In the Nation

WASHINGTON - All 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee pressed attorney general-nominee Michael B. Mukasey yesterday for a clear-cut statement that the interrogation technique known as waterboarding, which simulates drowning and has been used by the CIA against terrorism suspects, is illegal.

In his confirmation hearings last week, Mukasey declined to say if waterboarding was torture or otherwise illegal, insisting he was not aware how it was carried out.

Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont and the panel's nine other Democrats said his "unwillingness to state that waterboarding is illegal may place Americans at risk of being subject to this abusive technique."

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Mukasey could not comment on details of interrogation techniques because "he has not been read into classified intelligence programs."- N.Y. Times News Service

ATLANTA - Civil rights leaders called yesterday for a march on the Justice Department and an economic boycott next month because they say the federal government has been sluggish in dealing with hate crimes.

They called for Americans not to spend any money Nov. 2 as an economic boycott of the government's handling of hate crimes and announced initial plans for a Nov. 16 march on Justice Department headquarters in Washington.

At a news conference, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III and other activists cited the uproar in Jena, La., surrounding three white teenagers accused of hanging nooses outside a school and the six black teens charged in the beating of a white student.

Justice spokesman Erik Ablin said officials were aggressively investigating noose-hanging reports. - AP

LAS VEGAS - Two codefendants pleaded guilty to reduced charges yesterday in the O.J. Simpson armed-robbery case, agreeing to testify against the former football star and three others in the alleged hotel-room theft of sports collectibles from two memorabilia dealers Sept. 13.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger agreed to drop charges including kidnapping, armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy against Walter Alexander, Simpson's golfing buddy, and Charles Cashmore.

Prosecutors moved quickly to prepare revised charges against Simpson, Clarence "C.J." Stewart, Michael McClinton and Charles Ehrlich.

An amended criminal complaint that includes a second felony charge of coercion against Simpson and two new coercion charges each against the others was expected to be filed by today. - AP

Robert A. Sturgell, 48, acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration, is being nominated by President Bush to run the FAA the next five years.

The "Preppie Killer," Robert Chambers, 41, who spent 15 years in prison for strangling a woman in New York's Central Park in 1986, was in jail yesterday after police said he sold undercover officers cocaine.