The Washington Post reported Sunday that Republicans are intent on implementing a streamlined schedule to quickly confirm a successor for retiring Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor and avoid a repeat of the past year's stalled judicial confirmations . A GOP Senate Judiciary Committee planning document urges that President Bush’s nominee be counseled to avoid [...]

The Egyptian judges' syndicate released a report Saturday stating that the results of a nationwide poll on regulations for the upcoming presidential elections were unreliable due to fraud. The group of 8,000 judges pointed to extremely low turnout in polling stations supervised by the judiciary and extremely high turnout in stations run by civil servants [...]

An adviser to outgoing Iranian president Khatami said Saturday that Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not the man in a photograph taken during the 1979 hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran . Saeed Hajjarian, a former top secret agent, said that the man in the photograph is actually Taqi Mohammadi, an extremist who [...]

The China National Offshore Oil Company Ltd. (CNOOC) submitted the details of its $18.5 billion bid to purchase Unocal to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States Friday. The purchase would mark the largest acquisition of a US corporation by a Chinese company. US leaders have voiced concern over the potential national security [...]

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has released a new report calling for the closure of the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, saying it has fueled hatred toward the West and has increased al-Qaida membership. The human rights group has recommended a "calendar of closure" for the facility saying, "The longer [...]

Republicans and Democrats have begun bracing for the upcoming battle over who will replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor after she announced her retirement from the court Friday. The debate is expected to be over a likely list of candidates including federal appellate judges John Roberts, Michael Luttig,, Harvie Wilkinson , Attorney General Alberto [...]

Iraq UN ambassador Samir Sumaida'ie has accused US Marines of shooting to death his 21-year old cousin Mohammed al-Sumaida'ie during a raid of his father's house in Haditha, a city in Iraq's western Anbar province that has been a focus of recent US security operations . In a three-page statement released Friday, Sumaida'ie said the [...]

A White House spokesman acknowledged Friday that the administration had so far turned up no evidence to support allegations that Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad played a role of the 1979 Iranian takeover of the US embassy in Tehran. Ahmadinejad was elected president just over one week ago amidst reports by former US hostages that he [...]

Leading Friday's corporations and securities news, the White House Friday formally filed papers with the Senate for the nomination of Congressman Christopher Cox as new Chairman of the SEC. Cox, a Republican from California, was informally tabbed early last month. The filing follows former SEC Chairman William Donaldson's formal resignation yesterday. Cox's remarks at the [...]

Leading Friday's states brief, a North Carolina Supreme Court ruling today expanded the number of civil penalties which properly belong to school districts under the state constitution . The court upheld most of a 2003 court of appeals decision and expanded the list of civil penalties that should benefit public education to include late and [...]