The full US Senate has approved the nomination of Air Force General Michael Hayden to head the Central Intelligence Agency by a vote of 78-15 . Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) was notably one of the senators opposed. The nomination went to the Senate floor Thursday after the Senate Intelligence Committee approved it [...]

The US Senate on Friday confirmed the nomination of White House staffer Brett Kavanaugh to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by a margin of 57-36 after a test vote Thursday cleared the way for his approval . Kavanaugh faced probing questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee during confirmation hearings, but [...]

Mexican President Vicente Fox on Thursday applauded the US Senate's approval of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 that would tighten border security and allow illegal immigrants to follow a path to citizenship. Though Fox has criticized parts of the bill, including a 370 mile fence along the Mexican border and the potential for [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Thursday remanded an appeal from the Atlanta-based Cobb County School District asking the court to overturn a district court decision requiring the school district to remove stickers in their biology textbooks calling evolution "a theory, not a fact." The three-judge panel asked the district court [...]

In the wake of Thursday's release by UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith of a disclosure statement outlining his actions in rendering advice on the legality of the Iraq war to the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair in the days before invasion, government critics and media have called for further action, describing the statement as [...]

A spokesman for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission in Kandahar said Friday that some 34 Afghan civilians were killed in a US airstrike on a village in the south of the country earlier this week along with about 35 "unknown people" believed to be militants. The number of estimated civilian deaths is over twice [...]

As many as 300 reformist judges in Egypt who have called for more judicial independence from the government led by President Hosni Mubarak staged a silent protest in front of the High Court Thursday as hundreds of protesters cheered. Though protesters were greatly outnumbered by riot police, the demonstration unfolded without the violent confrontations with [...]

In a reversal of his position from only a day earlier, Bosnian Prime Minister Adnan Terzic announced Thursday that he would form a commission to probe war crimes carried out in the current capital city of Sarajevo during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s. Terzic, who has been pushing Bosnia toward greater integration with Europe, [...]

The US Senate has approved the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 by a vote of 62-36 . The bill would set millions of illegal immigrants on a path to potential citizenship and would authorize a temporary worker program. Thirty-two of the thirty-six senators voting against the bill were Republicans, including Trent Lott, Rick Santorum, [...]

A three-judge panel of the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals heard defense arguments in the appeal of three guilty bench verdicts handed down in 2004 to three US Muslims in the 'Virginia Jihad network' case . Masoud Khan was convicted of conspiracy to levy war against the United States and conspiracy to contribute services [...]