BBC News is reporting that Iraq's National Assembly has voted to reverse its recent changes to the rules of the country's constitutional referendum scheduled for October 15. The changes, adopted by the Shiite- and Kurd-dominated body over the weekend, would have shifted the criterion of defeat for the proposed charter in individual provinces from a [...]

The Iraqi National Assembly Tuesday approved new anti-terror legislation with stiff penalties for those convicted under it, including the death penalty for those found guilty of financing or provoking terrorism. The new law comes as a violent insurgency has grown increasingly worse while Iraq struggles to prepare for a referendum on its draft constitution . [...]

A defense lawyer for fugitive Gen. Ante Gotovina said in an interview Tuesday that his client would surrender to authorities if he is allowed to face trial in his home country of Croatia. Currently, Gotovina would face trial for alleged crimes during the Serbo-Croatian war at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [...]

The US has expressed concern about changes to electoral laws made by the Iraqi National Assembly that appear to make it more likely that the Iraqi constitution will not be defeated in an Oct. 15 referendum. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday that the changes made by Shiite and Kurd politicians were an interpretation [...]

Leading Tuesday's states brief, a North Carolina appeals court ruled today that a September 2001 state law that raised income taxes on top-wage earners to 8.25% for the entire year is constitutional. Plaintiffs argued that the law amounted to a retroactive tax in violation of the state constitution because they had already paid taxes through [...]

A Pakistan military court sentenced four men to death and two others to life imprisonment on Tuesday for their roles in an attempted assassination of President Pervez Musharraf in 2003. A statement by the Pakistan Air Force said the six low-ranking military staff members had been tried over a six-month period ending Monday for the [...]

The US Trustee Program , a division of the US Department of Justice, announced Tuesday that for people living in Louisiana and southern Mississippi it would waive a new requirement that those filing for bankruptcy undergo credit counseling. Many had expressed concern that the new Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention & Consumer Protection Act , approved last [...]

The Belgian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Rwanda has agreed to hand over Guy Theunis, a Belgian Catholic priest accused of helping incite the 1994 Rwandan genocide , to the Belgian government. Last month, Karel de Gucht , Belgium's foreign minister, formally requested that Theunis be transferred to Belgium to face trial for his alleged [...]

The South Korean Unification Ministry on Tuesday announced plans to repatriate up to 28 North Korean prisoners that have remained detained in the south following the Korean War . The "long-term prisoners" are mostly former spies and soldiers captured while in the southern part of peninsula. The move has triggered outrage among some in the [...]

UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke urged the UN on Tuesday to support Britain's efforts to deport suspected militants to countries believed to engage in torture. Clarke's made the call in response to statements UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak, who last month urged Britain not to deport any extremists to such countries. Britain is [...]