AP is reporting that a federal judge has ruled that an FBI raid on the congressional office of US Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) was legal and has denied Jefferson's request that documents seized during the raid be returned to him. 4:45 PM ET – After the FBI raided his congressional office as part of an [...]

The parliament of Egypt passed a new press law on Monday but removed a particularly controversial provision that would have allowed journalists to be imprisoned for reporting on alleged financial impropriety by public officials. Still, journalists and rights groups fear that other provisions threaten the freedom of the press. Although the law abolishes jail sentences [...]

A lawyer for the US Justice Department (DOJ) argued in federal court again Monday that a lawsuit challenging the National Security Agency's warrantless domestic surveillance program must be dismissed because defending it in court would jeopardize national security. In the hearing in US District Court in Detroit, DOJ special litigation counsel Anthony J. Coppolino said [...]

Prosecutors working for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal began formal investigation Monday of criminal acts allegedly committed by surviving leaders of the communist Khmer Rouge regime, which ruled Cambodia from 1975-1978 and was responsible for the deaths of at least 1.5 million Cambodians by execution, forced hardships, or starvation in the so-called "Killing Fields." Led [...]

The government of Iraq plans to ask the UN Security Council to lift Coalition troops' immunity from Iraqi law, Human Rights Minister Wijdan Michael said Monday. She indicated that a committee formed last week is preparing reports for the Iraqi Cabinet, adding that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki could present Iraq's request to the Security Council [...]

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said on Monday that Japan is considering whether launching a pre-emptive strike on North Korean missile bases would violate its constitution if there is no other option to prevent an attack from North Korea . Though Article 9 of the post-World War II Japanese constitution bars the use of [...]

Prisoners at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay have been subjected to "systematic physical, psychological, sexual, medical and religious abuse," according to a report released Monday by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) . CCR describes the 51-page "Report on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba," as [...]

The government of Sri Lanka said Monday that it will propose constitutional reform in a series of meetings beginning Tuesday in a bid to end a two decade old civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels , who want a separate ethnic homeland in the north and east of the country. The Tamil Tigers have indicated [...]

Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker on Monday filed an emergency appeal with the Georgia Supreme Court on behalf of Governor Sonny Perdue , asking the court to overturn a lower court judge's Friday decision to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the implementation of a law requiring Georgia voters to produce photo identification cards. In [...]

The British government is sending Home Office minister Baroness Scotland to the US on Thursday to push for US ratification of the treaty aligning extradition requests between the two nations, which the UK has already ratified. Under the UK Extradition Act 2003 which enshrines the treaty in British law, three British bankers wanted in the [...]