Rizgar Mohammed Amin , the Iraqi Kurdish judge who presided over the Saddam Hussein Dujail trial before resigning in early 2006 over criticisms of his handling of the case, has said that Hussein's execution violated Iraqi law banning executions during the Muslim Eid holiday. Sunnis began celebrating the holiday on Saturday, the day Hussein's death [...]

Federal courts are closed Tuesday under a proclamation issued last week appointing Tuesday as a National Day of Mourning for former US President Gerald R. Ford , who died last week at the age of 93. President Bush ordered most federal offices to be closed Tuesday as a mark of respect for Ford, though some [...]

Pope Benedict XVI stressed the importance of respecting human rights as the foundation for peace in a New Year's homily at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome Monday. In his message for World Peace Day, marked by the Catholic Church on January 1 since 1968, the Pope pointed specifically to conflicts in the Middle East and [...]

US Chief Justice John Roberts called failure to raise the pay of federal judges a "constitutional crisis" in his 2006 year-end report on the federal judiciary , released Monday. Making that the sole focus of his second such report since taking office, Roberts decried the growing disparity between private sector salaries and federal judiciary compensation, [...]

Germany took over the six-month rotating European Union presidency with the New Year on Monday, promising to put the stymied European constitution back on the regional bloc's agenda. In a statement posted on the new German EU presidency website, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said "If Europe is to remain able to act, it needs a [...]

The unruly nature of the weekend hanging of Saddam Hussein as especially revealed by a grainy but graphic camera phone video taken at the scene prompted protest and disavowal Monday as Sunnis condemned the treatment of the ousted Iraqi president and angry American officials in Iraq sought to distance themselves from events as they actually [...]

Australia's new independent military prosecutor has called the treatment of Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks "abominable" in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. Brigadier Lyn McDade told the Herald, "Quite frankly, I think it's wrong. I don't care what he's done or alleged to have done. I think he's entitled to a trial and [...]

A slew of new US state laws will greet the New Year when they take effect on January 1. The state minimum wage will increase in Arizona , California , Delaware , Massachusetts , New York , North Carolina , and Pennsylvania . Currently, the federal rate is set at $5.15 . Some states' minimum-wage [...]

The California state correctional facility in Chino was under lockdown Sunday after prison authorities put down a major race riot that broke out Saturday morning reportedly setting blacks and Hispanic inmates against each other in one of the worst instances of prison rioting in the state in years. A California Corrections Department spokesperson said that [...]

Apple Computer, Inc. Friday disclosed the findings of an internal report into alleged stock option manipulation by senior managers, including CEO Steve Jobs, purporting to clear its executives of any wrong-doing and concluding that Jobs did not "financially benefit" from stock options, despite knowledge of favorable grant dates. Apple was facing a US Securities and [...]