The US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 12-1 Thursday to send a lobbying oversight bill to the full Senate, but the bill was stripped of a provision establishing an independent office with oversight over congressional ethics issues. The Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act of 2005 as approved would expand the definition of [...]

The US Senate has approved a long-term renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act by a vote of 89-10 . The vote was expected after the Senate approved amendments to the USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005 which incorporate additional civil liberties protections: allowing recipients of Section 215 subpoenas for information in terror [...]

Members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday began hammering out an immigration reform bill in the face of several competing proposals that have bitterly divided lawmakers. Committee Chairman Senator Arlen Specter's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 has come in for sharp criticism from the American Bar Association (ABA) , which opposes key provisions [...]

Libya freed 130 political prisoners on Thursday, among them 85 members of the Islamist opposition group Muslim Brotherhood , some of whom have been held since 1998. In 2002, the now-abolished People's Court sentenced the Brotherhood members for treason for participating in unauthorized political activity, which is a serious crime in Libya. The court sentenced [...]

The Mississippi House Public Health Committee has approved a bill that would prohibit most abortions in the state, and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) has said that he plans to sign the legislation if both houses of the Mississippi Legislature approve it. The bill, which only allows exceptions to save a woman's life, would tighten [...]

An Italian parliamentary commission has concluded that the Soviet Union backed the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II by Mehmet Ali Agca , in a report released on Thursday. The commission argues that the Soviets conspired to kill the pope because of his support for Poland's Solidarity labor movement and his role in [...]

The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday unanimously overturned a Quebec school board's ban on carrying Sikh ceremonial daggers at school, ruling that it infringed students' religious freedom under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms . Gurbaj Singh, 17, challenged the ban after a school prohibited him from carrying the dagger when it accidentally [...]

A British judge on Thursday approved the takeover of a British shipping and ports company by the United Arab Emirates company Dubai Ports World , a move which could lead to the Arab company taking control of operations of six major US ports. A US company, Eller & Co. , had asked the court to [...]

The US Department of Justice Thursday sued the state of New York for violating the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) by not developing voting systems that enable disabled voters easier access to cast their ballots and by not implementing a statewide computerized voter registration database. HAVA, which was passed in 2002, gave states three [...]

A Ugandan military court-martial has reinstated firearms and terrorism charges against defeated presidential candidate Kizza Besigye after the military trial was postponed during elections . Besigye's lawyers said Thursday that they will ignore the reinstated charges and that Besigye will not appear before the court-martial. Uganda's Constitutional Court has already dismissed the military charges saying [...]