The US Senate Finance Committee released a report Tuesday saying stricter laws may be necessary to prevent insider deals, regulate moneymaking ventures, and open more activities to public scrutiny in large nonprofit organizations. The recommendation follows a two-year investigation of the Nature Conservancy , a nonprofit land conservation organization, which revealed that the charity acted [...]

A criminal investigation has been launched against Florida A and M University for alleged misuse of taxpayer monies, and interim University president Castell Bryant announced Tuesday that A and M law school dean Percy Luney, Jr. had been placed on paid leave based on the findings of a payroll audit report. Details of the audit [...]

The US Senate Intelligence Committee late Tuesday approved revisions to the Patriot Act which would expand the FBI's power to subpoena records in terrorism investigations without receiving the approval of a judge or grand jury. US Senator Dianne Feinstein voted against the bill since it contained no amendments preventing the power from being used in [...]

Former US President Jimmy Carter closed a two-day human rights conference at the Carter Center in Atlanta Tuesday by saying that the US should close the Guantanamo Bay military prison camp and two dozen other secret detention centers in order to show the country's commitment to protecting human rights. Carter's suggestion echoes US Senator Joseph [...]

Republican Congressman Henry Hyde , chair of the House International Relations Committee, introduced legislation in the US House of Representatives Tuesday calling for broad reforms to the UN. The UN Reform Act of 2005 alleges that the organization is rife with fraud and waste, citing the recent Oil-for-Food scandal as one example, and would permit [...]

The US military announced Tuesday that a riot broke out at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison over the weekend after an inmate made a failed attempt to escape from the prison. The "disturbance" took place late Sunday evening after a prisoner was caught trying to break out in the midst of a heavy sandstorm. Four guards [...]

Leading Tuesday's international brief, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail has told reporters that the Sudan government is not planning to challenge the recently announced probe into Darfur by the International Criminal Court . Ismail reiterated, however, Sudan's continued opposition to sending anyone charged with war crimes or crimes against humanity to a foreign jurisdiction [...]

Prosecutors for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia said Tuesday that they will not appeal the provisional release of former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj . A trial chamber of the court granted Haradinaj provisional release Monday pending his trial on charges of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws of war [...]

UN war crimes prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia introduced evidence Tuesday that former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic used his police forces to directly control a brutal Serbian paramilitary group called "Scorpions" said to be responsible for the killings of Bosnian youths documented in a graphic video shown in court last [...]

The US Senate voted 65-32 Tuesday to limit debate on the nomination of California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown to the federal appeals bench, against some opposition from Democrats, some of whom have been blocking her appointment for two years. After a recent bipartisan truce helped the Senate avoid a showdown over judicial nominees, [...]