A proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit physical desecration of the American flag failed by one vote late Tuesday to get the two-thirds Senate approval necessary to send it on to the states for ratification. Senators voted 66 in favor, and 34 against . The US House of Representatives passed the amendment last summer. The last [...]

A federal judge in Manhattan ruled Tuesday that the US government violated the constitutional rights of 16 former employees of KPMG by pressuring the professional services firm to stop paying the employees' defense costs in an ongoing criminal tax shelters case . US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan found that the tactic violated the defendants' [...]

A Bosnian immigrant to the United States accused of concealing his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre to gain entry went on trial Tuesday in Boston, where survivors described their ordeals in court. Marko Boskic was charged in August 2004 with five counts of making false declarations on US immigration applications and in an interview [...]

The parliament of Egypt has passed a bill that restricts the government's influence over the judiciary but falls short of the reforms demanded by some judges. Although the Judicial Authority Law approved Monday by the People's Assembly ends the justice minister's authority over the attorney general, it does not incorporate other changes proposed by reformist [...]

The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution adopting the report of Swiss legislator Dick Marty accusing European countries of colluding with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in transporting terror suspects in a "global spider's web" of secret prisons and rendition flights. The Assembly also called for "clear regulations" to govern [...]

East Timor prosecutors have summoned former prime minister Mari Alkatiri for questioning about allegations that he formed a hit squad to target opponents. Alkatiri resigned from office Monday amid public protests. The government lawyers said Alkatiri could be charged. A close associate of Alkatiri's, former Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato, is already facing charges that he [...]

The European Court of Human Rights has rejected a request by three British bankers wanted in the US in connection with the Enron scandal to stay their extradition. David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew, and Giles Darby, formerly of NatWest , will likely be extradited to the US in mid-July to face charges that they aided Enron [...]

President Bush on Tuesday again pressed the US Senate to pass a line-item veto bill that was approved by the House last week . Speaking in Washington to members of the Manhattan Institute , Bush emphasized that the bill was crafted to pass constitutional muster: We figured out that, obviously, any line-item veto would again [...]

The FBI on Monday dropped its investigation into the library records of a Connecticut library, concluding that the identity of patrons using a particular computer last February no longer posed a threat to national security. Four librarians mounted a challenge against the National Security Letter (NSL) they received last year, refusing to turn over library [...]

An investigative committee for Thailand's Attorney General's office on Tuesday unanimously recommended that five of Thailand's political parties be dissolved because of fraud surrounding an April general election . The recommendation includes the ruling Thai Rak Thai led by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra , as well as the opposition Democrats and three smaller political parties. [...]