Washington - The US Attorney General, Mr John Ashcroft, took a drug test and spent his first day at the Justice Department yesterday after surviving a Senate confirmation in which critics attacked him as too rigid an opponent of abortion and gun control to enforce US laws.
Mr Ashcroft, an ardent conservative whose nomination by President George W. Bush stirred strong opposition from civil rights, abortion rights and other liberal groups, first went for the drug test required of all Justice Department workers.