House Republicans on Monday reversed ethics rules adopted in November that would allow party leaders to maintain their posts even if they were indicted for illegal behavior. The closed-door GOP party meeting did, however, make it easier for one party to block a House ethics committee investigation by requiring a majority vote of the now-evenly [...]

Britain's Freedom of Information Act took substantive effect Monday on the first UK workday of the new year, 4 years after its passage by Parliament. Under the Act, any recorded governmental information, including paper records, e-mails, computer records, audio, video, microfiche, and handwritten notes can be requested by the public and the appropriate governmental department [...]

Mercier et al. v. Fraternal Order of Eagles, US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, January 3, 2005 . Excerpt: The City also had a rather obvious secular motive for the sale – it wanted to eliminate its ownership in the Monument to preempt litigation accusing it of using the Monument to endorse a [...]

Overturning a lower court ruling, the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a split decision Monday that the sale to a private organization of land containing a Ten Commandments monument in a La Crosse Wisconsin public park did not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. Circuit Judge Daniel A. Maion wrote:The City [...]

In an apparent effort to address growing concerns about scandal and corruption in the United Nations system UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Monday announced the appointment of UN Development Program head Mark Malloch Brown as his new Chief of Staff, the number three position in the UN structure after Annan and Canadian Deputy Under-Secretary Louise Frechette. [...]

A top advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin who publicly voiced concerns about the Russian government takeover of Yukos, free speech limitations and Russian policy towards Ukraine has been stripped of his responsibilities as Russia's envoy to the G8 industrial nations, according to a Kremlin statement issued Monday. No official reason was given for the [...]

Two court-martials of US soldiers accused of killing or abusing Iraqis in separate incidents are set to take place this week at Fort Hood, Texas. On Tuesday, Sgt. Tracy Perkins will stand trial in the deaths of two Iraqis allegedly pushed into into the Tigris River north of Baghdad in January 2004, and on Friday, [...]

Thai government officials have announced a program of legal assistance for victims of last week's tsunami that killed over 4000 people in Thailand and left thousands more in the country homeless. A senior spokesman for the Thai Ministry of Justice was quoted Monday as saying that the Ministry will set up a special legal center [...]

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Monday that an autonomy plan passed by Basque lawmakers last week is doomed for failure and called the proposal secessionist, unconstitutional and an anomaly in a Europe moving to become more united. Last Thursday, the Basque regional legislature approved a plan seeking to amend the 1970 charter [...]

Survivors and families of victims of last week's tsunami disaster in South Asia are falling prey to thieves, rapists, kidnappers and hoaxers. Sri Lanka's Women and Media Collective said Monday that they "have received reports of incidents of rape, gang rape, molestation and physical abuse of women and girls in the course of unsupervised rescue [...]