Waterboarding Returns to Spotlight

Just 10% approve of work on Hill, according to latest Gallup poll

(NEWSER) - A Gallup poll released Wednesday finds that Americans' approval of Congress has hit yet another record low: 10%. There aren't many institutions Americans have liked less over the last 50-or-so years, according to Gallup: Only Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and OJ Simpson detective Mark Fuhrman have ever scored lower. ABC News takes a look at some very unpopular things that still manage to rank above Congress:

• According to an August poll, Paris Hilton is America's least-favorite celeb. But her 60% disapproval rating is still better than Congress's 86% disapproval rating.

Doctors Without Borders suspends work over 'exploitation'

(NEWSER) - Some of Libya's reported 8,500 detainees have died following torture, says Amnesty International, citing patients with open head, limb, and back wounds. "The torture is being carried out by officially recognized military and security entities as well as by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any legal framework," a rep for the activist group tells the BBC . Doctors Without Borders is suspending its work in Misrata over concerns that it's being "exploited" by interrogators. More»

John Kiriakou allegedly talked about an agent who used waterboarding

(NEWSER) - The federal government charged a former CIA agent today with leaking secrets related to waterboarding, the AP reports. Authorities say John Kiriakou, 47, told a New York Times journalist about a covert agent who had helped interrogate al-Qaeda financier Abu Zubaydah 10 years ago. Asked by FBI agents last week whether he had leaked the names, Kiriakou replied, "Heavens no," according to an affadavit. More»

Videos of sessions are 'sickening,' says lawyer

(NEWSER) - The Saudi national accused of being the "20th hijacker" on 9/11 is suing the government to release what his lawyers call "sickening" videos of his torture at Guantanamo Bay. Mohammed al-Qahtani was the victim of "torture and other profoundly cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment," involving marathon interrogation sessions, sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures, and "sexual and moral" humiliations, according to the suit filed in Manhattan Federal Court by the Center for Constitutional Rights. "The American public should be permitted to see what occurred for itself," says the suit. More»

Prisoners are deprived of sleep, shocked, claims human rights group

(NEWSER) - A suicide bomb in Syria's capital, reportedly aimed at a police bus, killed and wounded dozens today, the AP reports, as the country's political turmoil continues. And more disheartening news: A human rights group yesterday claimed that the government regularly tortures hundreds of prisoners; according to its research 617 have died from the torture since the country's uprising began. Avaaz claims that prisoners are held both in prisons and places like sports stadiums and cinemas. There, they are reportedly deprived of sleep and subjected to electric shocks; those in charge break prisoners' arms, wrists, and fingers, a detainee told Avaaz. More»