French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin expressed support Tuesday for a proposed immigration law , but indicated that its language could be amended after meeting over the weekend with leaders of the Catholic and Protestant churches in France, who oppose the bill. The National Assembly will first consider the measure Tuesday afternoon, but religious and [...]

Iran Monday denounced what it called US 'threats' of possible military action against it in connection with its development of nuclear technology as illegal and urged UN action. Iranian ambassador to the UN Javad Zarif said in a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that "US dailies are publishing stories about possibility of aggression on [...]

A Turkish appeals court has rejected a prosecutor's recommendation and has ruled that charges still stand against Hrant Dink, a high-profile Turkish-Armenian journalist and editor of the newspaper Agos who has written about the killings of an estimated million Ottoman Armenians in the early 20th century. Accused of publicly denigrating or insulting Turkishness under controversial [...]

Marshall v. Marshall, Supreme Court of the United States, May 1, 2006 . Excerpt from the Opinion per Justice Ginsburg: the probate exception reserves to state probate courts the probate or annulment of a will and the administration of a decedent's estate; it also precludes federal courts from endeavoring to dispose of property that is [...]

Hundreds of thousands of US immigrants boycotted work and participated in protests across the country Monday as part of the "Day Without Immigrants" , a nationwide, day-long effort to influence the ongoing immigration reform debate in Congress. Those boycotting work mostly consisted of Hispanic immigrants, both legal and illegal, and succeeded in shutting down numerous [...]

The retrial of two Enron broadband executives on conspiracy and fraud charges is set to begin Tuesday, nearly a year after a jury acquitted five former executives on some charges and failed to reach a verdict on several others. Lawyers for former accountant Michael Krautz and former CFO Kevin Howard argued that it would be [...]

South Africa is considering how to handle the recent declassification of a 1992 report made by a top general to former South Africa President FW de Klerk detailing involvement by the South African military in unofficial violence during the final years of apartheid . According to the Steyn report, named after General Pierre Steyn who [...]

The Istanbul Bar Association has urged the Turkish government to withdraw proposed anti-terror legislation, warning that the bill could harm freedom, while adding nothing to the previously adopted Turkish Penal Code . The Bar Association, in a written statement made Friday, argued that the anti-terror bill could result in stiff punishments for the media and [...]

Over 1,000 protesters gathered in Minsk Monday to call for the release of opposition politicians in Belarus , including Alexander Milinkevich , who was jailed last week for attending an illegal demonstration. Milinkevich and several other opposition politicians were detained after a rally to mark the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Milinkevich told the [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Monday in Marshall v. Marshall , 04-1544, that federal courts can in some cases decide disputes which involve state probate laws. In overturning a decision from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Court handed a victory to model Anna Nicole Smith (Vickie Lynn Marshall) in her [...]