An Italian appeals court Friday denied the request of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to remove the judge presiding over his tax fraud trial. Berlusconi and co-defendant David Mills had asked that Judge Edoardo d'Avossa be removed from the current trial, citing d'Avossa's involvement with other Berlusconi trials. The Milan appeals court rejected the [...]

Mexican President-elect Felipe Calderon was formally sworn in as President of Mexico in a hasty ceremony before the Mexican Congress Friday after a midnight swearing in by outgoing President Vicente Fox several hours earlier. Officials previously declared Calderon the winner of Mexico's July 2 presidential election by a margin of 0.6 percent, sparking protest and [...]

The Iraqi Interior Ministry has announced that it is forming a specialized unit to monitor news coverage. A ministry spokesman told AP the unit was designed to correct “fabricated and false news” that he claims gives the Iraqi people the wrong idea that the situation is worse than it actually is. The Ministry further threatened [...]

The US Supreme Court granted certiorari in three cases Friday, most notably Morse v. Frederick (06-278) , which addresses whether a school board had the right to suspend a then-high school senior for holding a banner that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" away from school property while the Olympic torch made its way through Juneau, [...]

Four of six Dutch terror suspects on trial for planning attacks against Dutch politicians and government facilities were found guilty in Amsterdam Friday. The convicted include 20-year-old Samir Azzouz , who was sentenced to a prison term of eight years for his central role in the plot and the making of a suicide-bomber video. Defendants [...]

The US Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced Friday that it has settled 45 lawsuits concerning 22 priests accused of clergy sexual abuse for $60 million. Ray Boucher , the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, told AP that the archdiocese would pay more than $50 million, while approximately $8 million would come from other [...]

Serb nationalist war crimes suspect Vojislav Seselj , who has been on hunger strike for since Nov. 11, agreed Friday to medical examination by an "independent" team of doctors composed of a Serb, a French and a Russian national. Seselj had previously refused medical attention by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [...]

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf signed new legislation Friday allows rape cases to be tried in either secular or Islamic courts, reduces the evidentiary burden necessary for conviction, and substitutes a fine and five-year prison term for persons found guilty of having sex outside of marriage. The Protection of Women Bill, approved by Pakistan's Senate , [...]

Maryland's solicitor general urged the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Thursday to overturn a district court decision striking down Maryland's Fair Share Health Care Fund Act . The law would have required companies with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least eight percent of their payroll on employee health care or [...]

A California appeals court has ruled that a 2005 referendum authorizing the transfer of land, on which a 29-foot cross commemorating veterans sits, to the federal government did not violate the California constitution . The land, owned by the city of San Diego, has been the subject of a legal battle since 1989 . A [...]