New Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and 27 Cabinet members were sworn in Tuesday as Iraq's first post-Saddam elected government. That government remains incomplete, however, with five ministries under temporary leadership and two deputy prime ministers' slots empty. Most of the vacancies are eventually expected to go to representatives of the country's Sunni majority, who [...]

Thousands of Omanis on Tuesday gathered at a mosque in Oman's capital city of Muscat to protest Monday's state security court conviction of 31 people for plotting to overthrow Sultan Qaboos and attempting to install an Islamic government. A human rights activist at the scene told Reuters that police had begun to disperse the crowd [...]

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi emerged victorious Tuesday after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that EU law could not overrule an Italian law partially decriminalizing false accounting crimes. The court further held that penalties under Italian law could not be increased under EU directivea. False accounting penalties were relaxed by legislation in 2001 [...]

The UK-based group Military Families Against the War delivered a letter of claim to Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday demanding a full independent public inquiry into the deaths of their relatives and the legality of UK participation in the war in Iraq. In a supporting press release, the Stop the War Coalition outlined crimes allegedly [...]

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called on American political and religious leaders to repudiate remarks by evangelist Pat Robertson who said Sunday on This Week with George Stephanopoulos that Muslims should not be appointed to positions in the US government, including judgeships. Robertson is quoted as saying "They have said in the [...]

Dennis Rader , the man accused of being Kansas's BTK (bind, torture, kill) serial killer, pleaded not guilty Monday to 10 counts of murder. The BTK killer was suspected of eight murders from 1974 to 1991, but authorities linked two additional victims. AP has more.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Monday heard a bid to restrain same-sex couples from marrying until state residents can vote on a proposed state constitutional amendment banning such marriages. The action was brought by C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts. Members of the full court, which heard Monday's bid, were [...]

In an attempt to break a ten-year deadlock over reforming the United Nations Security Council , Italy suggested Monday that a new system be instituted by which the council would award 10 new seats to regional groups rather than individual countries. The novel idea arose as Jean Ping , president of the UN General Assembly [...]

Ziad al-Khasawneh , the Jordanian head of Saddam Hussein's legal defense team, claimed Monday that Iranian-backed Iraqi politicians are plotting to assassinate Hussein in prison. Al-Khasawneh based his claim on information received from a former Iraqi government official he identified as Hazem al-Obeidi, although the authenticity of the warning has not been otherwise verified. An [...]

A Danish intelligence officer, Reserve Capt. Annemette Hommel, and four military police sergeants pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of abuse of Iraqi prisoners . The military prosecutor, Benny Holm Frandsen, told a Copenhagen court that the soldiers were guilty of inhumane treatment of prisoners . Hommel, who could face up to one year in [...]