Eritrean television showed live coverage of Omar al-Bashir arriving at the airport in the capital Asmara where he was greeted by his counterpart President Isaias Afwerki along with drummers and dancers. The semiofficial Sudanese Media Center confirmed al-Bashir went following an invitation from Eritrea. Sudanese state television later Monday showed live television pictures of al-Bashir returning to Khartoum.

Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu told The Associated Press that al-Bashir was accompanied by his heads of security and intelligence and was there to discuss regional security.

The Netherlands-based ICC charged al-Bashir on March 4 of leading a counterinsurgency against Darfur rebels that involved rapes, killings and other atrocities against civilians. His government has been accused of unleashing Arab militiamen known as janjaweed against Darfur civilians in a drive to put down a revolt by ethnic Africans in the region.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly halts a change in regulations issued in the waning days of the Bush administration and orders further review. She set an April 20 deadline for the Interior Department to review the rule and indicate its course of action in response to the injunction.

The rule, which took effect Jan. 11, allowed visitors to carry a loaded gun into a park or wildlife refuge as long as the person had a permit for a concealed weapon and the state where the park or refuge was located allowed concealed firearms. Previously, guns in parks had been severely restricted.

The Obama administration had said it was reviewing the Bush rule but had defended it in court.

Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, said Thursday the department is reviewing the injunction.

The Bush administration issued the gun rule in December in response to letters from half the Senate asking officials to lift the restrictions on guns in parks that were adopted by the Reagan administration in the early 1980s.

The rule went further than a draft proposal issued a year ago and would have allowed concealed weapons even in parks located in states that prohibit the carrying of guns in state parks. Some states allow concealed weapons but also ban guns from parks.

He also gets his favorite barbecue potato chips, and visitors have been allowed to bring him McDonald's Happy Meals — an attempt to keep his environment as normal as it can be as he awaits a decision on whether he is competent to stand trial in his mother's fatal beating.

Walker, 18, is charged with murdering his long-doting mother, Gertrude Steuernagel, a professor at Kent State University who once wrote publicly about having to cope with her son's aggressive behavior. She was found unconscious in their kitchen Jan. 29 and died eight days later.

The case has posed special challenges to the justice system from the start; Walker had to wear a face mask at an initial court appearance to prevent him from spitting at deputies.

The case has also worried advocates, like Rory McLean, president of the Autism Society of Greater Cleveland, who fear that Walker's actions — he was found cowering in the basement when sheriff's deputies responded to the home — could be misinterpreted.

Walker, who has a court-appointed guardian, is due to be arraigned Friday on the murder charge but both sides agreed he did not have to appear in court. He is also charged with assaulting a deputy who investigated the beating. No pleas have yet been entered on his behalf.

The Montana Supreme Court says a credit-card issuer cannot amend a cardholder agreement to add an arbitration clause, merely by enclosing a "bill stuffer" notice with the cardholder's monthly bill.

The court in a 5-1 ruling said the practice "does not provide sufficient notice to the consumer" about a change that would restrict his or her access to the courts.

The ruling came in a case brought against the Herbergers department stores by a Kalispell woman, Santana Kortum, who is an attorney. It reverses a District Court ruling that granted Herbergers' motion to compel arbitration and to dismiss the lawsuit, and sent the case back to the District Court for further proceedings.

"We conclude that making a change in a credit agreement by way of a "bill stuffer" does not provide sufficient notice to the consumer on which acceptance of the unilateral change to a contract can be expressly or implicitly found." Justice James C. Nelson wrote for the court. "Consequently, Herbergers' unilateral attempt to amend its original cardholder agreement to include an arbitration clause was ineffective.

Concurring in the opinion were Justices John Warner, Patricia Cotter, W. William Leaphart and Brian Morris. Chief Justice Mike McGrath did not participate in the ruling.

For many Americans who could use a bailout just to balance their checkbooks and make it through the month, the thought of their tax dollars going to million-dollar bonuses for AIG executives is enough to make them furious.

"It's difficult to comprehend how screwing up gets you rewards," said George Padilla, a teacher in El Paso, Texas. "I tell my students that if they don't put in the effort and get passing grades, I will not pass them." He added: "I use the old `In the real world ...' line to point out that you would be fired if you didn't do well in your job. Well, I guess `the real world' proved me wrong."

Workers, business owners and taxpayers interviewed across the country this week fumed over the $165 million payout, with some questioning whether the government should even be in the business of bailing out Wall Street — an attitude that could dangerously undermine further efforts by the Obama administration to prop up the economy.

"Wasn't Obama supposed to fix this?" said Maria Panza-Villa, a mother of two in Hillsboro, Ore. She said she has lost three jobs since November as one employer after another folded.

The intensity of the populist fury became plain when a member of the Senate, Iowa Republican Charles Grassley, actually suggested AIG executives should follow the Japanese warrior example and resign or commit suicide.

While many ordinary Americans said Grassley's comments were out of line, others weren't so sure.

AIG executives are "not going to bleed to death because I'm not sure that they've got blood. I think it's ice water that runs through their veins," said Gary Jarvis of Herron, Ill., who lost his job as a forklift driver in a factory closing two years ago. "To me, it's just stunning to think they're not even ashamed of their disgusting greed."

The Internal Revenue Service will allow victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s investment fraud to claim a lucrative tax deduction related to the bulk of their losses, the I.R.S. commissioner testified Tuesday morning before the Senate Finance Committee .

The commissioner, Douglas H. Shulman, told lawmakers that the agency was offering guidelines for taxpayers who are victims of losses from Ponzi schemes like Mr. Madoff’s.

The plan represents the first time that the I.R.S. has come forward with a policy regarding how it will treat Mr. Madoff’s victims. The subject has been a point of debate and anxiety for the victims and their accountants, given the uncertainty and lack of clarity in the tax code over how the matter should be dealt with.

The plan, which applies to victims of all Ponzi schemes, is likely to provide major relief to the victims of Mr. Madoff, who pleaded guilty last week to orchestrating what prosecutors say is the largest Ponzi scheme ever — one that could reach $65 billion and cover 13,000 investors.

The plan would ease existing rules governing what are known as theft-loss deductions, which are losses claimed by investors who are cheated by their investment advisers and others in Ponzi schemes and other frauds.

Under the plan, which has been reviewed by the congressional offices, the I.R.S. will allow investors who are not suing Mr. Madoff to claim a theft-loss deduction equal to 95 percent of their investments, minus any withdrawals, reinvested gains and payouts from Securities Investor Protection Corporation, the government-chartered fund set up to help protect investors of failed brokerage firms.

Investors who are suing Mr. Madoff, and who thus may have some prospect of recovery, can claim a deduction equal to 75 percent of their investments.

The White House said Hamilton, from Indiana, will serve on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals covering his state, Illinois and Wisconsin.

Hamilton served as counsel to Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh when he was governor. He is a federal judge in Indianapolis.

A senior administration official, who would only speak on condition of anonymity to discuss the nomination, said Indiana's Republican senator, Richard Lugar, told the White House he supports Hamilton.

The official said Obama is looking for nominees who will overcome partisan Senate acrimony of the past. Some nominees have bitterly divided the Senate, no matter which party was in the majority or controlled the White House.

The administration also is looking at candidates for any future Supreme Court vacancy, but the official described that search simply an effort to be prepared.

There are 11 U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals that cover specific regions, and the circuit for the District of Columbia. There currently are 15 vacancies, including the seat to be filled by Hamilton.

Since most cases do not reach the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appellate decisions often are the final word on legal matters that affect millions of Americans — from civil liberties and civil rights, to abortion and challenges to government actions.