A three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Monday in six cases focusing on same-sex marriage – the first time a California appeals court has considered the issue. The state Attorney General's Office argued that California should be allowed to maintain its traditional definition of marriage as the union of a [...]

READ MORE

US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) told reporters Monday that floor action on legislation governing procedures for military commissions at Guantanamo Bay is unlikely until after Labor Day. Frist said that Senate Republicans are busy discussing the legislation with Democrats and the White House and that several Senate committees with jurisdiction over the issue [...]

READ MORE

The parliament of Egypt passed a new press law on Monday but removed a particularly controversial provision that would have allowed journalists to be imprisoned for reporting on alleged financial impropriety by public officials. Still, journalists and rights groups fear that other provisions threaten the freedom of the press. Although the law abolishes jail sentences [...]

READ MORE

A lawyer for the US Justice Department (DOJ) argued in federal court again Monday that a lawsuit challenging the National Security Agency's warrantless domestic surveillance program must be dismissed because defending it in court would jeopardize national security. In the hearing in US District Court in Detroit, DOJ special litigation counsel Anthony J. Coppolino said [...]

READ MORE

Prosecutors working for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal began formal investigation Monday of criminal acts allegedly committed by surviving leaders of the communist Khmer Rouge regime, which ruled Cambodia from 1975-1978 and was responsible for the deaths of at least 1.5 million Cambodians by execution, forced hardships, or starvation in the so-called "Killing Fields." Led [...]

READ MORE