Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski signed two gay rights bills into law Wednesday, establishing civil unions for gay couples and enacting anti-discrimination measures. House Bill 2007 allows same-sex couples to enter into contractual domestic partnerships with the same state benefits as married couples. The measure covers state benefits including inheritance, child custody, and hospital visitation rights, [...]

An Alabama grand jury issued a sealed indictment Wednesday in the 1965 shooting and death of 26-year-old Jimmie Lee Jackson by state trooper James Bonard Fowler during an attempt by state troopers to disperse a protest against the jailing of a civil rights worker. The indictment, which will remain sealed until it is served, is [...]

The Iraqi Council of Representatives Wednesday approved a measure to take legal action against Al Jazeera television for alleged insults against top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani . The measure followed days of protests by thousands of Shi'a Muslims in the southern cities of Basra and Najaf against Egyptian talk show host Ahmed Mansour, [...]

Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry Tuesday reluctantly signed a strict immigration reform bill meant to discourage illegal immigration. The Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007 denies illegal immigrants state identification, and requires all state and local agencies to verify citizenship status of applicants before authorizing benefits. The law also require public employers to enter [...]

A Zimbabwe court ruled Wednesday that British national Simon Mann could be extradited to Equatorial Guinea to face charges of plotting a coup against Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo . Mann's defense team had argued against Mann's extradition on the grounds that he is likely to face torture and possible death in Equatorial [...]

A UK court found two men guilty of violating Section 3 of Britain's Official Secrets Act by leaking a secret memo in which President Bush was said to have told UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in April 2004 of a plan to bomb Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera at the height of the US campaign against [...]

The new UK Ministry of Justice began operations Wednesday, as a controversial split of the traditional Home Office that is setting the British government against the judiciary went into effect. Lord Falconer of Thoroton , serving as the first Secretary of State for Justice, said that the new focus of the Justice Ministry "provides the [...]

The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) reduced the sentence of former Bratunac brigade commander Vidoje Blagojevic from 18 to 15 years for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre . The court reversed Blagojevic's conviction on charges of complicity in genocide, holding that Blagojevic should have been acquitted [...]

Three US lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday to close the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay , calling the prison a symbol of US failure and hypocrisy. Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) announced the legislation with a statement Tuesday, asserting: Guantanamo has become a liability. The real and perceived injustices occurring there have given our enemies an [...]

A federal judge dismissed the indictment against anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles on Tuesday, holding that the government purposefully manipulated Carriles' statement in order to charge him with lying to immigration authorities. The government alleged that Carriles confessed to illegally crossing the Mexican border, but US District Judge Kathleen Cardone held that the interpretation of [...]