The US military has denied allegations of Guantanamo Bay soldiers desecrating copies of the Koran during a May clash between prisoners and guards after four prisoners attempted suicide. Military officials on Thursday stood by their original version of events , saying that Joint Task Force troops were lured into a trap by staged suicide attempts, [...]

Texas Governor Rick Perry has said that he plans to create a virtual border watch program , installing night-vision cameras along the Mexican border and streaming live video on the Internet to aid in the state's effort to crack down on illegal immigration . The $5 million plan will make the images available to anyone [...]

The US Senate on Thursday rejected a bill that would have given Native Hawaiians self-governance powers in line with those accorded to Native Americans. The Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act was rejected by a margin of 56-41 in a procedural vote Thursday, falling short of the necessary 60 votes to proceed with a final vote [...]

Russia has extradited Dragan Zelenovic , a Bosnian Serb wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to Bosnia, according to the Bosnian war crimes court on Friday. Bosnia plans to transfer Zelenovic to the ICTY "immediately" , possibly within 36 hours. Russia handed Zelenovic, wanted for rape and torture during Bosnia's [...]

The Supreme Court of Virginia has ordered a new trial for death row inmate Daryl Atkins, instructing the trial court to determine whether Atkins is mentally retarded and therefore ineligible for the death penalty after the 2002 US Supreme Court ruling in Atkins v. Virginia declaring capital punishment for the mentally retarded unconstitutional. Atkins had [...]

Text of a letter to Vice President Dick Cheney from US Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, June 7, 2006 . Excerpt: I was surprised, to say the least, that you sought to influence, really determine, the action of the Committee without calling me first, or at least calling me at some [...]

Vice President Dick Cheney Thursday met accusations from Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) that he had interfered with Specter's proposal to have his committee subpoena three phone companies accused of allegedly providing records to the National Security Administration by saying that he often makes contact with senators regarding upcoming committee actions, and that the [...]

Supporters of repealing the federal estate tax failed Wednesday to get enough votes to begin floor debate on the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2005 , which would allow wealthy families to avoid the estate tax, which can be as high as 46%, on the portion of their estate worth more than $2 million [...]

The first commissioned US military officer to publicly refuse to join the war in Iraq did so Wednesday, calling the war "unlawful" in a taped statement played at a press conference in Tacoma, Washington, near the US Army base at Ft. Lewis . First Lt. Ehren Watada said he will not apply for conscientious objector [...]

Wednesday's Council of Europe (COE) report accusing 14 European countries of taking an active or passive role in a "global spider's web" of secret CIA prisons and rendition flights has drawn sharp rebukes from the US, the UK, and Poland, all of which were targets of criticism. The United States Wednesday called the report by [...]