A display featuring the Ten Commandments in a Kentucky courthouse passes constitutional muster because it does not promote religion, a federal judge held in a ruling released Wednesday. Judge Karl Forester of the Eastern District Court of Kentucky ruled against a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kentucky , finding that [...]

Former Khmer Rouge official Nuon Chea has expressed his desire to cooperate fully with the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) , the court established to try former Khmer Rouge leaders, an ECCC judge told the press Wednesday. You Bunleng, a Cambodian investigating judge of the ECCC, told Reuters that Chea "has no [...]

France's National Assembly , the lower house of the French parliament, passed a new immigration bill aimed at increasing the ratio of skilled to unskilled immigrants entering France by a 91-45 vote Thursday. The bill has sparked controversy, both in France and abroad, for a provision that permits officials to test the DNA of an [...]

Iran released on bail Iranian-American consultant Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh from prison Wednesday, according to IRNA, the official Iranian news agency. Tajbakhsh, employed by the Open Society Institute, will not be allowed to leave Iran without judicial approval. Tajbakhsh and Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari were arrested in May after alleged involvement in a plot against the [...]

The UN on Wednesday again rejected Taiwan's 15th bid for UN membership , as a UN committee balked at placing the issue on the General Assembly's agenda. Taiwan, which officially refers to itself as the Republic of China (ROC), was kicked out of the UN in 1971 by General Assembly Resolution 2758 and replaced by [...]

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Tennessee's execution procedures constitute "cruel and unusual" punishment, derailing plans to execute a death row inmate next week. US District Judge Aleta Trauger held that revised death penalty protocols , devised by the Tennessee Department of Corrections in April at the request of Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen , do [...]

Canadian Liberal Party opposition leader Stephane Dion Wednesday joined calls urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper to pressure the US government for the immediate release of Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr . Following a meeting with lawyers appointed to represent Khadr in his hearing before a military commission review court , Dion said that Khadr should [...]

A Japanese district court Wednesday rejected demands for compensation by 22 South Korean women, as well as the surviving relatives of other women, who were forced to work at a Japanese military hardware factory during World War II. Although the Toyama District Court recognized that the women were brought to Japan and forced to work [...]

The Supreme Court of Argentina has ordered the government to provide the indigenous people of the Chaco region with basic necessities while it investigates claims that their land has been illegally sold to commercial farmers. The amparo action, brought by the office of the Defender of the People , alleged that government officials have denied [...]

US President George W. Bush Wednesday urged Congress to make permanent a law broadening the government's ability to conduct warrantless surveillance of terror suspects abroad, echoing recent statements by intelligence officials. The Protect America Act 2007 , passed by Congress in August, gives the executive branch expanded surveillance authority for a period of six months [...]