US Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and US Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) said Sunday they will push legislation in the US Congress that would mandate that states improve their system for reporting mental health records of gun purchasers to the federal databases for background checks in the wake of last Monday's shootings at the Virginia Polytechnic [...]

President Bush defended US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Monday after US Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) , the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, publicly criticized Gonzales Sunday for his role in the controversial firing of eight US attorneys and said Gonzales' testimony before the Judiciary Committee last week was "very, very damaging to his [...]

An arrest warrant issued over the weekend for former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was suspended Monday after police asked the judge presiding over the case to allow them more time to continue their investigation. Hasina was charged in absentia earlier this month with four counts of murder arising from the deaths of four protesters [...]

Boris Yeltsin , Russia's first elected president and the primary architect of the country's shift towards democratic government in the 1990s, died Monday, according to Russian wire services. Yeltsin was 76 and had a history of health problems, including heart trouble. Initial wire reports did not give the cause of death but said that Yeltsin [...]

A Bangladeshi court issued a warrant Sunday for the arrest of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed who is currently exiled in London. Wajed was stopped from boarding a plane in London Sunday after the interim government issued an international warning to prohibit Wajed from returning to the country. Wajed was charged in absentia [...]

A previously undisclosed report by US Army Major General Eldon Bargewell into the November 2005 killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha found "serious misconduct" on all levels of the US Marine Corps chain of command, the Washington Post reported Sunday. Bargewell's investigation concluded in June 2006 finding no evidence of a cover-up , but [...]

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signed legislation Saturday recognizing domestic partnership status for same-sex couples. The law guarantees gay and lesbian couples some of the legal rights that previously were afforded only to husband and wife. To be considered a legally recognizable domestic partnership, couples must be over the age of 18, live together and not [...]

The two major opposition parties in Nigeria and an election watch group on Sunday challenged the legitimacy of the country's Saturday presidential elections, reporting voting delays and potential ballot-rigging in favor of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) , party of outgoing Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo , in a contest that appeared to draw a low [...]

Former chess champion and liberal United Civil Front leader Garry Kasparov has accused Russian police of "brutality" after meeting with Kremlin officials Friday to give an account of his treatment at the hands of police agents following his arrest participating in the latest of a series of "Dissenters' Marches." Kasparov was detained on April 14 [...]

A French appeals court Saturday acquitted one of 12 individuals who appealed their convictions in a 2005 child prostitution case, one of the biggest criminal trials in the country's history . Sixty-two men and women were initially convicted for offering forty-five children, ranging in age from six months to fifteen years, for sex from 1999 [...]