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A focus on terrorism left the Department of Homeland Security unable to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to the agency's Inspector General. His sharply critical report makes 38 recommendations for improving disaster response missions.

As the lingering effects of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are tallied, a growing number of first responders have died after being exposed to dust at the World Trade Center site. A recent autopsy report on a retired police detective directly linked his death to the attack.

Convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo is cross-examined by his former partner and mentor John Allen Muhammad, who is on trial in Maryland on six murder charges. Malvo discussed his role in the sniper shootings that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area four years ago. Muhammad is acting as his own attorney.

Jurors in the death-penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui decide the confessed al-Qaida terrorism conspirator should be eligible for execution. In their finding, the panel decided Moussaoui was responsible for at least one death in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A second trial phase will determine Moussaoui's sentence.

Salon.com publishes previously unreleased photos of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in 2003. Separately, a U.N. report urges the United States to close its military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

East Timor got a slight respite from the violence that erupted just more than a week ago. With foreign troops bolstering domestic security efforts, the gangs that had been roaming the streets of the capital for days were largely absent. East Timor's president, Xanana Gusmao, toured the capital, urging people to return home.

As Zimbabwe's economy collapses under 1,000 percent inflation, many of the people uprooted by a slum-clearance campaign last year remain homeless and unemployed. Human-rights activists in the Southern African nation say the country is on the verge of social upheaval.

In Buckhannon, W.Va., two-day hearings begin about the Sago Mine accident that killed 12 people on Jan. 2. Family members of the dead miners gave statements, and company officials presented their take on the accident, as well.

Russian President Vladimir Putin takes a swipe at Western critics in his State of the Nation speech Wednesday, accusing them of hanging on to outdated prejudices. His remarks seemed to be a response to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who last week accused Russia of using its energy reserves as "tools of intimidation or blackmail."

The British music press is hailing a new band, the Arctic Monkeys, as being as big as the Beatles — or at least as big as Oasis. The first-week release of the band's debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, sold over 118,000 copies.