UK Home Secretary John Reid told journalists on Wednesday that in response to threats of terrorism, the civil liberties of individuals must be "balanced" against the "collective right to security." Reid's comments followed his Wednesday appearance before a meeting of top European Union justice officials during which he briefed them on the UK investigation into [...]

Patrick Chauke, chairperson of the South African Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs , on Wednesday ruled out an amendment to the South African Constitution legalizing same-sex marriage . Chauke said, however, that a bill legalizing same-sex partnerships will be presented to Parliament by October, just prior to the deadline set by the South African Constitutional [...]

Lu Jianhua, a Chinese sociologist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences accused of an unspecified crime involving state secrets, went on trial Wednesday at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court. Though the facts of the closed-door case were not disclosed to the public, Lu's wife Qu Ligiu told reporters that she suspects the [...]

British police officials and rights groups have spoken out in response to reports that the UK Department For Transport (DFT) may implement an airplane passenger profiling program to identify potential terrorists in the wake of last week's foiled terror plot to bomb US-bound passenger planes. Although DFT policy prevents it from commenting publicly on security [...]

US District Court Judge Sim Lake on Tuesday granted a request by a lawyer for former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay to supplant Lay's name in court records with Lay's estate. As probate law permits a legal representative of an estate to appear on behalf of the estate, the lawyer, Samuel Buffone, is now expected to [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Tuesday that a Bible included in a monument in front of a Harris County, Texas civil courthouse promotes Christianity and thereby violates the US Constitution. The monument had a secular purpose when it was erected in 1956, but a former state district judge refurbished the [...]

US Army Major General James Thurman will decide in September whether four US soldiers accused of raping and murdering a 14-year old Iraqi girl and killing three family members in Mahmudiya will face a court-martial, a US military spokesman said Wednesday. Thurman, who is the commander of the Army's 4th Infantry Division, is awaiting recommendations [...]

A federal district court judge on Tuesday ordered San Francisco Chronicle reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada to reveal the source of leaked grand jury testimony they used as background for newspaper reports and a book the two wrote about Major League Baseball player Barry Bonds and the steroid controversy involving the now-defunct BALCO corporation. [...]

An attorney representing Valerie Plame, the undercover operative whose revealed identity precipitated the CIA leak scandal , announced Tuesday he would use legal precedent from former President Bill Clinton's sexual harassment trial in a bid to force Vice President Dick Cheney and White House aide Karl Rove to testify in Plame's lawsuit against Cheney, Rove [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania (ACLU) and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF) on Tuesday sued the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania on behalf of 11 city residents and business owners over the city's tough new Illegal Immigration Relief Act . Last month, Hazleton voted to punish landlords and employers that [...]