France's Constitutional Council , the country's highest court, has struck down a clause in a 2005 French law that requires teachers to stress the positive aspects of French colonialism. The court reasoned it was "outside the competence of the legislature" to make such a determination. Earlier this year, French President Jacques Chirac said the law [...]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Tuesday ruled that immigration lists barring non-Europeans from EU countries must comply with the principle of freedom of movement and that EU members states must investigate whether the presence in the EU of persons on the list poses a true threat. The case before the court involved two [...]

During testimony before the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Tuesday, Richard Sticker, George Bush's nominee to head the Mine Safety and Health Agency , told senators that current mine safety laws were adequate, and that problems arise because of insufficient enforcement. President Bush first announced Stickler's nomination to the post [...]

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called President George Bush a "warmonger" and said he should be brought before a "people's tribunal" to answer for American actions in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and elsewhere that are "killing people by the million." During his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Bush for [...]

Lawyers for the US Justice Department on Tuesday urged a federal judge to dismiss Connecticut's lawsuit challenging the No Child Left Behind Act , arguing that the state understood the law's requirements when officials accepted federal education funding and therefore cannot avoid obligations under the law. Connecticut filed the lawsuit in August 2005, alleging that [...]

Israeli police Wednesday forcibly evacuated a West Bank Jewish settlement at Amona and demolished nine houses illegally built on Palestinian land after the Israeli Supreme Court rejected a last-minute appeal by residents. The outpost, along with many others, was set for evacuation under the road map peace plan , which calls for the removal of [...]

Lawyers representing I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on Tuesday offered details regarding his likely defense to charges that he lied to investigators about his role in exposing the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Libby, the former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, was indicted in the CIA leak case but has pleaded not [...]

After efforts to reach a long-term renewal of the USA Patriot Act stalled again last week, Congress is set to approve another short-term extension of the legislation to allow continued negotiations on the balance between civil liberties and the war on terror. Sixteen key provisions of the Patriot Act were set to expire at the [...]

The Saddam Hussein trial resumed in Baghdad Wednesday with Hussein, four co-defendants, and defense lawyers boycotting the proceedings in protest against the new chief judge. Ra'uf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman was named chief judge after Rizgar Mohammed Amin resigned earlier this month. At the last trial session Sunday, Abdel-Rahman promised stricter courtroom control but the strategy produced [...]

Leading Wednesday's international brief, the Ugandan Constitutional Court has declared that a military court-martial of Ugandan opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye is illegal and ordered all charges against the defendant dropped. The court held that the concurrent trials of Besigye in the civilian criminal justice system and in the General Court-Martial (GCM) of the Ugandan [...]