Italian prosecutors have filed an appeal of a Rome court's dismissal of a criminal case against US Army Spc. Mario Lozano for the alleged 2005 murder of Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari and the attempted murders of agent Andrea Carpani and Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena in Iraq, according to Tuesday media reports. The Italian agents [...]

The California Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in consolidated cases challenging California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage . In 2006, the state Attorney General requested that the Court review an intermediate appellate court's decision to uphold the same-sex marriage ban. Plaintiffs in In re Marriage Cases argued that the right to marry is protected [...]

Some 200 Afghan parliamentarians demonstrated Tuesday at the parliament building in Kabul against last month's reprinting of a cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Poste . The protesters urged the government to call on Danish envoys to discuss what they saw as a challenge to Muslim communities across the world. They [...]

A federal judge Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Barr Pharmaceuticals seeking to overturn the FDA's 2006 decision to approve the over-the-counter sale of so-called "morning after" Plan B emergency contraceptive pill to women 18 and over. The [...]

The National Parliament of East Timor voted Monday to recommend that an international commission be formed to investigate last month's assassination attempts against East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao . The parliament urged that the government coordinate with the United Nations to establish the commission, which should include a variety of [...]

Egyptian security officials arrested 54 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood Tuesday, as Egypt began candidate registration for the upcoming April 8 provincial council elections . Egypt's provincial councils administer local municipal government services. These municipal elections were originally scheduled for 2006, but the Egyptian legislature passed a law delaying the election for two years [...]

Serbian prosecutors on Tuesday ordered the arrest of an unidentified suspect believed to be responsible for the burning of the US embassy in Belgrade last month. The unidentified suspect, who is facing charges of violating public security and theft, faces a maximum sentence of up to 12 years in prison. On February 22, Serbian demonstrators [...]

US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff sent letters to the governors of several states on Monday, urging them to comply with an upcoming deadline to adopt comprehensive driver's license standards to bring their state IDs in line with the requirements of the Real ID Act . According to the letter, if holdout states fail [...]

Juan Enrique Vargas : "Everything indicates that Mexico will soon implement a profound criminal justice reform that would share a great deal of the main characteristics of the reforms that have been introduced in almost every country in Latin America since the early 1990s. Once Mexico joins this process, practically every nation in the region, [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour Monday called on Israel to conduct an impartial investigation into the deaths of Palestinians during recent Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip , noting that as an occupying power Israel "bears a particular responsibility under international human rights and humanitarian law to protect the civilian population [...]