A Syrian judicial committee has begun its own investigation into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri . Syrian Attorney General Ghada Mourad , who is heading the committee, has said that Syria will coordinate with the UN and Lebanese judicial authorities who are also investigating the murder. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called [...]

Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock has spoken out to disagree with assertions that the government's anti-terrorism bill violates human rights. The proposed anti-terrorism legislation , which Australian Prime Minister John Howard claims will be enacted by Christmas , was tabled in Parliament Thursday after Howard won support earlier this week from several state and territory [...]

Republican legislators have proposed a bill to build a 2,000 mile wall at the border between US and Mexico in order to keep illegal immigrants out. The True Enforcement and Border Security Act also calls for thousands of new border patrol officers, immigration investigators, immigration judges, and attorneys, according to a joint statement released by [...]

Paul Volcker , chairman of the UN Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC) investigating the now-defunct UN oil-for-food program , on Friday laughed off news that the Indian government was investigating a possible lawsuit against the IIC for concluding that Foreign Minister Natwar Singh , as well as India's ruling Congress party, were a part of an [...]

US Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald announced Thursday that he was narrowing the focus of his investigation into the role of senior White House advisor Karl Rove in the CIA leak case . At issue now is whether Rove tried to conceal his conversation with a TIME magazine reporter a week before the CIA operative [...]

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) delayed a vote on a proposed torture ban on Thursday, while Democrats accused him of holding off in order to protect Vice President Dick Cheney. Democrats had planned on offering a motion with instructions to adopt the language of the McCain amendment, but a procedural move by Hastert has no [...]

Two friends of jailed ex-ImClone CEO Sam Waksal have settled insider trading charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission by agreeing to pay $2.77 million to cover their avoided losses. Zvi Fuks and Sabina Ben-Yehuda sold their ImClone shares after Waksal told them the company's new drug was likely to be rejected by [...]

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle on Thursday vetoed a ban on human cloning . Doyle promised a veto in September after the bill passed in the state assembly and senate. In a statement Thursday, Doyle said "The real purpose of this bill is to restrict stem cell research, which holds enormous potential for our state as [...]

United Kingdom Home Secretary Charles Clarke continues to be pressed for information on the advice given by Attorney General Lord Goldsmith regarding the proposed new anti-terror laws after Clarke had to apologize Thursday for telling MPs that he already had Lord Goldsmith's approval on a provision allowing the detentions of uncharged terror suspects for up [...]

President Bush Thursday reinstated fair wage laws, suspended after Hurricane Katrina , which mandate that employers awarded government contracts must pay local prevailing wages to workers. Last week, after a pro-labor Republican caucus met with the administration to voice their complaints over the act's suspension, Bush said he would restore the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act on [...]