Hans Blix , former UN chief weapons inspector and current head of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission , said in a New York press conference Monday that the US is undermining its position as a nuclear power player by not taking the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as seriously as it should. Blix believes that American [...]

Fifty-nine percent of Germans are in favor of the new EU Constitution according to a new Infratest poll released just days before the Bundestag , the lower house of the German parliament, votes on the pact Thursday. There will be a second vote in the German upper house, the Bundesrat later in May. Only 15 [...]

The US Department of State said Monday that it will not release internal documents requested by Senate Democrats serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee , set to vote Thursday on the nomination of John Bolton as US ambassador to the UN . The Department insisted that the documents requested, containing information about Bolton's current [...]

A federal judge Monday ordered former UN Oil-for-Food inquiry investigator Robert Parton to cease distribution of commission documents subpoenaed by the US House of Representatives International Relations Committee . US District Judge Ricardo Urbina issued a 10-day restraining order sought by ICC chair Paul Volcker until both sides resolve the issue. Parton resigned from the [...]

Former Philadelphia City Treasurer Corey Kemp was convicted Monday on more than 20 counts for accepting kickbacks during his time in office . The US Department of Justice had initially charged 12 men for corruption in connection with Kemp's financial transactions, including attorney Ronald A. White and Commerce Bank Pennsylvania president Glenn Holck and regional [...]

Cardinal Roberto Tucci, president of Vatican Radio and VR director general Father Pasquale Borgomeo were convicted Monday in an Italian court of polluting the enviroment with high-intensity electromagnetic waves and were handed 10-day suspended jail sentences. A 2001 epidemiological study found a higher incidence of leukemia among the population living in areas near a Vatican [...]

Former Walt Disney Company directors Roy Disney and Stanley Gold filed suit against current Disney directors including former Disney CEO Michael Eisner Monday for fraud and breach of duty in connection with the public disclosure of information concerning the election of a new CEO for the entertainment giant while searching for Eisner's replacement after his [...]

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed a bill Monday which effectively bans smoking in almost all public places in the tobacco-growing state. The Georgia Smokefree Air Act of 2005 would still allow smoking in bars that exclude children under 18, certain workspace areas with independent air systems, and designated smoking hotel/motel rooms. Violators of the new [...]

In a statement issued Monday while visiting Europe for World War II commemorations, President Bush once again urged the Senate to put his judicial nominees to an up-or-down vote . Two of the nominees highlighted in the Monday statement, Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen and North Carolina US District Judge Terry Boyle , were [...]

Mississippi state Attorney General Jim Hood announced Monday that under the terms of a settlement agreement with the state telecommunications giant MCI will hand over $100M cash to cover back taxes owed by its predecessor, WorldCom, as well as turn over WorldCom's former headquarters in downtown Jackson. WorldCom was charged for accounting fraud in the [...]