Only Israel, the US, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands voted against the resolution, which said the wall "could prejudge future negotiations" on a Palestinian state, and would "cause further humanitarian hardship for the Palestinians".

Sharply diverging from more upbeat public comments, Rumsfeld wrote that it was not possible to transform the Defense Department quickly enough to effectively fight the anti-terrorism war.


Six days after the feeding tube of a brain-damaged woman was removed in a case that pitted her husband against her parents, Gov. Jeb Bush ordered it reinserted on Tuesday after the Legislature empowered him to do so. The extraordinary step overrides years of court rulings.

as many as one in five of the 2.1 million Americans in jail and prison are seriously mentally ill, far outnumbering the number of mentally ill who are in mental hospitals, according to a comprehensive study released Tuesday
The study, by Human Rights Watch, concludes that jails and prisons have become the nation's default mental health system, as more state hospitals have closed and as the country's prison system has quadrupled over the past 30 years. There are now fewer than 80,000 people in mental hospitals, and the number is continuing to fall.

More than 30 soldiers who came home from Iraq for two weeks of leave have failed to show up for their flights back to the combat zone, military officials said yesterday.

In March, on the eve of the Iraq war, a directive arrived from the Pentagon at U.S. military bases. "There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel returning to or departing from Ramstein [Germany] airbase or Dover [Del.] base, to include interim stops," the Defense Department said, referring to the major ports for the returning remains.