Politics

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Outgoing Governor George Ryan of Illinois has sparked a national debate over the use of the death penalty after he granted clemency to 167 inmates on death row in his state.

In the largest emptying of death row in U.S. history, outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan has commuted all Illinois death sentences to prison terms of life or less, while condemning the state's capital punishment system as fundamentally flawed and unfair.

Immigrants from 13 mostly Muslim countries visited Immigration and Naturalization Service offices by the thousands Friday to register with authorities as required under anti-terror laws introduced after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Experts discuss the ongoing weapons inspections process in Iraq after chief weapons inspector Hans Blix reported to the U.N. Security Council that Iraq has no "smoking gun."…