The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Thursday upheld an Indiana law requiring voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot. In its ruling, the court upheld a lower court decision that the law does not put an undue burden on the right to vote and therefore does not violate the [...]

READ MORE

Government officials in Myanmar have granted amnesty to nearly three thousand prisoners, releasing them early in celebration of the country's Independence Day Thursday. Some 20 political prisoners were among the 2,831 released because their "moral behaviour and spiritual values have improved," according to a report in Myanmar's state-run newspaper the New Light of Myanmar . [...]

READ MORE

White House legal counsel Harriet Miers resigned from her post Thursday effective January 31. Press Secretary Tony Snow gave no specific reason for her departure except to say that she has been working at the White House for six years. In a White House press briefing he added:Harriet is a very special person in this [...]

READ MORE

The government of France has said that it will recognize a citizen's legal right to housing . In a statement Wednesday, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said a draft law would implement the right in two stages, for the most needy by the end of 2008 and for others with insufficient housing by 2012. [...]

READ MORE

Members of the 110th Congress sworn in Thursday are preparing for votes on numerous pieces of key legislation scheduled by incoming Democratic leaders of the new US House of Representatives for their first 100 legislative hours in office beginning next Tuesday. Most notably, incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and incoming House Majority [...]

READ MORE

The executions of two Saddam Hussein co-defendants, former chief judge of Iraq's Hussein-era Revolutionary Court Awad Hamed al-Bandar and former Iraqi intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al Tikriti , have been postponed. The hangings were originally expected Thursday , but an official in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office said the delay was the result of [...]

READ MORE