<p>NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court rejected an attempt by survivors to collect damages from the government for the deadly 1993 confrontation in Waco, Texas, between government agents and members of the Branch Davidian cult.</p>
<p>Without dissent, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (search) late Monday turned aside contentions that a lower-court judge who ruled against the survivors was biased.</p>