Nation IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : U.S. Demands Court Halt Demjanjuk Case

The Bush Administration demanded that a federal appeals court stand aside from the continuing dispute over the war crimes case of retired U.S. auto worker John Demjanjuk. The Administration argued that it was now up to the courts of Israel, or to the U.S. government, to work out the fate of Demjanjuk, who has been convicted in Israel of murdering hundreds of thousands of Jews at the Nazi death camp at Treblinka, Poland. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, the government’s legal brief said, lacks any power to undo a 1985 decision to extradite Demjanjuk to Israel. The court is to hold a hearing next Tuesday on the dispute over what it will do next.