Leading Tuesday's states brief, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled today that the state's Public Service Commission acted properly in approving a coal-fired power plant in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. S.C Johnson & Son and the environmental group Clean Wisconsin challenged the plant saying that the Commission did not give enough scrutiny to the project and failed [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak said Tuesday that the UN has learned of serious allegations that the US is secretly detaining prisoners aboard military vessels, perhaps in the Indian Ocean in the vicinity of the US island base at Diego Garcia . Nowak acknowledged that the allegations were only rumors but added that [...]

Canadian Minister of State Joe Comuzzi resigned from the government Liberal cabinet Tuesday hours before a scheduled parliamentary vote on a controversial same-sex marriage bill . Comuzzi, Minister of State for Northern Ontario, informed Prime Minister Paul Martin early Tuesday that he could not vote in opposition to his constituents, who he claims overwhelmingly oppose [...]

The US Department of Justice has formally asked a federal judge to impose $14 billion in penalties on cigarette companies in a massive racketeering trial. The request made late Monday elaborates on smoking cessation proposals made earlier this month during the trial's closing arguments. The proposed program of $14 billion, slightly more than the $10 [...]

Egyptian opposition presidential candidate Ayman Nour pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of forgery as hundreds outside the courthouse protested his trial as a attempt to eliminate any rivals to current President Hosni Mubarak . The case, in which Nour is accused of forging signatures to get his opposition al-Ghad party registered, has created tension [...]

The Supreme Court of Canada Tuesday ruled unanimously that Rwandan Leon Mugesera , accused of inciting genocide, must be deported from Canada. In 1992 Mugesera gave a speech in Rwanda encouraging Hutus to kill Tutsis, a speech the Supreme Court of Canada concluded could be reasonably viewed as a crime against humanity. Lawyers for Mugesera [...]

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday upheld civil contempt of court findings against four reporters unwilling to reveal their sources for articles about Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee . The court did overturn a lower court's contempt ruling for a fifth journalist, Jeff [...]

The US Senate on Tuesday passed a controversial energy bill giving large sums of money to industry in incentives and pushing for more efficient use of energy through renewable resources. Republican and Democrats came together to pass the bill 82-12 but it can only become law if the language can be reconciled with a similar [...]

A jury has found former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy not guilty on charges of wire and mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, and violations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act . Scrushy was the first CEO to be charged with violating the act. The jury, originally given the case on May 19, was deadlocked for weeks and had [...]

The US Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to review for the third time a 19-year old abortion case. In 1994 the Court held that the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) could be used to challenge anti-abortion blockades of clinics. When the suit went back to trial plaintiff National Organization for Women won $276,000 in [...]