The Spanish Catholic Bishops Conference Thursday deplored the 187-147 vote by the country's Congress of Deputies to legalize same-sex marriage , calling for citizens to publicly oppose the law "through all legitimate means". In a statement the bishops said "Today the words 'husband' and 'wife' have been systematically eliminated from the Code, in such a [...]

Leading Thursday's corporations and securities law news, as expected, SEC Chairman William Donaldson officially stepped down today, having announced his resignation earlier this month . Donaldson steered the regulatory agency for the last two-plus years through an era of intense activity and litigation. President Bush has named SEC Commissioner Cynthia Glassman as the acting SEC [...]

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 [...]