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Nation's briefs: House sustains bush's veto of bill on torture

By Times Wires
Published March 12, 2008

WASHINGTON House Democrats on Tuesday failed to overturn President Bush's veto of a bill that would have prohibited the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques on terror suspects. The legislation, vetoed Saturday by Bush, would have limited the CIA to using only the 19 interrogation methods approved in the Army field manual, which bans the use of waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning. CIA director Michael Hayden has said the agency used the technique on three terror suspects in 2002 and 2003. The 225-188 House roll call was 51 votes short of the two-thirds majority required to overturn a veto.

Elsewhere

Ashcroft testifies: In testimony Tuesday before a House Judiciary subcommittee, former Attorney General John Ashcroft denied any conflict of interest in getting a federal contract worth up to $52-million to monitor a corporation accused of bribing surgeons.

Convicted in killing: A jury in Abingdon, Va., on Tuesday convicted an escaped jail inmate of capital murder in the deaths of a hospital security guard and a sheriff's deputy. William Morva, 26, could be sentenced to death for the slayings in 2006.

$28-million award: A federal jury in Pittsburgh awarded $28-million to the father of an unarmed 12-year-old boy fatally shot by state troopers as he ran from a stolen vehicle. The jury found both troopers intentionally shot Michael Ellerbe in 2002.

Associated Press

[Last modified March 11, 2008, 23:50:01]