The 32 UN ambassadors who make up the intergovernmental negotiating group named by the UN General Assembly president last week continued negotiations Tuesday on the text to be submitted to September's summit on UN reform . The group is conducting a week-long meeting to respond to last-minute revisions to the draft submitted by US Ambassador [...]

Zimbabwe's parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved constitutional reforms that opposition lawmakers and many observers claimed would drastically reduce the rights of the country's citizens. The legislation, approved 103-29 in a legislature dominated by the Zanu PF party , the party of President Robert Mugabe , halts legal challenges by white farmers to government land seizures, [...]

US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia denounced the increasingly large role politics and moral issues have played in recent judicial appointments and decisions in a speech Monday at Chapman University . Scalia blasted "judge moralists" and said he was disappointed that the US Supreme Court was increasingly deciding moral issues not found in the Constitution, [...]

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has openly criticized the Senate version of the USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005 which was unanimously approved last month. Gonzales told Washington Post reporters Monday that the legislation contained "certain provisions….that make it more difficult to protect our country" against future terrorist attacks. The Senate version [...]

The Bangladesh High Court ruled Monday that the country's 1975 military takeover was "illegal" and "void" and that a martial regulation incorporated into the fifth Amendment to the Bangladesh Constitution was invalid. In their opinion, the judges ruled that the "Taking over the powers of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh with effect from the morning [...]

New Orleans CBS affiliate WWL-TV is reporting that martial law has been declared in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish after levee breaks caused major flooding in the city Tuesday morning, sending waves of water through the downtown and French Quarter. Mayor Ray Nagin is estimating that 80% of the city has been flooded. WWL-TV provides [...]

Connecticut filed a federal lawsuit against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Base Closure and Realignment Commission Monday, challenging the BRAC Commission's decision to close Connecticut's Air National Guard 103rd Fighter Wing . Connecticut is arguing that the Pentagon needs the state's approval before moving or altering the unit. Last week, a federal rule judge [...]

Bunny Greenhouse, the former top procurement official with the US Army Corps of Engineers, has said she plans to sue the Army for being demoted after accusing Halliburton of contract abuse . Greenhouse was demoted from the senior executive service Saturday to a lower-ranking job, which the Army Corps of Engineers has said was due [...]

Suspected and convicted foreign-born terrorists regularly exploit federal immigration laws to enter or remain illegally in the US, according to a new study released Tuesday by the Center for Immigration Studies . According to Immigration Benefits and Terrorism: Moving Beyond the 9/11 Staff report on Terrorist Travel , 59 of 94 foreign-born nationals convicted or [...]

US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said Tuesday that there could be further changes to the draft Iraqi constitution . Khalilzad told reporters that he believes "that a final, final draft has not yet been, or the edits have not been, presented yet." Under the Transitional Administrative Law , the draft presented to parliament Sunday [...]