Members of a joint Louisiana House-Senate committee Monday approved a plan to set an April date for New Orleans city elections two days before US District Judge Ivan Lemelle was scheduled to hold hearings in a lawsuit challenging a December executive order of Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco authorizing an indefinite delay. The plan, drawn up [...]
A military jury on Monday recommended issuing a reprimand rather than a prison sentence for Army Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr. in connection with the interrogation death of an Iraqi general. Welshofer was convicted of negligent homicide and negligent dereliction of duty for the incident by the six-officer jury at Fort Carson , avoiding [...]
Canadian Prime Minister-elect Stephen Harper pledged Monday night to clean up government corruption and get tough on crime after his Conservative Party defeated the governing Liberals in Canada's federal election and won enough seats to form a minority government in association with two other smaller parties and one independent MP. Speaking to supporters in his [...]
The West Virginia Legislature on Monday approved a bill, S. 247 , that covers a variety of mine safety improvements, including a rapid-response system, only days after a second mine accident in the state in a month killed two miners. The legislation, initially proposed by Gov. Joe Manchin , was passed within a span of [...]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has uncovered fraud by public officials in the wake of Hurricane Katrina , according to a top agent in the affected region. John G. Raucci, FBI special agent in Mississippi, said that indictments would be handed down, but he did not specify when or how many, though he did say [...]
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday said that criminal defamation charges against four critics would be dropped after he received letters from the four apologizing for the incident. Hun Sen faced increasing international pressure to drop the charges, but as recently as two days ago had refused to do so. Hun Sen had the [...]
A federal judge on Monday ruled that the US Department of Defense must release the names of detainees being held as enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay . District Judge Jed Rakoff rejected arguments by the Pentagon that releasing the names would harm the privacy interests of the detainees' and their families. Rakoff ordered the Defense [...]
US Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito is expected to take the first step toward confirmation Tuesday, with an already apparent approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee . All ten Republicans on the committee have announced their support for Alito's nomination, assuring that it will go before the full Senate. It remains unclear whether all [...]
AP is reporting that the Iraqi High Criminal Court trying ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and co-defendants for crimes against humanity has canceled its session scheduled for Tuesday and has instead set January 29 as the date of its next hearing of witnesses in the case. The last-minute delay comes on the heels of Monday's [...]
Leading Tuesday's international brief, the Democratic Republic of Congo will hold the chairmanship of the African Union (AU) for 2006 under an agreement reached by a five-nation panel assigned to develop a compromise to the tense standoff concerning the proposed Sudanese bid to chair the African regional organization. Under the compromise, Congo will hold the [...]
