Michael Newdow's latest challenge that "under God" is unconstitutional was narrowed by US District Judge Lawrence Karlton in Sacramento on Monday. After the US Supreme Court dismissed his lawsuit against the Pledge of Alliance for lack of standing last June, Michael Newdow promised to file a similar suit with different plaintiffs. Karlton ruled that the [...]

Reuters is reporting that three members of the committee drafting a new constitution in Iraq were shot and killed outside a Baghdad restaurant Tuesday. Sources say that the men were three of the fifteen Sunni members who recently joined the committee to increase Sunni involvement in the process. Reuters has more. 10:48 AM ET – [...]

The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday rejected demands by Chinese plaintiffs for compensation for a germ attack against them in World War II, but the court did uphold the lower court's declaration that Japan carried out such an attack. The Japanese government has never officially admitted to conducting germ warfare, but the activities of such [...]

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani announced Tuesday that the country's constitution is in its final stages and could be finalized by the end of July, ahead of the August 15 deadline . The early completion is contingent on the committee striking a deal with Sunni Arabs involved in the process who are critical of the document [...]

Opposition and civil rights groups in Kenya have called for three days of protests leading up to Friday's deadline for a proposed constitution, despite a ban on a planned protest march. The opposition accuses Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his government of diluting cross-party recommendations for re-writing the constitution and, primarily, failing in the latest [...]

Vietnamese officials said Tuesday that Vietnam will make its court decisions public for the first time to increase transparency as it seeks to comply with requirements for joining the World Trade Organization . Vietnam's Supreme People's Court has already published two volumes of civil, criminal, commercial, labor and administrative cases issued in 2003 and 2004 [...]

After his conviction for torture and hostage-taking Monday, Afghan warlord Faryadi Sarwar Zardad was sentenced Tuesday by a UK court to two concurrent 20-year prison terms. The jury sitting at London's Old Bailey found Zardad guilty after hearing the vicious examples of hostage-taking that Zardad oversaw or directed between 1992 and 1996. Zardad, whose first [...]

Press statement on resumption of military commissions, US Department of Defense, July 18, 2005 . Excerpt: The Office of Military Commissions intends to take the following additional actions this week: Move forward with commission proceedings against Yemeni detainee Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman al Bahlul and Sudanese detainee Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi. Each of these [...]

Maurice Strong , a special adviser for North Korea to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and a prominent Canadian business executive, will not continue his position as top UN envoy to North Korea, according to UN officials. In recent months, Strong has been implicated in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal based on his ties to South [...]

The National Rifle Association Monday announced plans to relocate its 2007 national convention from Columbus, Ohio after the Columbus City Council approved an assualt weapons ban. The ban , extends the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which expired on September 13, 2004 , and outlaws 19 types of military-style assault weapons in the city. In a [...]