass reforms if Republicans don't come around. The bill, which Schumer said would most likely include the public-health-care option declared essential by many Democrats, could be passed with only 51 votes in the Senate through budget reconciliation. 

Ryan Jenkins, the reality TV contestant wanted in the murder of his model wife, has been found dead in a motel in British Columbia, police say. He "took his own life," according to Canadian police, after being on the lam over the weekend. Jenkins was found hanging in the room. His wife Jasmine Fiore's mutilated body was found in a suitcase in a dumpster in Buena Park, California. Her fingers and teeth were removed in order to hinder identification, police said, but the serial number on her breast implants was used to identify her. Jenkins' boat was found in a Washington marina, so police suspected he had crossed over to British Columbia on foot, and was hiding out there. Jenkins pleaded guilty to assault in 2007 in Calgary, and underwent counseling for sex addiction and domestic abuse.

The freedom of the Lockerbie bomber last week has incited public outrage—but no one is sure who to blame. Saif Gadaffi, son of the Libyan leader, lobbied for the release of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, who is suffering from terminal cancer, and saw to it that he received a “hero’s welcome” when he landed in Tripoli on Thursday. But Gadaffi couldn’t do it alone: He has friends in high places, including a close connection with British Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, with whom he has met twice in the last four months. Though Mandelson’s spokesman denies that he lobbied for al-Megrahi’s release, the secretary has admitted to a string of powerful connections in the past. Despite denials, many people are questioning Lord Mandelson’s role in the release. Mandelson insists that he didn't influence the Scottish justice secretary to free the prisoner. He says that he met with Gaddafi only “fleetingly,” but the two were together at Lord Rothschild’s estate in Corfu just a week before it was announced that al-Megrahi would go free. Lord Mandelson’s spokesman said the secretary hopes to see more of Gaddafi soon. The leader of Britain's Conservative Party, David Cameron, has called for Prime MInister Gordon Brown to take a stand on the issue.

New England’s in a tizzy—after a slight delay due to Hurricane Bill, the Obama family has finally begun their weeklong stay in Martha’s Vineyard. After arriving at the Air Station in Cape Cod, they boarded a helicopter headed for the Blue Heron Farm in Chilmark. The first family had a few lookie-loos—dozens of people took photos of their motorcade, and kids and adults sat on vans and convertibles to view them rolling by, some even holding signs that said “Aloha Obama Family,” reports the Cape Cod Times. There are still rumors that the president will stop to visit ailing Senator Edward Kennedy at the family compound in Hyannisport—although a source at Politico.com says there are no plans yet for an Obama visit.

David Cameron, the leader of Britain's Conservative Party, has urged Prime Minister Gordon Brown to take a stand on the Scottish justice secretary's decision to release the Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds. "It is curious that while others have commented, Britain's own prime minister has not," Cameron wrote in a letter to Brown. He said the "public are entitled to know" whether Brown thinks the release was right or wrong, and mentioned that Colonel Gaddafi's son has publicly thanked the British government, which raises "questions about the British government's role." Brown’s foreign minister has refused to comment on the decision. Scenes of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi’s hero’s welcome at Tripoli airport on his return to Libya have raised outrage in the U.S.

President Obama's aides sent a sharply worded message to New York Gov. David Paterson, reprimanding him for dropping Obama's name into an angry speech on the radio about the media's anti-black bias, the New York Post reports. "The next victim on the list—and you see it coming—is President Barack Obama," Paterson said of the media bias, referring to Obama's efforts to reform health care. Within hours of the show airing, White House political director Patrick Gaspard called the governor's deputy secretary to ask why Paterson "was dragging the president into" his troubles. Paterson is New York's first black governor and has suffered abysmal popularity ratings, which he suggested might have been "orchestrated" by an anti-black media on the show. On Friday, Paterson released a clarifying statement about his remarks. "What I did point out was that certain media outlets have engaged in coverage that exploits racial stereotypes," he said.

It has been a tough August for Barack Obama, but it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier. His departure from Washington for a week’s vacation on Martha’s Vineyard was delayed Sunday morning with the arrival of high winds brought by Hurricane Bill. Once he gets to the island, things may not be much better. Officials are expecting nearly 20-foot-high swells and winds around 100 mph. Take note, first family: Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said, “Waters may be unsafe even for strong swimmers.” The brunt of the storm should arrive offshore as it makes its way to Nova Scotia this weekend.

