US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) said Friday that he would not allow any further floor debate on the controversial asbestos compensation bill unless 60 senators pledged their support for the legislation in order to head off a possible filibuster. On Tuesday Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) raised an objection to the proposed law, arguing [...]

The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) in Haiti acknowledged for the first time Friday that the country's February 7 presidential election was tainted by fraud, just one day after awarding the presidency to leading candidate Rene Preval after negotiations that ended early Thursday. Specifically the CEP said that between 85,000 and 90,000 out of 2.2 million [...]

US Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) , chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee , said in an interview with the New York Times reported Saturday that he wants to bring the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program within the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) . Roberts acknowledged that he was unclear on the mechanics [...]

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office announced Friday that it has begun an investigation of newspaper editor Anna Smirnova whose newspaper Nash Region reprinted controversial caricatures of Muhammad this week as the first Russian media outlet to do so. Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the publications of the cartoons that have sparked protest worldwide since their [...]

In comments after a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations Friday, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld flatly rejected the United Nation's call for the US to shut down its military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay , asserting that the facility currently holds several hundred terrorists who would pose a substantial security risk to [...]

Arar v. Ashcroft, United States District Court, United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, February 16, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US Supreme Court Friday scheduled new oral arguments in a whistleblower free speech case where the Court initially deadlocked 4-4. In Garcetti v. Ceballos , a Los Angeles county prosecutor claimed he was demoted for testifying that a deputy sheriff lied in a search warrant affidavit. During the first round of oral arguments in [...]

AP is reporting that a federal jury has cleared Merck of responsibility in the death of a Florida man who had taken the popular painkiller Vioxx . The painkiller was recalled in 2004 after clinical tests showed that patients who use the drug for more than 18 months faced an increased risk of stroke and [...]

The Georgia House of Representatives approved a bill Friday protecting physicians who assist the state in performing lethal injections. The bill, which overwhelmingly passed the House 157-1, would protect any doctor or medical professional assisting in an execution from having their state license challenged, suspended or revoked. The bill now moves on to the Senate. [...]

Merrill Lynch said Friday it will pay $164 million to settle 23 class action lawsuits involving Merrill Lynch's research of internet companies in the 1990s. Merrill Lynch filed a report with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, informing them of the settlement plan and stating that the courts must still approve it. As [...]