-- A major earthquake struck southern Haiti on Tuesday, knocking down buildings and power lines and inflicting what its ambassador to the United States called a catastrophe for the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.

Several eyewitnesses reported heavy damage and bodies in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, where concrete-block homes line steep hillsides. There was no estimate of the dead and wounded Tuesday evening, but the U.S. State Department has been told to expect "serious loss of life," department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington.

"The only thing I can do now is pray and hope for the best," the ambassador, Raymond Alcide Joseph, told CNN.

Pictures sent to CNN's iReport show what appear to be homes and small businesses in Haiti that have collapsed

TRENTON -- The battle between Gov. Jon Corzine and Gov.-elect Chris Christie over lame-duck nominations has ended.

Corzine and Christie have reached an agreement that will end the hostilities that had marked the gubernatorial transition, the governor's office announced today.

“The Governor-Elect and I concur that incoming and outgoing administrations should identify their priority appointments and come to an amicable and balanced agreement, and that’s exactly what we’ve done here,” Corzine said in a statement.

Full Star-Ledger coverage of the N.J. Governor-elect Chris Christie transition

Corzine has agreed to refrain from nominating new members to seven agencies: the Board of Public Utilities; the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority; Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield; the Council on Affordable Housing; NJ Transit; and the Turnpike Authority. Corzine said the agreement "includes a commitment to work together" to quickly fill upcoming vacancies on the State Investment Council

-- Arguments over the massive overhaul of the health care system -- which congressional Democrats hope to pass by next month -- are expected to keep shaking up the country long after the vote.

Congress' plan could be the first legislation of its kind passed along strict partisan lines. In modern history, legislation of such scope -- including Social Security in 1935 and Medicare in 1965 -- has had at least some support from the opposition.

"The bottom line is that, unlike other major legislation which has passed with more bipartisan support, health care is going to remain a political football, and people are going to have a sense that it is not fully settled yet for a while," said David Gergen, a senior political analyst for CNN who also worked in the Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton administrations.

"It's sign of the unhealthy quality of our politics that a bill this significant in our social history is passing with only one party in favor," he said

-- Bobby DeLaughter -- the prosecutor who secured the conviction in the infamous Medgar Evers Mississippi murder case -- is himself now headed to prison.

It was DeLaughter's dogged 1994 prosecution and the subsequent conviction of Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith that helped trigger the reopening of dozens of civil rights cold cases.

DeLaughter became an instant hero of the civil rights movement. Alec Baldwin portrayed him in the 1996 movie, "Ghosts of Mississippi," and his closing statement was once dubbed one of the greatest closing arguments in modern law.

"Is it ever too late to do the right thing?" DeLaughter told the jury of eight blacks and four whites. "For the sake of justice and the hope of us as a civilized society, I sincerely hope and pray that it's not.