Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman ruled Wednesday that Saddam Hussein will be permitted to testify on behalf of a co-defendant when his trial before the Iraqi High Criminal Court resumes on Monday. Abdel-Rahman said that defense lawyers can ask Hussein questions about the involvement of Taha Yassin Ramadan in the deaths of nine villagers, torture of women [...]
Judge Constance Russell of Fulton County Superior Court in Georgia has ruled that the state's same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional because the state constitutional amendment violates the single-subject rule, which prohibits voters from deciding more than one issue at a time. The amendment defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, explicitly [...]
The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday defeated a bill to amend the Nigerian constitution that would have allowed current President Olusegun Obasanjo to run for a third term in office. The bill, which failed to receive the necessary two-thirds vote for passage, was proposed by supporters of Obasanjo who claimed that a third term was necessary [...]
The intelligence committees of the US Senate and House of Representatives will receive a full briefing on the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program , committee chairmen said Tuesday. In preparation for the confirmation hearings on the nomination of Gen. Michael Hayden as CIA chief, Senate Intelligence Committee chair Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) , who has [...]
Verizon Communications said Tuesday that it did not turn over phone records to the National Security Agency (NSA) , nor was it asked to do so, as was reported last week. The denial from Verizon follows an announcement from BellSouth that it could not find evidence that it was involved in the program. Of the [...]
In a decision that some observers have hailed as a victory for "health tourism", the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Tuesday that domestic health service programs must pay for patients who go abroad to another EU state to have needed surgery. The major criterion is the patients must be facing "undue delay" that [...]
The US Senate on Tuesday rejected a conservative amendment to proposed immigration legislation that would have required new US border security measures to be fully completed and fully operational before the government could implement a program for illegal immigrants to earn citizenship as proposed by President Bush during his immigration reform address Monday night. The [...]
Martin Scheinin , UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counterterrorism, said Tuesday that US officials have been stonewalling investigations into allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency flew terrorism suspects through Europe to countries where they could be tortured . Scheinin expressed concern that as a result of US reluctance to cooperate with investigators it [...]
US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and conservative members of the committee have struck a deal on Specter's proposed bill to clarify the legality of the National Security Agency surveillance program , according to a Wednesday report in The Hill. Republican sources said Specter agreed to drop the bill's requirement that the Bush administration [...]
The UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday that accelerates planning for a United Nations peacekeeping force in Sudan's Darfur region . US President Bush last week asked the Council to adopt the resolution, which demands that an assessment team be deployed to Sudan within a week to prepare for UN control of the [...]
