The Justice Department reviewed newly found e-mails sent by a Bush administration lawyer and stands by a conclusion that the attorney did not commit professional misconduct in authorizing CIA interrogators to use waterboarding and other harsh tactics, a department letter shows.

The review of the additional e-mails did not alter the earlier assessment that the lawyer, John Yoo, merely had exhibited poor judgment, according to the letter to the House and Senate judiciary committees. The letter was obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The content of the newly found e-mails was not described in the letter. Department officials, however, briefed congressional staffers on the matter last Friday after making the recovered e-mails available to the two congressional committees for review, the letter said.

The issue of Yoo and missing e-mails arose in one of the major lingering investigations into the counterterrorism policies of former President George W. Bush's administration.

Liberal Democrats had pressed for action against the former Justice Department lawyers who wrote the so-called torture memos — Yoo and Jay Bybee.

An initial examination by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility found that Bybee, now a federal appellate judge, and Yoo, now a law professor, had committed professional misconduct. However, the Justice Department's top career lawyer reviewed the matter and disagreed.

A state appeals court has overturned the conviction of a Los Angeles man found guilty of killing a 17-year-old girl and her 16-year-old brother, ruling that the judge in his trial admitted improper evidence.

City News Service says the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled Monday that a judge wrongly allowed evidence that one of Williams' alibi witnesses was arrested in possession of a gun used in the killings.

The court said the evidence was prejudicial and the trial court abused its discretion.

A jury found Williams guilty of the 2004 killing of Shulma and Jason Ramos, and he was sentenced to life without parole.

Prosecutors said the teenagers were looking for a party with friends when a group of gang members that included Williams fired at their car.

Jurors have begun deliberations in the trial of a New Hampshire teenager charged with wielding a machete during a deadly home invasion last year.

Superior Court Judge Gillian Abramson told jurors to voice their individual opinions when they consider the case against 18-year-old Steven Spader.

Spader is charged with first-degree murder and other felonies in the knife and machete attacks that killed Kimberly Cates and maimed her 11-year-old daughter, Jaimie, in their Mont Vernon home. He has pleaded not guilty.

A prosecutor told jurors that Spader's detailed written accounts of the killing amount to a confession. His lawyers dismissed them as the writings of a teen known for bragging and lying.

Spader will be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of murder.

For much of the last decade, New Delhi sold itself as "India Rising." Barack Obama's trip here delivered a new message: India has risen.

During his three day visit that ended Tuesday, the U.S. president delivered nearly everything on India's wish list, affirming the country's growing importance.

He endorsed India's role in nearby Afghanistan, even though such a statement was sure to annoy India's regional rival Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the Afghan war. He chided Pakistan for not cracking down heavily enough on anti-India militant groups operating there. He lifted export controls, allowing India to buy high-tech weaponry from the U.S., and he gave spirited support to Indian industry, maintaining it wasn't stealing American jobs, but helping create new ones.

Most importantly for India, he backed its bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, a mostly symbolic move that affirmed its place as a new global power.

"In Asia and around the world, India is not simply emerging; India has already emerged," Obama told the Indian parliament Monday night.

Indian commentators saw the statement as a milestone in the nation's global image; No longer was it seen as an economic basket case, a potential dictatorship or an unstable collection of warring ethnic groups.

The Supreme Court has declined to step into a lesbian custody dispute between a woman who has renounced her homosexuality and her onetime partner.

The justices on Monday turned down an appeal from Lisa Miller, the biological mother of an 8-year-old girl. Miller wanted the court to undo a Virginia court decision allowing Janet Jenkins visitation rights with the girl.

Jenkins is from Vermont. Miller is from Virginia. They were joined in a civil union in Vermont in 2000. Their daughter has been the subject of a long-running legal fight.

Miller has renounced her homosexuality. She and her daughter did not appear for a court-ordered custody swap in January. Their whereabouts are unknown.

A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order blocking a state constitutional amendment that prohibits state courts from considering international or Islamic law when deciding cases.

U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange ruled Monday morning in Oklahoma City following a brief hearing. It prevents the state election board from certifying the results of Tuesday's general election in which the amendment was approved by 70 percent of the voters.

The order will remain in effect until a Nov. 22 hearing on a requested preliminary injunction.

It was issued in a lawsuit filed by the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Oklahoma. Muneer Awad said during the hearing that the law stigmatizes his religion.