The US House of Representatives passed a measure Thursday which would cut federal funding for development projects that involve seizure of private property. The legislation approved 231-189 was proposed in response to last week's US Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain and was inserted as an amendment to a spending bill for the Treasury, Transportation, [...]

Leading Thursday's states brief, the Washington Supreme Court ruled today that the Seattle Times could count monetary losses it incurred during a 2000 strike in its effort to end its joint operating agreement with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer . In its opinion , the Supreme Court agreed with the Times that the monetary losses from the [...]

Ismail Hussain, a defendant in the forgery trial of Egyptian presidential candidate Ayman Nour , on Thursday changed his plea to not guilty, saying he earlier made a false confession, acknowledging forging signatures under pressure from security officials. Nour's lawyers said afterwards that his own acquittal was more likely now. The retraction comes two days [...]

Ohio Governor Bob Taft Thursday vetoed as too restrictive a ban on using funds from a high-tech job initiative to pay for embryonic stem cell research. Taft said that the ban in its current form would ban funding for stem cell work that is currently acceptable under federal regulations supported by President Bush. The Republican [...]

US President George W. Bush unveiled a $55 million initiative "to support women's justice and empowerment in Africa" at the White House Thursday. The stated goals of the plan , part of a larger $400 million committment to aiding Africa announced in advance of the upcoming G8 summit focused on Africa and implementation of the [...]

UK-based human rights groups Statewatch , Campaign Against Criminalising Communities , and the Human Rights and Social Justice Institute at the London Metropolitan University have collectively denounced the practice of "proscribing” – or labelling groups and individuals as terrorists – to criminalize their behavior in an manner that provides no opportunity for appeal. According to [...]

US officials said Thurday that the US would investigate allegations that Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was among the revolutionary students responsible for taking American embassy staff in Tehran hostage in 1979 and holding them for 444 days . Five former US hostages claim Ahmadinejad was one of their captors while one says he was interrogated [...]

Cyprus on Thursday ratified the European Constitution after a special two-day session of the country's parliament . Lawmakers approved the charter 30-19 in an attempt to counteract the devastating rejections handed down by France and the Netherlands . Cyprus was one of 10 new members that joined the EU in May 2004 despite the failure [...]

The European Union on Thursday banned the trade of instruments "that have no use other than for capital punishment or torture" according to a European Commission statement. Banned goods include belts that shock with electricity, electric chairs and guillotines. Strict controls will also be imposed on other items, such as leg irons and electric shock [...]

The Dutch government said Thursday that police in more than a dozen countries have confiscated computers and made arrests in an illegal file-swapping sweep led by US authorities. The raids occurred Wednesday in the Netherlands, Australia, Israel, Germany, South-Korea, Norway, France, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Poland, Canada and Hungary, said a spokeswoman for the Dutch Finance [...]