California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 into law Wednesday, marking the approval of the first US bill designed to restrict greenhouse gas emissions. Among other provisions, the law aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 and grants new authority to the California Air Resources Board [...]

The US House of Representatives approved its version of the controversial military commissions bill Wednesday by a margin of 253-168 with 160 Democrats voting against the legislation. After passage, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) combatively commended fellow Republicans for their efforts in pushing the legislation through:House Republicans have worked hard to create a system that will [...]

Former Bosnian Serb parliamentary leader Momcilo Krajisnik was sentenced to 27 years' imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Wednesday for various war crimes related to his role in atrocities committed against Croats and Muslims during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. According to the official judgment summary , the ICTY found [...]

Retired US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor warned Wednesday against growing efforts at "judicial intimidation" in the United States. In a Wall St. Journal op-ed O'Connor said that a recently-proposed South Dakota constitutional amendment to end judicial immunity, promoted in a what she called a "venomous" manner by a national group called JAIL 4 [...]

A Belgrade court Wednesday began trial proceedings for ten Serbs charged with hiding former Bosnian Serb military chief and indicted war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic and helping him evade prosecution by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) . The proceedings will most likely remain closed to the public because of the government's [...]

A federal jury in Louisiana found Merck not liable Tuesday for the heart attack of plaintiff Robert Garry Smith after he took the company's painkiller Vioxx for about four months in late 2002 and early 2003. Merck argued that it acted reasonably in voluntarily added a warning of increased risk of heart attack and stoke [...]

Israeli human rights group B'Tselem issued a report Wednesday concluding that the June 28 bombing by Israeli forces of a power plant in the Gaza Strip during the early stages of the 34-day Middle East conflict precipitated by the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers amounts to a war crime under international humanitarian law as an act [...]

An EU panel comprised of European data security officials has decided to delay the release of a final report on a Bush administration program that keeps track of international financial transactions until further investigations into whether the program violates EU privacy law are complete. On Monday, Peter Schaar, head of the European Commission's Article 29 [...]

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday released Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Naser al-Shaer, detained in August for his membership in Hamas after Hamas members in Gaza seized an Israeli soldier. Thirty-one Hamas lawmakers are still in detention, and on Monday an IDF military court ordered the continued detention of most of them , reversing [...]

The US House of Representatives approved a bill Tuesday that would prohibit federal courts from awarding attorney's fees to plaintiffs challenging the use of "religious words or imagery" in a public building, a veteran's memorial, or on the official seals of the United States. The 244-173 vote approving the Public Expression of Religion Act is [...]