AP is reporting that South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds has signed legislation that will ban most abortions in the state, excluding only those necessary to save a woman's life. Under the bill , approved by the state legislature last month, doctors who perform abortions will face up to five years in jail. The bill was [...]

President Bush announced Monday that he is sending new legislation to Congress that would give him "line-item" veto power over specific provisions in Congressional spending bills, allowing rejection of particular provisions without compromising entire legislative packages. Speaking at the White House swearing-in of new Council of Economic Advisers chair Edward Lazear, Bush said :Congress gave [...]

US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema on Monday sat 12 jurors and 6 alternates in the sentencing trial of al Qaeda co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui following several weeks of jury selection . While Moussaoui's lawyers attacked many of the 83 potential jury members as being tainted with personal connections to victims of Sept. 11, the prosecution [...]

Opening statements began Monday in the second New Jersey state trial against New Jersey-based Merck over their distribution of the painkiller Vioxx . Although a New Jersey jury found Merck not liable in a separate trial last year, in the consolidated case now at trial, plaintiffs allege that damage occurred through the long-term use of [...]

During a closed session of the Johannesburg High Court on Monday, former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma pleaded not guilty to charges that he raped a guest staying at his house. The guest, a woman who had known Zuma since she was five years old, testified about the circumstances of the incident during the [...]

Five Kuwait citizens, previously held captive by the US at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, were released on bail from police custody in Kuwait on Sunday. The five were released on bail after denying the charges against them, which include joining al-Qaeda , fighting with the Taliban, and collecting donations for a terrorism-related charity. Family [...]

The US Supreme Court in a unanimous decision Monday upheld the Solomon Amendment , which requires educational institutions, including law schools, to allow military recruiters on campus in order to receive federal funds. In Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic Rights , the court considered whether the federal law violated universities' First Amendment right of association. [...]

Leading Monday's international brief, the Law Society of Kenya has said that it is initiating a private lawsuit against three senior Kenyan government officials for their part in last week's police raid on the Standard Group's journalistic offices. The suit names the attorney general, Interior Minister John Michuki, and Police Commissioner Hussein Ali as representatives [...]

An Uzbek court on Monday sentenced opposition leader Sandjar Umarov to 10 years and eight months in prison for organizing a criminal group, tax evasion and money laundering. Umarov, leader of the opposition Sunshine Uzbekistan Coalition , has said he will appeal the decision. Umarov has maintained his innocence, but presiding Judge Zokirjon Isayev said [...]

Milan Babic , former wartime leader of Croatia's rebel Serbs during the Balkan wars, was found dead in his cell at a UN detention facility Sunday after he committed suicide. Babic was sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to 13 years in prison for his role in ethnic cleansing, after pleading [...]