House GOP leaders on Wednesday indefinitely postponed consideration of the Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 , which would renew provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for an additional 25-year period. The unexpected decision to remove the bill from floor debate came after Republicans from southern states complained during a [...]

Speaking Wednesday at a news conference after a US-EU summit meeting in Vienna , President George W. Bush suggested that the White House is open to having Guantanamo Bay detainees tried in US courts, as opposed to Guantanamo-based military commissions where a few are currently facing trial. After reaffirming his commitment to "ending Guantanamo" and [...]

Iran has charged leading women's rights activists Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani and Parvin Ardalan with acting "against national security" in connection with a June 12 women's rights demonstration that turned violent when police detained more than 70 people in central Tehran. Both women have reportedly been freed on bail. Many protesters alleged that the police beat [...]

Law enforcement officials often obtain Americans' phone records without a warrant or subpoena by paying private data brokers, who sometimes get the information through improper or even illegal techniques, AP reports. Federal agencies that hire data brokers include the FBI and the US Marshals Service , both part of the Justice Department, and US Immigration [...]

The Catholic church is pushing the UK government to establish a committee to consider lowering the legal limit on abortions from the current 24 weeks allowed by the 1967 Abortion Act , UK Archbishop Rev. Peter Smith said Wednesday during an interview on the BBC Breakfast program. The proposed committee would involve members of both [...]

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby supporters have raised more than $2 million for his legal defense in the CIA leak case since last fall, according to Barbara Comstock, a member of Libby's defense team. Supporters of Vice President Cheney's former aide have hosted several fundraisers, including one Tuesday evening, hosted by former Cheney spokeswoman Mary Matalin [...]

Canada must do more to protect citizens' personal information from foreign governments, the national privacy commissioner said in a report to Parliament presented Tuesday. Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart singled out the Canadian Border Services Agency for allowing guards and customs agents to give their US counterparts private information over the phone, even though agreements between the [...]

The federal judge presiding over the Miami trial of terror suspect Jose Padilla has ordered prosecutors to turn over more evidence regarding their allegations that Padilla and his co-defendants conspired to kill, injure or kidnap US nationals overseas as part of a global terrorist network. US District Judge Marcia Cooke said that the indictment against [...]

A Syrian writer and his son have been charged with insulting government employees and will be tried before a military tribunal, the Syrian National Organization for Human Rights said Tuesday, as a crackdown on dissent in Syria continues. Journalist Ali Al-Abdallah and his son Mohamed are members of the state-recognized Atassi Forum for National Dialogue, [...]

A civil rights group has sued the state of Georgia , arguing that a new law designed to protect children from sex crimes all but forbids convicted offenders from living in urban and suburban areas. The Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) filed a complaint on Tuesday in the US District Court for the Northern [...]