US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a heated hearing on Iraq Thursday that a delay in Iraq's adoption of a constitution would be "an enormous disservice" while "coalition people are being killed. Iraqis are being killed." Rumsfeld did not specify the potential repercussions of a delay, but said, "To [...]

Leading Thursday's corporations and securities law news, Morgan Stanley has settled with stumbling Italian dairy giant Parmalat . Parmalat sued Morgan Stanley in February to recoup money Parmalat gave to Morgan Stanley shortly before the food maker's bankruptcy. Parmalat's press release is available. Reuters has more. In other corporations and securities law news… UK telecom [...]

Leading Thursday's states brief, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a 4-3 decision that forgetting to register for Megan's Law because of stress is an insufficient excuse. The Supreme Court overturned the decision of the Court of Appeals, ruling that forgetting is only a valid excuse when the sex offender suffers from an "involuntary [...]

Leading Thursday's international brief, in an immense demonstration of cooperation, over 200 African and international NGOs have made a collective appeal to the United Nations and the African Union to force Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwean government to cease "Operation Restore Order", the program of systematic evictions and arrests of illegal squatters and [...]

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Thurday that President Bush was willing to consult to a degree with Senate Democrats if a vacancy in the Supreme Court should occur. With widespread speculation of at least one opening on the court after this term, other White House officials nonethless noted that Bush will stick to [...]

City officials in Jerusalem said Thursday that they will ban the annual gay pride parade planned for the city next week to prevent offending Jerusalem's conservative religious communities. Parade organizers sought an intervention from the Israeli Supreme Court claiming that the ban ammounted to a violation of freedom of expression. A similar ban put in [...]

The national prosecutor's office in the Netherlands announced Thursday that three people have been arrested as suspected members of a terrorist organization. The two women and one man, all in their early 20s, are alleged members of Hofstadgroep, the group thought to be responsible for the shocking murder last year of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van [...]

The Kyrgyz prosecutor general's office said Thursday that Kyrgyzstan plans to deport a group of 29 Uzbek asylum seekers despite UN denunciation of four earlier deportations over the possibility that the returned individuals may face torture in Uzbekistan. A top Kyrgyz prosecutor referred to the refugees as "criminals" and said "they need to be punished, [...]

A group of 50 Sunni Muslim religious, political, and tribal leaders Thursday endorsed a list of 15 men to sit on a special committee to help draft Iraq's new constitution . The announcement ends any debate over whether improperly endorsed appointments should be deemed invalid. The 15 men, whose appointment was anticipated by a Sunni [...]

The US Food and Drug Administration has warned Texas Governor Rick Perry that a law he signed requiring the Texas State Board of Pharmacy to provide information about Canadian pharmacies may violate federal law . The agency would inspect up to 10 Canadian pharmacies and allow consumers to decide which ones were safe options to [...]