Attorney General John Ashcroft is expected to announce Tuesday afternoon the first charges in the governemnt's investigation into alleged corruption in the UN-administered oil-for-food program . According to Justice Department sources, Ashcroft will announce a plea agreement with Samir Vincent, an Iraqi-American who headed Phoenix International, one of the companies that purchased Iraqi oil under [...]

Michael Newdow , the Sacramento man who challenged the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, has appealed to the Supreme Court for an injunction against the recitation of planned prayers at the Bush inauguration, saying that they represent an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state. US District Judge John Bates [...]

Families of the tsunami victims are pressuring the British government to amend the rules for when missing persons can be legally declared dead. Lord Charles Falconer announced today that legislators hoped to create a system to waive the seven-year time limit in cases where no body is found. The move would allow the hundreds of [...]

Human rights group Amnesty International Tuesday urged the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Sudan to the International Criminal Court at The Hague. The group argued that the UN must allow the ICC to investigate war crimes violations in Sudan to remain consistent with its previous warnings to the Sudanese government. An international [...]

In Tuesday's international brief, the Russian government has rejected a petition initiated Monday by KPRF , the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, requesting a Duma vote of no-confidence. The government denied the that there existed any real reason for the government to resign, and said that the KPRF and its allies are merely arguing [...]

Iran's judiciary has said that a mistake was to blame for the issuance of a summons to Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi , calling her to appear before the Revolutionary Court , which normally handles political and security cases. A judiciary spokesman explained that the summons actually referred to a private complaint against Ebadi [...]

AP is reporting that the US Supreme Court denied Tuesday an appeal over government's use of military trials for foreign detainees accused of terrorism. JURIST's Paper Chase will have more information as the order list becomes available. 10:45 AM ET – The Court denied certiorari in the case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 04-702, meaning the appeal [...]

Members of the Cobb County school board have voted to appeal a federal district judge's ruling that stickers calling evolution a "theory, not a fact" should be removed from science textbooks. Board members voted 5-2 Monday to appeal the ruling of US District Judge Clarence Cooper, which was issued last week. A statement issued by [...]

Trials involving former corporate leaders of Tyco International and WorldCom, now MCI, are both set to begin this week, with both expected to last weeks to months, as the executives are tried on a variety of fraud charges. Former Tyco execs Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz are being retried on charges of stealing $600 million [...]

A UK soldier facing court-martial in Germany on charges of mistreating Iraqi civilians pleaded guilty Tuesday to one assault charge, but denied another charge. Two other soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers , Corp. Daniel Kenyon and Lance Corp. Mark Cooley, pleaded not guilty to charges of abusing detainees at a camp outside Basra [...]