Syrian ambassador to the UN Fayssal Mekdad Tuesday angrily refuted the UN-commissioned Mehlis report , which found that the Syrian government was involved in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri . Speaking during a UN Security Council debate , Mekdad dismissed the report as biased, asserting it was influenced by the anti-Syrian [...]

Conservative activist groups are stepping up their opposition to US Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers , launching two new websites Monday and also planning radio and television advertising aimed at forcing the withdrawal of the nomination. The nomination has seemingly lost all support from base conservative groups. According to Brian Burch, a spokesperson for Fidelis [...]

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has lifted a ban on firearms in emergency housing parks built in the wake of Hurricane Katrina , officials announced Monday. FEMA spokesperson Butch Kinery said the complaints from gun-rights groups that the ban violated the Second Amendment and a consultation with department lawyers prompted the lifting of the [...]

The full US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has declined to reconsider a decision requiring the Federal Election Commission to write new rules implementing the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 . The law bans congressional and presidential candidates from raising corporate and union money and from receiving unlimited donations from all sources. [...]

A federal district court judge in Washington, DC has again ruled that the US Department of the Interior must disconnect computers from the Internet that have access to data related to trust accounts it administers for American Indians. Judge Royce C. Lamberth said in the 205-page opinion that the department's computers were vulnerable to hackers [...]

A New Hampshire commission on same-sex marriage voted Monday to recommend that the state legislature not allow same-sex couples to marry, not recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages, and not establish a domestic partner registry. The commission, established in 2004 "to examine all aspects of same sex civil marriage and its legal equivalents," has held months of [...]

American shareholders of Russian oil company Yukos have filed a civil lawsuit against the Russian government and several Russian oil companies for allegedly conspiring to renationalize Yukos without compensating its owners, the Financial News reported Tuesday. The complaint, filed in a Washington, DC district court, claims that the defendants violated US securities laws by falsely [...]

US District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee ruled Monday that federal prosecutors can use a confession made by Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a US citizen charged with conspiracy to assassinate the president, conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy, providing material support to al Qaeda and various other crimes. Abu Ali has said that he was tortured into [...]

A United Nations human rights investigator declared "massive human rights violations at all levels" in the Democratic Republic of Congo Monday. Titinga Frederic Pacere attacked the nation's justice system, describing the prison system as "deplorable and inhumane" and the justice system as "powerless and lack resources." Pacere's report cites too few judges, an inadequate budget, [...]

Juan Guzman , the retired judge who led efforts to try former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet on human rights charges, told AP Monday that he doubts the dictator will ever be brought to justice. Last week, a court ruled that Pinochet could stand trial on tax evasion charges connected to money held in US [...]