US District Judge Tom S. Lee ruled Wednesday that Mississippi's law restricting abortions performed after the first-trimester violates the Fourteenth Amendment. The Jackson Women's Health Organization challenged a July 1, 2004 amendment to Mississippi Code § 41-75-1 that required abortions after the first trimester be performed in a licensed hospital or ambulatory surgical facility. The [...]

A day after President Bush dismissed as "absurd" an Amnesty International rights report condemning the US for ill-treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other facilities, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday defended the US military's handling of Gitmo detainees, calling the AI report "reprehensible" but acknowledging that some prisoners have been "grievously" mistreated. [...]

An Italian court has sent five members of left-wing extremist group the Red Brigades to prison for life for involvement in the 2002 murder of Marco Biagi , an economic advisor to the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi . In addition to their sentences the five were ordered to pay Biagi's family $2 million [...]

An exit poll announced on Dutch state television indicates that Dutch voters have overwhelmingly rejected the EU constitution 63 to 37 percent. AP has more. 4:05 PM ET – BBC News has posted a Q & A on the uncertain future of the EU constitution after the Netherland's apparent rejection of the charter. 4:12 PM [...]

Leading Wednesday's international brief, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said today that two Dutch international aid workers affiliated should not have been arrested for allegedly falsifying a report on rape in Darfur . Paul Foreman and Vince Hoedt, both directors for Medecins Sans Frontieres , were arrested because they refused to reveal the sources [...]

The Fourth District Court of Appeal in Florida Wednesday rejected an appeal from a widow who sued a gun company after her husband, a middle school teacher, was gunned down by a student while entering a classroom. Pam Grunow argued that Valor Corporation was negligent in selling the handgun used in the shooting of her [...]

A London judge on Wednesday approved the extradition of accused Moroccan terrorist Farid Hilali to Spain, deciding that he would not face religious or racial prejudice if sent there for trial. He stipulated, however, that Hilali could not be re-extradited to Morocco from Spain without British consent. Spain has accused Hilali of having ties to [...]

In hopes of finding clues about his 1955 murder , FBI personnel Wednesday began unearthing a concrete vault containing the remains of Emmett Till . FBI spokesman Frank Bochte said that the reason for exhumation was to dispel rumors that the body was not that of Emmett Till and to hopefully find clues to provide [...]

Bloomberg is reporting that US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson is stepping down on June 30. 3:15 PM ET – The SEC has posted a press release detailing the departure of Donaldson later this month.

The European Union began assessing proposals Wednesday from Microsoft Corp. meant to comply with a massive March 2004 antitrust ruling . The proposal came in just before the midnight deadline Tuesday and the EU competition commission is expected to take a few weeks to fully analyze the documents due to the large amount of paperwork [...]