Drug maker Pfizer reached a settlement Friday with the Nigerian state of Kano in a lawsuit over allegedly illegal clinical trials the company conducted in Nigeria in 1996. The national government and the state of Kano filed...

French President Nicholas Sarkozy said Friday that his country would accept one Guantanamo Bay detainee in a symbolic effort to aid the closure of the detention center. Sarkozy made the announcement...

Australian Minister of Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin  announced Friday that the country has endorsed  the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples . The move reverses the position of the country's former administration on the declaration. Macklin said the decision...

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Friday announced the appointment of South African judge Richard Goldstone to head a UN fact-finding mission to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza...

The French National Assembly voted 29-4 Thursday to accept a provision in a new bill that would cut off internet access for those who repeatedly illegally download copyrighted material. Under the bill,...

The Mexican Senate on Thursday passed an amendment  to the country's constitution  that would permit seizure of property from suspected drug traffickers and other criminals prior to conviction. Under the proposed...

The Supreme Court of Iowa  held Friday that a statute banning same-sex marriage violates the state's constitution . In the ruling, the court affirmed a lower court's decision that the...

The Vermont House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill approving same-sex marriage . The bill, aimed at "promot legal equality in the civil marriage laws and ... protect the religious freedom of...

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich , his brother Robert Blagojevich, and four associates were indicted on corruption charges Thursday by a federal grand jury. Rod Blagojevich was charged with 16 felonies including wire fraud, attempted...

A group of immigrants being detained in a Los Angles facility on Wednesday filed a complaint against the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency for allegedly violating the constitutional rights of immigrants detained at the facility. The suit was...