Although Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination as Health secretary months ago, the former senator is exercising tremendous influence on the shaping of the health-care bill from behind the scenes, The New York Times reports. Daschle began promoting the nonprofit insurance cooperative plan two months ago as a politically feasible way to pass reforms. Now, Senate leaders and President Obama are moving toward that plan and away from the public option, to the dismay of the left wing. Daschle is a highly paid adviser to health-care industry clients of a law and lobbying firm, though he is not a registered lobbyist himself. Critics say his advisory role to the White House is inappropriate, due to his lobbying ties. But Obama and Daschle met as recently as Friday, and Daschle was introduced at one event as "the architect of President Obama's health-care plan." Daschle says he favors a government-run insurance plan, but doesn't think it could pass, and that his support for a nonprofit cooperative model has nothing to do with the interests of his industry clients.

It’s been a whirlwind year for Elizabeth Edwards. Her husband admitted an affair with Rielle Hunter, and she’s been battling breast cancer. But, after a long book tour to promote Resilience, she is turning over a new leaf—and opening up a furniture store. At Red Window, in Chapel Hill, N.C., she’ll sell furniture at wholesale prices. Edwards says she was inspired by a charity furniture store her mother ran when she was a child. John Edwards attended the grand opening on Saturday in a T-shirt, and was all smiles about his wife’s new endeavor. Though he is in the middle of a federal investigation over campaign finances—and reports have surfaced that he has secretly taken a DNA test to determine the paternity of Hunter’s child—Edwards says he is focused on supporting his wife and the store. Said Elizabeth: “We just have a family to run and now a business to run as well, so we just keep our eye on that ball and try to ignore what supermarket tabloids have to say.”

President Obama's had a tough summer, but he's also playing without a full team. Of more than 500 of his top appointee positions that require Senate confirmation, fewer than half have been filled, in part because the White House grew more cautious after disastrous confirmation attempts in the spring. A few of the high-level positions left empty: assistant Treasury secretary for financial markets, inspector general, Army secretary, and the head of the Agency for International Development. Hillary Clinton has expressed frustration at the slow vetting process. “The clearance and vetting process is a nightmare,” Clinton said last month. “And it takes far longer than any of us would want to see. It is frustrating beyond words.” Assembling a new administration is a difficult and slow process for any president. Eight years ago, George W. Bush received the now-famous "Bin Laden Determined to Strike U.S." memo when he still didn't have most of his national-security team in place.

You certainly don’t see this every day—or ever: A Frenchman and former spy convicted of “economic misdeeds” made a daring escape from the United Arab Emirates last summer by hiding a wetsuit under a burqa and swimming to a police patrol boat. Herve Jaugbert alleged that Dubai police were going to throw him in jail for a crime he did not commit, so the 53-year-old put on a full-length diving suit (complete with breathing equipment) and swam to a nearby coast guard station, escaping his sentence. He transferred to a dinghy, and then met with a former French agent and the two sailed to Mumbai, reports the Daily Mail. He now lives in Florida with his wife and two children, and says if he hadn’t left, “he’d be stuck in the same nightmare as the others”—the expatriate businessmen stuck in Dubai for alleged “economic crimes.” And the pictures of the burly, burqa-clad man? They need to be seen to be believed.

It was an unexpectedly good weekend for the controversial Quentin Tarantino flick  Inglourious Basterds, which took in a surprising $37.6 million haul. Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who have faced questions about their company's viability since leaving Miramax in 2005, released a thrilled statement about the film's success. "This is a film that wowed audiences the way that only Quentin Tarantino can,” they said. “We look forward to a great run in the U.S. and continued success around the world." Most of their pictures have grossed less than $1 million worldwide. Basterds, with its $70 million budget and big-name star, Brad Pitt, was seen as a make-or-break film for the company.

Iraq's Foreign Minister had a shocking announcement Saturday--he suspects the country's own security forces of being complicit with the coordinated attack on Wednesday that killed more than 100 people, including many of his employees. "The operation was organized and planned for months," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said. "I don't rule out that there was collaboration by the security forces." Zebari, a Kurd, accused Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's administration of overestimating its ability to protect its citizens out of pride when it removed a line of concrete walls around the Foreign Ministry. Wednesday's attacks on the foreign and finance ministries were the deadliest since the June 30 withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Pakistan's Taliban has chosen a new leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, a close associate of ex-chief Baitullah Mehsud, who is believed to be dead from a U.S. predator drone attack. The Taliban continues to deny his death, but tapped Hakimullah anyway, saying Biatullah wanted to see a new leader before he died of ill health. The new leader is in his late 20s, and controls about 2,000 fighters in a region of Pakistan. Hakimullah Mehsud is said to be as ruthless as his predecessor. There were rumors of shoot-outs and infighting in the past weeks as the organization scrambled to anoint a new leader after Baitullah’s death.

There have been hundreds of complaints of fraud since the polls opened Tuesday for Afghanistan’s presidential election. Millions of Afghanis voted despite threat of attack from the Taliban, and reports that insurgents in the Kandahar province cut off the ink-stained fingers of two voters. President Hamid Karzai’s top challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, told the Associated Press Saturday that he believed Karzai rigged the election. A U.N. official said the most common complaint has been ballot-box tampering. There are also allegations that supposedly independent monitors at election sites attempted to influence the voting. Karzai dismissed Abdullah’s complaint, while Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, said the allegations are to be expected. "We have disputed elections in the United States. There may be some questions here. That wouldn't surprise me at all,” he said. "But let's not get out ahead of the situation."

