The United States Wednesday formally indicated its opposition to the reappointment of International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei to a third term, citing his stances on Iran's nuclear program and nuclear inspections in Iraq prior to the March 2003 war. In the wake of the US announcement the IAEA Board decided to postpone its [...]

The US House of Representatives passed a bill late Wednesday that would make it illegal to take minors across the state lines for abortions. The option is seen as a way of getting around parental consent laws legislated in some states. Although HR 748, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act passed 270-157 with 54 Democrats [...]

A document leaked to the BBC has raised new questions about the nature of the legal advice UK Prime Minister Tony Blair received from his Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, on the eve of the Iraq war. The document , dated March 7, 2003, suggested that the "safest legal course would be to secure the adoption [...]

Members of the US Senate Intelligence Committee told senior Bush administration officials Wednesday that lack of disclosure regarding enforcement of the Patriot Act was hurting efforts to renew 15 key provisions set to expire at the end of this year. Senators noted public concerns about govermment spying prompted by insufficient information about the act, and [...]

Togo opposition presidential candidate Bob Akitani Wednesday claimed he had won the presidency of the country with 70% of the vote and called for people to resist the government a day after official results put him a distant second to ruling party candidate Faure Gnassingbe in a poll rife with claims and counterclaims of fraud [...]

Bates v. Dow Agrosciences, Supreme Court of the United States, April 26, 2005 . Excerpt: In areas of traditional state regulation, we assume that a federal statute has not supplanted state law unless Congress has made such an intention " 'clear and manifest.' " New York State Conference of Blue Cross & Blue Shield Plans [...]

Lawfulness of detentions by the United States in Guantanamo Bay, Resolution 1433 (2005), Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, April 26, 2005 . Excerpt: On the basis of an extensive review of legal and factual material from these and other reliable sources, the Assembly concludes that the circumstances surrounding detentions by the USA at Guantanamo Bay [...]

President Bush Wednesday signed legislation giving legal protection to developers of technologies designed to enable viewers to "self-censor" portions of DVD movies that they deem inappropriate for viewing by others or themselves. S. 167, the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act creates an exemption from current copyright law that would have allowed film producers to sue [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in Bates v. Dow Agrosciences that a group of Texas farmers could sue a chemical company for damage caused to their crops by a weed killer. Dow had argued that federal labelling law prevented states from imposing any kind of labelling requirement apart from that mandated by the Environmental [...]

The New York Court of Appeal hears arguments Wednesday afternoon on whether the state's 50-year old statutory ban on the televising of trials is constitutional under state and federal law. New York temporarily allowed video coverage of trial proceedings for a ten year period beginning in 1987, but the authorization lapsed in 1997 and was [...]