National Desk

SOUTH

PROBE LAUNCHED INTO REPORTS OFFICERS LOOTED

NEW ORLEANS - The police department has launched an investigation into whether officers participated in the giant looting spree that overtook the city after Hurricane Katrina, a spokesman said yesterday. News reports in the aftermath of the storm put officers at the scene of some of the heaviest looting, the Wal-Mart in the Lower Garden District. Some witnesses - including a Times-Picayune reporter - said police were taking items from shelves.

- Associated Press

NORTHEAST

JUDGE ORDERS RELEASE OF ABU GHRAIB PICTURES

NEW YORK - A New York judge yesterday ordered the release of dozens of pictures of detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, rejecting government arguments that the images would provoke terrorists and incite violence against American troops in Iraq. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said terrorists "do not need pretexts for their barbarism" and that suppressing the pictures would amount to submitting to blackmail.

- Associated Press

WASHINGTON

FDA WARNS ADHD DRUG MAY BE ASSOCIATED WITH SUICIDE

The Food and Drug Administration warned doctors yesterday about reports of suicidal thinking in some children and adolescents who are taking Strattera, a drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Manufacturer Eli Lilly & Company announced that a black-box warning will be added to the drug's label in America.

- Associated Press

DELAY COURT APPEARANCE SET

Rep. Tom DeLay was summoned to appear in a Texas courtroom in three weeks, the initial legal step in his transition from the second-ranking House Republican to a criminal defendant. Mr. DeLay, meanwhile, provided new details yesterday about his behind-the-scenes effort to try to convince the prosecutors he shouldn't be indicted. Mr. DeLay contended that after he recently met voluntarily with prosecutors, he was led to believe "it was pretty much over" and he would be spared indictment in a state campaign finance investigation. Two weeks ago, he said, the landscape suddenly changed because the Travis County district attorney, Ronnie Earle, buckled under pressure from fellow Democrats and the press, and tried to blame the switch on a "runaway" grand jury.

- Associated Press

ANTI-CASTRO RESOLUTION PASSES IN HOUSE

The House of Representatives passed a resolution denouncing the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, yesterday, voting 393-31 to extend solidarity to the victims of Mr. Castro's most recent crackdown and urging the international community to take a tougher stand him.

"This resolution is for Rene Gomez Manzano and all the freedom fighters arrested in July by the Havana tyranny," the sponsor of the legislation, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Republican of Florida, said earlier this week. On July 22, Mr. Castro rounded up more than 30 Cuban democracy activists. They included three leaders of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba, which in May staged the first major pro-democracy gathering in the 46 years of the Castro dictatorship. One, Mr. Gomez, remains imprisoned.

New York Democrats Maurice Hinchey, Gregory Meeks, Jose Serrano, Edolphus Towns, and Nydia Velazquez all voted against the resolution.

- Staff Reporter of the Sun

DEMOCRATS DEMAND APOLOGY FROM BENNETT

Democratic Party leaders and civil rights groups demanded an apology yesterday from a former drug czar and secretary of education, William Bennett, over comments he made suggesting that crime rates would be lower if more African-American women had abortions.

"It's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down," Mr. Bennett said Wednesday during his syndicated talk show. "That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down," he quickly added. The statement was a riposte to a caller who asserted that the Social Security program would be more financially sound if fewer abortions had taken place in recent years.

"Bill Bennett's hateful, inflammatory remarks regarding African Americans are simply inexcusable," the Democratic Party chairman, Howard Dean, said.

Others demanding an immediate apology from Mr. Bennett included Senate Minority Leader Reid, Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts, and the president of the NAACP, Bruce Gordon. Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan called for a suspension of Mr. Bennett's show by its distributor, Salem Radio Network.

- Staff Reporter of the Sun