The Japanese government is preparing a legislative proposal that would amend the country's succession law, the 1947 Imperial Household Law , to allow female monarchs. Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Thursday that a 15-member team has been established to work on a bill to be submitted when parliament reconvenes in January. The proposal will [...]

Defense lawyers for Zacarias Moussaoui are seeking to ask jurors in the upcoming sentencing trial for their opinions on Islam, the FBI's performance in several high-profile investigations and for their personal reactions to the September 11 attacks , according to proposed jury questions submitted to the court Wednesday. Earlier this year, Moussaoui pleaded guilty to [...]

The final round of Egypt's legislative elections began Thursday, though riot police in some towns blocked access to polling stations in contradiction to government promises of free and fair elections. The cordoning-off of polling stations is thought to be related to the success of the Muslim Brotherhood in earlier stages in the election. During the [...]

The Argentinean Congress passed a law Wednesday making all Argentinean citizens potential organ donors unless they specifically reject that status. Argentine President Nestor Kirchner first proposed the bill to his Congress last year; it was previously approved by the Chamber of Deputies before being unanimously passed by the Senate on Wednesday. Argentine Vice President Daniel [...]

Health officials said Wednesday that state laws which prohibit a mercury-based vaccine preservative could impede efforts to fight an avian flu pandemic should an outbreak occur. At a meeting of the US Department of Health and Human Services National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) , the healthcare officials said that six states have already enacted legislation [...]

The Iraqi government has said that it has been unable to complete an investigation into allegations that prisoners at an interior department facility were tortured because mistakes made by US soldiers who discovered the site tainted some of the evidence. Sources in the US investigation said that the Iraqi government has blamed the US for [...]

A bombing at a Bangladesh court complex Thursday during a strike by lawyers in the country has wounded 25. The blast is the latest in a series of bombings outside courthouses and reportedly occurred near a police checkpoint in Gazipur, north of the capital Dhaka, and at the same site where a bombing on Tuesday [...]

UN leaders have largely given up on completing a comprehensive treaty against terrorism before the end of the year, as hoped by UN leaders, with a working committee on the treaty failing to break an impasse over how to define terrorism. UN General Assembly President Jan Eliasson attempted to reach a last-minute compromise with members [...]

The government's lead counsel in its lawsuit against the tobacco industry on Wednesday withdrew from the case, as an investigation continues into whether political pressure forced the government to lower its demands in the case. Sharon Eubanks, a US Department of Justice attorney, had pursued a racketeering case against the tobacco industry since being named [...]

The California Supreme Court late Wednesday denied a request by Stanley Tookie Williams , the Crips gang founder turned anti-gang activist, to halt his scheduled execution. Defense lawyers for Williams challenged forensic evidence in the case in a last-ditch effort to halt his execution scheduled for Dec. 13. The Supreme Court denied the petition in [...]