Citizens of the Netherlands went to the polls Wednesday to vote on whether to accept the proposed European Constitution . Recent opinion surveys say that nearly 60% of Dutch voters plan to reject the document, citing concerns such as discontent with the Dutch government, rising prices following introduction of the Euro, fears of being engulfed [...]

Florida Governor Jeb Bush Tuesday signed into law House Bill 1041 , providing for increased state oversight of clinics that provide second-trimester abortions. Bush said the law is about increasing safety standards and does not affect constitutionally protected abortion rights. Opponents say its true goal is to close clinics . Read the Bush press release [...]

Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, sentenced Tuesday to nine years in jail for fraud and tax evasion, will appeal the verdict but his lawyers say they do not expect the appeal to be considered until September at the earliest. President Bush said on Tuesday that the US is continuing to monitor the case amidst concerns [...]

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Tuesday formally appealed the March California Superior Court ruling that the state's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. That order was stayed in anticipation of this appeal. Reuters has more.

Chinese authorities have detained Zhu Jiuhi, a Beijing lawyer and activist for the development of rule of law after he attempted to file a landmark civil suit against the provincial government and lower-level governments for confiscating private investors' oil wells estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. No official charges have been brought [...]

The author of the Vanity Fair article that on Tuesday revealed the long-secret identity of "Deep Throat" is a San Francisco lawyer who first learned in 2002 that the Watergate leaker was former FBI deputy director W. Mark Felt . A friend of his daughter told John O'Connor , an attorney with the Howard Rice [...]

After a protracted Senate battle over judicial nominees , President Bush Tuesday pledged to consult with members of the Senate on an upcoming nomination to the Supreme Court:I'm obviously going to spend a lot of time reviewing the records of a variety of people and looking at their opinions and their character, and will consult [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday struck down part of the Bush administration's new financial disclosure requirements for unions, but upheld others. A majority of the three-judge panel found that Labor Secretary Elaine Chao exceeded her authority under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act by requiring reports on union [...]

The Libyan Supreme Court has postponed until November 15 a ruling on the death sentences of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who were convicted in May 2004 of purposely infecting 400 children with the virus that causes AIDS during an experiment to find a cure for the disease. The medical workers say they [...]

Chinese UN Ambassador Wang Guangya has said China is opposed to a recently-introduced resolution that would expand the UN Security Council to include Brazil, Germany, India and Japan. In an interview with AP Tuesday, Wang called the plan "dangerous" and hinted China would use its veto power against it when the General Assembly votes in [...]