SOUTH

JUDGES UPHOLDS SOME CHARGES AGAINST DELAY

AUSTIN, Texas – A judge dismissed a conspiracy charge yesterday against Rep. Tom DeLay but refused to throw out the far more serious allegations of money laundering, dashing for now the congressman’s hopes of reclaiming his post as House majority leader.

Judge Pat Priest, who is presiding over the case against the Republican, issued the ruling after a hearing late last month in which Mr. DeLay’s attorney argued that the indictment was fatally flawed.

When he was indicted in September, Mr. DeLay was required under House rules to relinquish the leadership post he had held since early 2003. While yesterday’s ruling was a partial victory for Mr. DeLay, he cannot reclaim his post because he remains under indictment.

The ruling means the case will move toward a trial next year, though other defense objections to the indictments remain to be heard by the judge. – Associated Press

WASHINGTON

RUMSFELD TOUTS PROGRESS IN IRAQ, SAYS PRESS FOCUSES ON NEGATIVE

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld conceded yesterday that the insurgency in Iraq has been stronger than anticipated but also said the press has focused on the war’s growing body count rather than the progress that has been achieved.

“To be responsible, one needs to stop defining success in Iraq as the absence of terrorist attacks,” Mr. Rumsfeld said in remarks at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He added, “It’s appropriate to note not only how many Americans have been killed – and may God bless them and their families – but what they died for or, more accurately, what they lived for.” – Associated Press

RICE DEFENDS COUNTERTERRORISM TACTICS

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice aggressively defended American tactics against terrorism yesterday as tough but legal, and countered European complaints over reports of secret CIA-run prisons there by saying America’s efforts with its allies have been “a two-way street” that have saved European and American lives.

Commencing a five-day visit to a Europe that has seethed with resentment over the reports of American prisons and detainee mistreatment, Ms. Rice delivered the Bush administration’s most forceful response to a month of growing trans-Atlantic acrimony. She also went further than others in the Bush administration to insist that Americans do not practice torture or lesser forms of cruel treatment.

“Our people, wherever they are, are operating under U.S. law and U.S. international obligations,” Ms. Rice said in Berlin. She said that includes the U.N. Convention Against Torture, a document the administration has previously said does not fully apply to Americans overseas. – Associated Press

SUPREME COURT STEPS INTO INSANITY DEFENSE ISSUE

How hard can states make it for criminal defendants to prove insanity?

The Supreme Court, jumping into an issue it avoided for nearly two decades under the late Chief Justice Rehnquist, said yesterday it would hear an appeal filed on behalf of a teenager who apparently thought he was being pursued by aliens when he killed an Arizona police officer. The justices will take up the case next spring. The young man’s lawyer, David Goldberg, said in a filing that Arizona lawmakers made their law too restrictive. It allows a defendant to be found “guilty except insane” and held for mental health treatment, but it restricts what evidence can be used to prove insanity. – Associated Press