The Portuguese government plans to seek approval in the Portuguese Parliament of a proposal to make abortion legal in the country, despite low turnout in Sunday's referendum on loosening the current law . Approximately 59 percent of voters were in favor of loosening restrictions against abortion, while 41 percent voted to keep abortion illegal. Only [...]

Jury selection begins Monday in the first trial of thousands of lawsuits brought by Louisiana homeowners affected by the Hurricane Katrina disaster against their insurance companies. Homeowners Lawrence and Elizabeth Tomlinson are suing Allstate insurance company in federal court for bad faith, alleging that the insurance carrier did not correctly adjust their claim and also [...]

Prosecutors in the ongoing genocide trial of Saddam-era officials before the Iraqi High Tribunal introduced a videotape Sunday of executions and destruction of Kurdish homes during the "Anfal" campaigns of the 1980s, which claimed an estimated 180,000 Kurdish lives. Chief prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said the video illustrated that Iraqi soldiers were not merely acting to [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) Sunday to spare the life of former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan citing a lack of evidence tying him to the 1982 Dujail killings for which he is charged. The court reconvenes on Monday to determine whether Ramadan's life sentence should be abandoned in [...]

A referendum on Portugal's strict abortion laws indicated Sunday that a majority of voters support loosening the current law , but turnout was likely too low to give the decision legal force. Exit polls from Radiotelevisao Portuguesa showed that between 57 and 61 percent of voters would legalize abortion up until the 10th week of [...]

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged swift resolution on the issue of the European constitution at a press conference with Polish President Lech Kaczynski Saturday. Barroso said, "We are not credible when we say that we try to speak with one voice to third parties and go on speaking with 27 voices inside the [...]

A US Bureau of Prisons evaluation has concluded that alleged terrorist Jose Padilla is competent to stand trial. Previous evaluations of Padilla by a psychiatrist and clinical psychologist suggested that he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his years in detention in a US naval brig as an "enemy combatant" , [...]

The Canadian government of Conservative Party Prime Minister Stephen Harper will likely allow two provisions of its Anti-Terrorism Act to expire at the end of next week now that the opposition Liberal Party has withdrawn its support for the clauses. The controversial provisions include a preventive arrest clause that allows police to arrest suspects without [...]

US ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina Douglas McElhaney has told the Nezavisne Novine daily that the US wants the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to stay open beyond the end of its scheduled trials in 2008 and appeals in 2010 until police arrest two of the tribunal's most wanted fugitives. Bosnian Serb leader Radovan [...]

A US Justice Department spokesman said late Friday that the federal appeals court decision giving suspected Iraq terrorist Shawqi Omar the right to argue his case before a US court will "inappropriately interfere with the executive branch's prerogative to prosecute a war." Omar, who the US describes as a close associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi [...]