Does the Devil really wear Prada? The September Issue, a new documentary on Anna Wintour, explores whether the Vogue editor is really the ice queen she seems. It documents the process of putting together the magazine’s September issue in 2008—which, at four pounds, nine ounces, weighed “as much as a preemie” and was stuffed with a prelapsarian 727 ad pages. In her weekly column, Maureen Dowd writes, “The Vogue team and the moviemakers didn’t know they were dancing on the deck of the Titanic” when they made the movie. And following the film’s premiere last week, Dowd observes Anna Wintour from a “stiletto’s throw away” at Monkey Bar in New York. In an effort to discover what the “Skinny One” eats, Dowd told a waiter: “I’ll have what she’s having,” only to have him suggest something more appropriate, like a buttered tart. It ultimately doesn’t matter, however, whether Wintour is really a devil in Prada. Concludes Dowd: “We enjoy the editrix as dominatrix."

The International Committee of the Red Cross will now know the identities of prisoners kept in secret in Iraq and Afghanistan camps, in a reversal of the Pentagon's policy. The move will begin to dispel some of the secrecy surrounding the government's remaining overseas prisons. The Red Cross has been fighting for access to the information, but the military previously said disclosing prisoners' names would tip off other insurgents. The New York Times reported in 2006 that in one detention camp in Iraq, prisoners were used for "target practice" in jailer paintball games. The military says conditions have improved since then. About 30 to 40 prisoners have been held in the Iraq camp at one time, and there are fewer prisoners in the Afghanistan camp, officials said. The Red Cross has been allowed to track the prisoners since last month, though no formal announcement was made of the decision.

Everyone knows Daphne Guinness by her trademark blond-and-black hair, but who really knows what she does? In a profile in this Sunday’s Telegraph, Lucy Cavendish writes that Guinness is a socialite with an impressive wardrobe and even more impressive Rolodex, and is rumored to be dating French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, who is still married to the French actress Arielle Dombasle. She’s a descendent of the Guinness dynasty, and was married to the shipping heir Spyros Niarchos before she split from him in 1999. For the duration of their marriage, they jetted around the world—and Guinness says she didn’t see friends or family at all for 15 years. “Suddenly I had to start all over again and it was very frightening,” she said of her divorce. “It was like coming out of a time capsule.” Her remedy, she has found, is fashion, which she sees as “an extension of self.” She’s recently designed a new scent, “Daphne,” with Comme des Garçons. According to her, Lévy says: ‘You are no longer a person, you have become a concept.’"

Barack Obama’s millions of activists and volunteers, who helped put the candidate in the White House last November, are struggling to regain their footing in the battle over health care. One man is responsible for making sure that happens: Jeremy Bird, the deputy director of Organizing for America and guardian of the 13 million email addresses Obama picked up during the campaign. "We need to flex our muscles on this, and we need to act fast," Bird told The Washington Post. "We always said in the campaign that this was not just about one election but about a chance to make some major changes. Well, here's the chance." Bird has organized visits to congressional offices, where volunteers have crowded waiting rooms, hoping to express to support for health-care legislation. He has also asked activists to head to as many town-hall meetings as possible, aiming to drown out, or at least equal, anti-reform voices at the events.

Rioting at a central Kentucky prison left four inmates hospitalized and a correction facility burning into the night. Seven hundred prisoners were forced to leave and taken to secure buildings across the state, where many are double-bunking or sleeping in gyms. The melee injured eight staff members and eight prisoners. Officials would not say what caused the riot but did say the prisoners set trash cans and other items on fire Friday afternoon. Officers in riot gear were called and Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear said of the chaos: “Their work last night in the face of the most trying circumstances was truly remarkable.” The prison, which opened in 1983 and has a staff of 285, has a general population of 1,100 inmates.

The 7-year-old daughter of a New York investment banker died after a rogue wave kicked up by Hurricane Bill knocked her and her father into the ocean. The girl, Clio Axilrod, was visiting Acadia National Park with her parents, and she and her family were standing near a tourist platform that overlooks the water called Thunder Hole, which had been closed due to rough waves. About 20 people standing on the platform were hit by the wave, and at least three were dragged into the water. A total of 11 people were taken to the hospital, The Portland Press Herald reports. The girl's father is in intensive care in a Bangor hospital. He reportedly doted on Clio, who was adopted from China, and would have dived in to save her if  he hadn't also been dragged in by the monster wave. Hurricane Bill passed 300 miles southeast of the area.