An Egyptian court rejected a petition from jailed opposition leader Ayman Nour for early release on medical grounds Tuesday, saying that evidence submitted by Nour failed to prove that his medical condition was life threatening or that his heart condition will be adversely affected by prison. Nour, who suffers from heart disease and diabetes, was [...]

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell Tuesday defended Attorney General Alberto Gonzales against accusations of lying to Congress during testimony last week. In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last Tuesday, Gonzales insisted that a 2004 disagreement between administration officials concerned another undisclosed intelligence program and not the domestic surveillance program called the "terrorist [...]

The US House voted 225-199 Tuesday to extend the deadline for employees to sue their employer for payment discrimination. The new legislation, the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 , would allow employees to sue within 180 days of their last affected paychecks, effectively reversing the ruling of the US Supreme Court in Ledbetter v. [...]

Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel said Tuesday that Georgia's controversial voter ID law will begin to be enforced during Georgia's September 18 Special Elections. Handel also said that the state is filing a motion to lift a stay of proceedings in a federal challenge , which had been stayed pending a ruling from the [...]

The US House of Representatives voted 411-8 Tuesday in favor of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 , which requires members of Congress to disclose more information about their fund-raising efforts and gifts they receive from lobbyists, and also prohibits former congress members from lobbying for a short period of time. Other [...]

The Iranian Judiciary confirmed Tuesday that Iranian Kurdish journalists Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed "Hiva" Botimar have been sentenced to death for being "enemies of God." Rights groups, including Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had earlier reported the death sentences after initial reports emerged that the two journalists had been sentenced on July 16. RSF said that [...]

The New Jersey Superior Court on Tuesday affirmed a lower court decision that New Jersey is not an appropriate forum for 98 English and Welsh plaintiffs to proceed with personal injury lawsuits against the New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giant Merck . The court held that the UK was an adequate alternative home forum for the plaintiffs [...]

The Queen's Bench Division of the England and Wales High Court ruled Tuesday that the continued imprisonment of two inmates serving indeterminate prison sentences without the means to prove their rehabilitation constitutes arbitrary and unreasonable detention and is therefore unlawful. An indeterminate sentence, also referred to as an imprisonment for public protection sentence (IPP) , [...]

The Namibian human rights group National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) Tuesday said that it has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate former Namibian President Sam Nujoma in connection with the disappearance of over 4,200 people during the country's struggle for independence from South Africa in the second half of the 20th century. [...]

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda Tuesday rebuked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for criticizing the East Timorese-Indonesian Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) . Ban said last week that the commission violates international humanitarian standards because it allows for the possibility of amnesty for perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Wirajuda said that the government of East-Timor [...]