The first trial against pharmaceutical drug company Merck & Co. for distributing the drug Vioxx while aware of an increased chance of heart attack and stroke began Thursday in Texas with opening statements from both sides. The state trial, the first of some 3,800 lawsuits to go to court, involves widow Carol Ernst, who claims [...]

Leading Thursday's international brief, Pakistan's North West Frontier Province has passed a controversial law reminiscent of Afghan regulatons under the former Taliban regime that will allow the government to monitor individuals' compliance with Islamic principles. The bill creates the office of "mohtasib," which will be filled by an Islamic cleric responsible for ensuring that Islamic [...]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dropped a scheduled review of its media ownership rules from the agenda of its scheduled monthly open meeting Thursday. Some of the restrictive rules had been overturned by the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, a decision that the US Supreme Court recently let stand without comment , [...]

US Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist has been released from hospital after a two-night stay. He had been "admitted for observation and tests" Wednesday with a high fever, fueling debate over the prospect of his retirement. AP has more.

A federal jury in Vermont Thursday recommended the death penalty for Donald Fell, convicted in June of kidnapping and murdering a supermarket worker in 2000. Vermont hasn't executed a convict since 1954, and the last death sentence given in 1957 was later commuted. The state formally abolished the death penalty in 1987. The federal government [...]

New York Gov. George Pataki Wednesday signed a bill allowing the direct shipment of wines into and out of New York, ending limitations that have hampered wine sales since the repeal of Prohibition more than 70 years ago and allowing New York wine enthusiasts to receive wine by mail from wineries all over the US. [...]

The UN's Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has joined Amnesty International in asking Colombian President Alvaro Uribe not to ratify the Justice and Peace Law, which was recently approved by the legislature . The bill is designed to encourage former paramilitary soldiers and warlords to disarm, but rights groups are concerned that the [...]

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs , said Wednesday he expects a settlement in the Corbell v. Norton lawsuit brought by American Indians for back trust royalties owed to them by the US government. But he said the $27.5 billion figure sought is too high, doubting Congress would authorize [...]

While amended measures to extend the Patriot Act were approved Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee and the House Judiciary Committee , Senators introduced their own bipartisan bill setting restrictions and time limits. SB 1389, introduced by Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) would provide for increased reporting of how the act is used, [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Wednesday upheld a lower court decision that Microsoft Corp. was liable for infringing on an AT&T Corp. patent for converting speech into computer code in copies of Windows operating system sold abroad. The Court said that the software giant had distributed codec technology, used to compress [...]