Iowa Governor Tom Vislack Monday made good on a promise to restore voting rights to convicted felons once their sentences has been served. Last month he announced he would sign an executive order to automatically restore voting privileges on July 4. Previously, offenders had to apply to the governor's office to be allowed to vote [...]

Senior Sunni clerics will soon announce plans to issue a religious edict, or fatwa, encouraging Sunni Muslims in Iraq to join the political process and support the drafting of a new Iraqi constitution, according to Adnan Dulaimi, head of the Sunni Endowment in charge of Sunni religious affairs, speaking Monday. Word of the edict came [...]

A spokesman for the Iranian Judiciary Tuesday denied reports that a man convicted of blinding another person would have his eyes surgically removed, saying the country would not carry out such a punishment. Earlier, an Iranian newspaper reported that the Iranian Supreme Court had rejected the appeal of a man sentenced to have his eyes [...]

The province of Quebec asked the Supreme Court of Canada on Monday for an 18-month stay of its ruling that overturned a ban on private health insurance . The court found in favor of a Montreal man who objected to a law that blocked him from paying for a hip replacement procedure himself in order [...]

Indonesia Tuesday formally rejected a UN recommendation that an international tribunal investigate and try those accused of human rights violations in its former province of East Timor during the independence troubles there in 1999. While Indonesia and now-separate East Timor had previously agreed to establish a commission to investigate the abuses , a three-member UN [...]

In an interview with USA Today, President Bush Monday called for special-interest groups to "tone down the heated rhetoric" over the new US Supreme Court vacancy created by Friday's retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor and focus on the "credentials and philosophy" of potential nominees. Bush objected in particular to criticism from both conservatives and liberals [...]

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday that the US Congress should "correct its mistaken ways" and "stop interfering in the normal commercial exchanges" between the two nations in response to House objections to a $18.5 billion bid by the China National Offshore Oil Company Ltd. (CNOOC) to purchase US oil giant Unocal [...]

Lawyers for the state of Israel have argued in court papers filed with the Israeli High Court that moving a portion of the fully-constructed Security Fence as requested by Palestinian villagers is precluded by cost, said to be the first public admission by Israel that the route of the fence was not solely based on [...]

Philippines President Gloria Arroyo said in a statement Tuesday that she "welcomed" the endorsement of an impeachment complaint against her, eager for a chance to refute allegations of voter fraud in the 2004 national election. A controversial audio tape allegedly documents Arroyo planning to fix the election. Her husband has gone into voluntary exile after [...]

A member of Swaziland's Parliament says that King Mswati III has sent the country's proposed Constitution , adopted by the House of Assembly and Senate in June back to the country's parliament for further debate. While the document maintains broad powers for the king, he requested that parliament review a clause naming Christianity as Swaziland's [...]