US President George W. Bush vowed Wednesday to increase efforts to reform US immigration laws and crack down on illegal drug trafficking during a press conference in Merida, Mexico, with new Mexican President Felipe Calderon . Bush pledged to work with lawmakers across party lines, but noted that immigration issues are sensitive and can inflame [...]

A California state judge on Wednesday dropped the felony charges against four defendants in the Hewlett-Packard (HP) pretexting scandal after the defendants pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of fraudulent wire communications and agreed to complete 96 hours of community service and pay restitution by September. The four defendants, including former HP CEO Patricia Dunn [...]

A federal judge on Wednesday held Sudan liable in the 2000 al-Qaeda bombing of the USS Cole , and moved the civil trial of a suit brought by families of seventeen US sailors killed in the bombing to the damages phase. AP quoted US District Judge Robert Doumar of the US District Court for the [...]

Lawyers boycotted courts across Pakistan Wednesday for a third day in a continued effort to protest Friday's suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry for unspecified misconduct. The nationwide strike by Pakistani lawyers was coupled with rallies held in Karachi and other urban centers. Pakistan Bar Council President Qazi Anwar told AFP that starting Thursday [...]

Zimbabwe prosecutors failed to appear in court on Wednesday to prosecute opposition presidential hopeful Morgan Tsvangirai , arrested at a protest in Harare Sunday, leaving him free to return home. On Monday, Tsvangirai's lawyer and party officials said he was beaten while in police custody; he appeared in court Tuesday with a large gash on [...]

Senator John McGee : "We are a nation of immigrants. Legal immigrants have played, and continue to play, an integral and welcome role in our country's growth and development. But the key word is "legal." In the last 15 years, "illegal immigration" has become a baffling problem that puts enormous financial and social pressure on [...]

China uses the same strict organ donation procedures when accepting organs from executed criminals as any other organ donations, an anonymous senior Chinese Supreme Court official told the state Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday. The court official said that China only harvests organs from executed criminals when either the criminal or their family consents, and [...]

Several Native American groups are voicing opposition to a proposed Oklahoma law that would require all official state business be conducted in English on the grounds, arguing it would stifle efforts to revive tribal languages. As drafted, the Oklahoma English Language Act contains exceptions including "teaching or studying other languages," protecting the rights of criminal [...]

Passage of a draft law aimed at dividing oil proceeds among various religious and ethnic groups in Iraq is critical to continued US support of the current Iraqi government, associates of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told AP Tuesday. The draft oil law approved by the Iraqi cabinet in late February is now before the Iraqi [...]

Several US soldiers testified against their former squad leader Tuesday in a case relating to the killing of several Iraqi detainees after a May 9, 2006 raid in Thar Thar, a town near Samarra in Iraq's Salahuddin province. Staff Sgt. Raymond Girouard faces court-martial on charges of premeditated murder for his alleged involvement in the [...]