Senate embraces ban on media coverage

WASHINGTON, June 22 (UPI) -- The Senate has embraced the Bush administration's ban on media coverage of the return of the bodies of U.S. soldiers killed in combat.

The Senate approved the move Monday evening as an amendment to the 2005 defense-spending bill being debated by the body, adopting a measure from Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., blocking an amendment from Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J, that would have permitted media coverage.

The Pentagon has come under fire for not allowing pictures of returning troops struck down in battle from critics who say the White House is trying to downplay the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.