The UN human rights chief in Iraq said Friday that officials in that country are holding thousands of detainees in violation of Iraqi law and expressed concern about ongoing human rights violations. According to Gianni Magazzeni, over 29,000 people are currently being detained in the country. Coalition forces are holding about 14,000 detainees for "urgent [...]
A Superior Court judge in Alameda County, California on Friday threw out a lawsuit challenging the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) , the $3 billion stem cell research program that was approved in Proposition 71 , approved by California voters in a 2004 referendum. Judge Bonnie Sabraw ruled that Stem Cell Research and Cures [...]
A Texas state jury on Friday found Merck liable for the death of a 71-year-old man who died from a heart attack within a month of taking Merck's painkiller Vioxx , in the sixth Vioxx case to reach a verdict. The jury ordered Merck to pay $32 million in damages to the family of Leonel [...]
A US Central Intelligence Agency employee has been fired for leaking classified information and having unauthorized discussions with the media, CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said Friday. Though Gimigliano declined to elaborate, a law enforcement officer has said that the leak led to last November's report in the Washington Post detailing allegations that the CIA has [...]
A US federal judge Friday entered not guilty pleas for former Assistant US Attorney Richard Convertino and US State Department Regional Secretary Officer Harry Raymond Smith III after they stood mute to charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and making false declarations in connection with a botched 2003 Detroit trial of four men accused of [...]
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue has signed into law two new bills that may incite court battles over separation of church and state. On Thursday Perdue authorized government-sanctioned elective classes on the Bible in public schools and signed a bill allowing courthouses to display the Ten Commandments. Education analysts believe Georgia is the first state to [...]
Nepal opposition activists rallied late on Friday in Kathmandu to reject a pledge made earlier in the day by King Gyanendra to immediately restore democracy to the country, under the king's direct rule since February last year. The country's political parties, which Gyanendra had invited to propose candidates for prime minister, turned down the overture [...]
Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling , whose testimony in his own defense came to a close on Thursday, maintained his innocence on fraud and conspiracy charges and defended his actions in the wake of Enron's financial collapse in 2001. Skilling spent the first four days of testimony responding to inquiries from his own attorney, before [...]
The appointment of Jamal Abu Samhadana , fugitive leader of the militant Popular Resistance Committees , as director general of the Palestinian Authority's Interior Ministry and head of a new Palestinian security force raised concerns Friday that the entire Palestinian cabinet could face assassination by Israel. Samhadana and his group have recently launched homemade rockets [...]
John Negroponte , director of US national intelligence, has said that the US has no immediate plans to put detained suspected senior al Qaeda members on trial. In a speech Thursday commemorating the first anniversary of the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence , Negroponte stressed the importance of intelligence provided [...]
