Jury selection begins Monday in the first of over 3,800 state and federal lawsuits against pharmaceutical giant Merck , alleging that the company knew its popular painkiller Vioxx was dangerous before it voluntarily pulled the drug from the market in September 2004. The SEC is also investigating the company's handling of the drug. The first [...]

Cyrus Kar, the American filmmaker detained by US forces in Iraq in May and held for 54 days after the taxi he was riding in was stopped at a checkpoint and found to be carrying timing devices that could be used to make bombs, described his ordeal to reporters in Baghdad Sunday after his release [...]

The UK Association of Chief Police Officers reported Sunday that relations with Muslims in the UK were "reassuringly calm" in the aftermath of the July 7 London bombings, tentatively linked to Islamic extremists. Fearing public backlash, the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission had recommended immediately after the attacks that British Muslims keep a low profile [...]

The trial of Islamist radical Mohammed Bouyeri for the November 2004 murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh opened with high security in place on Monday in Amsterdam. The controversial Van Gogh had published columns and a short film criticizing abuses against women under Islam; his killing provoked over 150 retaliatory attacks on local Islamic [...]

Voice of the Faithful , a Catholic lay reform group with some 30,000 members nationwide, approved a resolution on Sunday at its first national meeting in three years calling for tougher laws against clergy sex abuse . Louisiana and Ohio currently have legislation pending that would extend the time period for reporting abuse. Catholic bishops [...]

Following the adoption of a peace treaty , the approval of a new constitution , and the installation of a new government , newly-reappointed Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has, as anticipated , lifted the country's state of emergency, except in Darfur and a region on the eastern border. The emergency law gave the government [...]

Relatives and survivors of the Srebrenica massacre mourned as more than six hundred coffins containing newly-identified remains recovered from mass graves were interred in the town cemetary Monday, the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the 1995 killings. As many as 50,000 attended the burials, including former American diplomat Richard Holbrooke , who helped negotiate [...]

The Israeli cabinet Sunday approved plans for enclosing Jerusalem by part of the security fence designed to keep out suicide bombers and prevent other terrorist attacks on Israel's civilian population. Palestinians in four Jerusalem neighborhoods that include some 55,000 people say that the new fencing will cut them off and will cause major delays in [...]

Although new legislation is not being brought forward immediately , UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke is likely to issue more control orders, and will present new anti-terrorism measures to the European Union next week, according to London's Sunday Times. The control orders, established under the 2005 Prevention of Terrorism Act , allow a wide range [...]

Luxembourg has voted Yes in Sunday's national referendum on the European constitution, supporting the beleaguered EU treaty by a wide margin of roughly 57%-43%, with all precincts reporting . This is the first European referendum victory for EU charter supporters since Dutch voters voted No in early June, and saves the job of Luxembourg Prime [...]