Across the Nation

Ashcroft vows to uphold abortion rights

WASHINGTON - As his prospects for confirmation as attorney general improved, John Ashcroft promised yesterday not to seek Supreme Court reversal of a woman's right to abortion and pledged to defend the constitutionality of gun controls he had opposed in the Senate.

Ashcroft picked up his first Democratic vote when Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia announced his support.

Other Democrats on the Judiciary Committee predicted Ashcroft's confirmation in the evenly divided Senate.

Under detailed questioning by skeptical Democrats on the committee, the former Missouri senator reaffirmed his personal opposition to abortion.

But he emphasized that he had no intention of attempting to get the high court to reverse the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision, which he once called "a miserable failure."

"The Supreme Court very clearly doesn't want to deal with that issue again," Ashcroft said, adding that pressing the matter would risk undermining the "standing and prestige" an administration has in arguments before the high court.

With a long line of women's rights, civil rights and gun control groups waiting to testify against Ashcroft later in the week, there were favorable signs for him during the second day of his confirmation hearings.

California cuts off power to thousands

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Pushed over the brink by its botched experiment with deregulation, California cut off power to hundreds of thousands of people yesterday in the first rolling blackouts imposed during its electricity crisis.

Lights blinked off about noon in parts of San Francisco, Sacramento and San Jose, as well as other sections of Silicon Valley.

No major problems were reported, but the outages knocked out TV stations, ATMs and traffic lights across the San Francisco Bay area, backing up traffic and forcing college professors to hold class in dimly lit classrooms.

Police officers directed traffic and store owners turned to pocket calculators.

The rotating, hourlong blackouts in northern and central parts of the state were halted in the afternoon. A second wave of blackouts in the evening was averted as the power supply met demands.

Los Angeles was considered safe because it has its own utility.

Utilities avoided cutting power to essential services such as hospitals and airports.

Citing security reasons, they declined to identify exactly which areas lost power.

Extra confinement OK for sex predators

WASHINGTON - Harsh conditions or a lack of treatment behind bars do not justify releasing a sexual predator a state considers too dangerous to society, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

The court underscored its position that states can lock up sex offenders after their sentences are over, rejecting the appeal of a six-time rapist from Washington state.

The 8-1 decision said Andre Brigham Young is free to complain about his treatment in court, and said the state has a duty to treat those it involuntarily holds.