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The Senate is poised to take a key procedural vote on whether to move forward with an extension of federal unemployment benefits for 1.3 million jobless Americans, with Democrats hoping to overcome a strong partisan divide on the issue.

Although Tuesday's vote is procedural, it will indicate whether there's enough Republican support to move the Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which expired on Dec. 28, forward to a full vote. As The Associated Press writes, the measure "is the leading edge of a Democratic program that also includes raising the minimum wage and closing tax loopholes on the wealthy and corporations."

As NPR's Craig Windham reports, "GOP lawmakers say they oppose the bill because it does not include offsets-spending cuts to pay the cost" of the extension.

However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), says the extensions have been considered emergency measures in the past and have always passed without offsets.

The vote was originally scheduled for Monday evening, but it was abruptly delayed because, as Politico reports, supporters did not have the votes they needed.

On Monday, Politico wrote:

"Democrats need five Republicans to join them to advance the legislation ... So far, there are just two Republicans publicly committed to supporting the legislation as written: [Maine Sen. Susan] Collins and Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, who co-sponsored the measure with [Rhode Island Democrat] Sen. Jack Reed."

It sometimes feels like church in the auditorium of the Professional Musicians union in Hollywood. It's a Sunday morning, and hundreds of people are gathered to meditate, sing and listen to inspirational poetry and stories.

But then, the live band starts up — performing songs by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Jerry Lee Lewis. And instead of a sermon, there's a lecture by experimental psychologist and neuroscientist Jessica Cail about the biology of gender identification and sexual orientation.

This is a Los Angeles meeting of Sunday Assembly, a church for people who don't believe in God. The brainchild of two British comedians, the movement has since spread across the globe, and there are now about 30 chapters from Dublin to Sydney to New York.

'No Religion And Awesome Pop Songs'

There's little God talk at Sunday Assembly, just advice by local co-founder Ian Dodd to be authentic. That appealed to divinity student Noel Alumit.

"I don't necessarily have to believe what you believe, but we won't tell you what to believe — you know, props for that. Respect. Total respect for that," Alumit says.

This was exactly the intent of Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans when they started Sunday Assembly in the United Kingdom. "There are loads of people out there who want to live better, help often and wonder more," Jones says in a crowdfunding video pitching their idea for godless congregations.

"It's all the best bits of church, but with no religion and awesome pop songs," Evans says. "And it's not a cult," Evans adds.

"But that's exactly what we'd say if it were a cult," the pair deadpan.

This lighthearted approach seems to be reaching a growing number of nonreligious people.

"This is a big boom now of secularity. People not wanting to associate with religion, not wanting to identify as religious," says Phil Zuckerman, who teaches about secularism at Pitzer College in Southern California.

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Bangladesh's parliamentary election Sunday proved to be among the most violent vote in the country's short history. At least 18 people were killed, including an election officer who was beaten to death, and scores of polling stations firebombed, according to local media reports.

Tensions in Bangladesh that have been building over the past year reached a crescendo with Sunday's bloody, one-sided vote, which the ruling Awami League won in a walk-away. The main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, boycotted after the government refused to hand over power to a neutral administration in the run-up to the election.

A series of deeply controversial trials of senior figures from the Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami, allied with the opposition, has added to the strain. Some of the accused have been convicted and sentenced to death for crimes stemming from Bangladesh's war for independence in 1971.

Jamaat members are accused of torching polling stations Sunday in the poverty-stricken country of 150 million people. The ruling party blamed the opposition for "derailing democracy."

The United States said Monday that it is "disappointed" by the parliamentary elections, which saw low voter turnout.

"With more than half of the seats uncontested and most of the remainder offering only token opposition, the results of the just-concluded elections do not appear to credibly express the will of the Bangladeshi people," according to a statement from the U.S. State Department.

Western powers, including the United States, declined to send observers to monitor the election though the State Department said it would be prepared to "re-engage" its observation efforts "at a later time in a more conducive environment."

Bangladesh's governing party, however, has defied pressure to open a dialogue with the opposition for a new vote, and the country looks set for fresh unrest.

Boeing delivered a record 648 commercial jetliners last year, including 65 of its newest 787s and also had a record backlog of 5,080 unfulfilled orders.

The 2013 deliveries were expected to keep Boeing in the No. 1 slot for the second year, nudging out rival Airbus, which is expecting to report 620 deliveries.

"The Boeing team performed extremely well in 2013," CEO Ray Conner said.

"We delivered more advanced, fuel-efficient airplanes to our customers than ever before, and it's a great example of what our team can accomplish," he said in a statement.

The company said it delivered 440 next-generation 737s and 98 long-haul 777s.

The 787 was grounded last January and deliveries were halted after a fire aboard one of the planes operated by Japan Airlines on the tarmac in Boston. That problem was eventually traced to an overheating lithium-ion battery. The aircraft was not certified to fly again until April.

Reuters reports:

"Boeing's delivery tally beat its forecast of up to 645 jets for the year and was 7.8 percent higher than last year's total."