AP is reporting that an Italian court has cleared Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of corruption charges. 12:45 PM ET – Berlusconi was cleared of one charge on grounds that the statute of limitations had run out, although the judges ruling suggested he was in fact guilty of authorising aides to influence a Rome judge [...]

An international bar group called Friday for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to be indicted before the new International Criminal Court in the Hague for murder, rape, abduction, enslavement and other rights atrocities committed by his regime. The International Bar Association, an umbrella group of 16,000 members from hundreds of lawyers' associations around the world, made [...]

The Washington state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a mother who eavesdropped on her daughter's phone conversation over a purse-snatching crime violated Washington's privacy act. The court ruled that eavesdropping violated the act and prevented the introduction of evidence obtained through the activity. AP has more. The Washington Supreme Court's opinion can be found here.

The lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer against former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso over Grasso's $187.5 million compensation was sent back to state court late Thursday by US District Judge Gerard Lynch. Although Grasso's attorneys argued the lawsuit should be in federal court because the SEC regulates the NYSE, [...]

AP is reporting that President Bush chose Treasury deputy secretary Sam Bodman as Energy secretary.

The Ohio General Assembly passed a bill Thursday that caps damages and limits certain types of lawsuits that can be filed. Senate Bill 80 will limit pain-and suffering damages, certain asbestos liability and impose a ten-year statute of limitations on personal injury lawsuits when it becomes law ninety days after it is signed by Gov. [...]

Speaking in Geneva on the eve of International Human Rights Day, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said Thursday that the vision set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted 56 years ago was now "under considerable strain":Few of us are free from fear; many of us are still not free [...]

The New Zealand Parliament has approved legislation recognizing same-sex civil unions. The bill, approved Thursday by a vote of 65-55, gives same-sex couples the same rights, entitlements and obligations as married couples and allows them to formally register their relationships under the New Zealand Births, Deaths and Marriages Act. It enters into force April 26, [...]

The US Marine Corps announced late Thursday that after a five-month investigation it has filed desertion charges against a corporal who disappeared from his Iraq base and who later claimed to have been abducted and held hostage by Iraqi kidnappers. Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, an Arabic translator born in Lebanon, went missing June 21, and [...]

AP is reporting that a US soldier has pleaded guilty to killing a severely wounded Iraqi civilian, according to military sources. 8:07 AM ET – Staff Sgt. Johnny M. Horne Jr., 30, of Winston-Salem, N.C., was charged with murdering the Iraqi August 18 during fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City. He and other soldiers claimed that [...]