Iraqi election officials Saturday announced partial results of the country's October 15 constitutional referendum that pointed towards approval of the draft charter in the final count. Figures based on half the returns in 13 of Iraq's 18 provinces suggested that the document had been approved there by majorities of between 51 and 98 percent; in [...]

White House US Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers supported affirmative action programs during her tenure as the president of the State Bar of Texas, according to a report in the Washington Post Saturday. The Post cited an interview Miers gave in June 1992 to the the Texas Bar Journal, as well as a President's Opinion [...]

Amnesty International said Saturday that Sudan has arrested and mistreated a human rights lawyer documenting the killing of 30 people in refugee camps outside of Khartoum last May. Amnesty considers the lawyer to be a prisoner of conscience, “detained solely for his work in defense of human rights.” The Sudanese government has denied firing upon [...]

A committee of three prominent South African judges published a report Friday calling for voluntary diversity training and the founding of a national body to hear disputes over allegations of racism within the South African judicial system. The committee was formed last April in response to allegations made by the Chief Judge of Capetown accusing [...]

A private bill introduced by former Blair cabinet minister Clare Short that would have given British lawmakers veto power over the Prime Minister's prerogative to declare war failed to progress Friday after the House of Commons could not muster the 100 votes required for it to progress. The government did not support the bill. Under [...]

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Michael Garcia has charged and arrested Houston oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt for his involvement in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal . Garcia also charged two Swiss bank executives as well as several corporations controlled by the defendants for paying kickback money to the Saddam Hussein regime in [...]

Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Hussein Ali Kamal said Saturday that the Iraqi government will step up security measures for the 12 remaining defense lawyers representing Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants. The announcement comes two days after Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi, a defense lawyer for co-defendant Awad Hamed al-Bandar, a former chief judge charged with issuing [...]

The son of slain former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri , Saad al-Hariri, has praised the findings of a UN investigation into the February 4 assassination of the former leader and 20 other people in Beirut and called for an international trial to punish those responsible for his murder. The report implicates Syrian officials in [...]

New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller sent an e-mail to staff members Friday, expressing regrets about his handling of Times reporter Judith Miller and her role in the CIA operative leak case . Keller said he missed "warning signals" about Miller's role in the case, and her "entanglement" with Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief [...]

President Bush announced his nomination of Paul J. McNulty to serve as US Deputy Attorney General Friday. McNulty has served as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia since 2001, prosecuting a number of high-profile terrorism cases, including that of Zacarias Moussaoui. The Senate must confirm McNulty's nomination, but according to administration officials [...]