The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued 50% fewer warning letters to companies violating federal drug and safety regulations in the past five years under the Bush administration, according to a report released Monday by US Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) . In 2000, the FDA issued 1,154 warning letters , while in 2005, only [...]

The UK Foreign Office has said that the United Kingdom will not petition the US to release Australian national David Hicks from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay . Hicks, a suspected member of the Taliban who has been detained for over four years, won British citizenship earlier this year based on his mother's nationality [...]

Civil rights groups called Monday for the renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) before Congress takes its Fourth of July recess. At a news conference in Atlanta, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) , the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Concerned Black Clergy of Metropolitan Atlanta singled out two Republican lawmakers [...]

A federal judge on Monday issued a temporary restraining order that prevents the state of Georgia from fully enforcing a law that restricts where convicted sex offenders can live and work. The order, issued by US District Judge Clarence Cooper in the Northern District of Georgia , applies only to the eight plaintiffs in the [...]

Voters in Italy have decisively rejected amendments to the Italian Constitution that would have given more power to the prime minister and decreased the size of Parliament . The daily La Repubblica in Rome is reporting that 61.4 percent of voters opposed the amendments in the two-day referendum that ended Monday, while 38.6 percent supported [...]

A committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) , the legislature of China , has decided not to criminalize sex-selective abortions , the state-run China Daily reported Monday. A proposed amendment to the criminal law would have punished anyone convicted of involvement in sex-selective abortions with a three-year prison sentence. Zhou Kunren, vice-chairman of the [...]

UK Conservative Party leader David Cameron said Monday that he would appoint a panel of legal experts to examine whether the increasingly-controversial Human Rights Act of 1998 should be replaced with an American-style Bill of Rights. Speaking at the Centre for Policy Studies in London, Cameron asserted that the act doesn't adequately protect rights even [...]

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys , the new supreme leader of Somalia's Islamic Courts Party whose militia took control of the capital of Mogadishu from US-backed warlords earlier this month, vowed Monday to impose Islamic law – Sharia – on the country and denied US allegations that he is a terrorist as a former leader of [...]

The European Union on Monday condemned all instances of torture, even "on grounds of national security," and called on all countries to sign and follow the UN Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) , marking the United Nations' ninth annual International Day in Support of Victims of Torture [...]

The US Supreme Court said Monday that it would consider whether the Clean Air Act requires the US Environmental Protection Agency to regulate "greenhouse gas" emissions from automobiles. The court granted certiorari in Massachusetts v. EPA , an appeal by 12 states, three cities and several environmental groups, arguing that the EPA erred in concluding [...]