A US federal judge Friday entered not guilty pleas for former Assistant US Attorney Richard Convertino and US State Department Regional Secretary Officer Harry Raymond Smith III after they stood mute to charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and making false declarations in connection with a botched 2003 Detroit trial of four men accused of [...]

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue has signed into law two new bills that may incite court battles over separation of church and state. On Thursday Perdue authorized government-sanctioned elective classes on the Bible in public schools and signed a bill allowing courthouses to display the Ten Commandments. Education analysts believe Georgia is the first state to [...]

Nepal opposition activists rallied late on Friday in Kathmandu to reject a pledge made earlier in the day by King Gyanendra to immediately restore democracy to the country, under the king's direct rule since February last year. The country's political parties, which Gyanendra had invited to propose candidates for prime minister, turned down the overture [...]

Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling , whose testimony in his own defense came to a close on Thursday, maintained his innocence on fraud and conspiracy charges and defended his actions in the wake of Enron's financial collapse in 2001. Skilling spent the first four days of testimony responding to inquiries from his own attorney, before [...]

The appointment of Jamal Abu Samhadana , fugitive leader of the militant Popular Resistance Committees , as director general of the Palestinian Authority's Interior Ministry and head of a new Palestinian security force raised concerns Friday that the entire Palestinian cabinet could face assassination by Israel. Samhadana and his group have recently launched homemade rockets [...]

John Negroponte , director of US national intelligence, has said that the US has no immediate plans to put detained suspected senior al Qaeda members on trial. In a speech Thursday commemorating the first anniversary of the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence , Negroponte stressed the importance of intelligence provided [...]

The US Department of Homeland Security and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) announced a comprehensive plan to combat illegal immigration on Thursday which involves cracking down on companies that harbor illegal workers. The strategy is part of the Secure Border Initiative to "revers growing tolerance for the employment of illegal aliens and [...]

Leading Friday's environmental law news, the California Air Resources Board has approved a plan that calls for new emissions regulations and business incentives to reduce air pollution from shipping companies, railroads and trucking companies. The plan is specifically aimed at achieving federal standards for ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) levels under the Clean Air [...]

Royal proclamation to the nation from King Gyanendra of Nepal, April 21, 2006 . English-language translation from eKantipur.com: Beloved Countrymen, You are all aware that, given the situation prevailing in the country then, we were compelled to take the decision of 1 February 2005 to set in motion a meaningful exercise in multiparty democracy by [...]

The European Council counter-terrorism coordinator has reported that the existence of secret CIA prisons in Europe cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Addressing a European Parliament committee on Thursday, Gijs de Vries also denied that allegations of coordination between the US and EU member states regarding extraordinary rendition were supported by proof. De Vries' [...]