A landmark bill which would have allowed Kuwaiti women to vote and stand in municipal elections failed Monday in the Kuwaiti Parliament . Twenty-nine deputies voted in favor of the bill and 2 voted against it, but of the 60 deputies, 29 abstained from the vote so that the required quorum was not met. The [...]

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed the Jessica Lunsford Act on Monday, a bill designed to impose tougher punishment on child sex abusers. The bill was drafted in March after the body of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford was discovered and it passed unanimously in both Florida's House of Representatives and State Senate. The bill stated that all [...]

The US Supreme Court Monday ordered the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to reconsider a girls' sports case. The Sixth Circuit had ruled on equal protection grounds in Michigan High School Athletic Association v. Communities for Equity, 04-1021 that it is unconstitutional for a state to plan high school girls' sport seasons [...]

Israeli Minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Natan Sharansky resigned Monday saying that Israel's upcoming withdrawal from the Gaza Strip is a mistake that will spawn more Palestinian violence. Sharansky has insisted that Israeli concessions must be matched by an equal effort towards Palestinian democratic reform. Despite his resignation, Sharansky plans to remain in Prime [...]

AP is reporting that, as anticipated , Pfc. Lynndie England has pleaded guilty to charges relating to her role in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. She becomes the seventh low-level guard to plead guilty for maltreatment of Iraqi detainees at the Baghdad facilty. 6:30 PM ET – KCEN-TV in central Texas has a video [...]

US Army AR15-6 investigative report regarding the March 4 incident at a traffic control point in Baghdad resulting in the death of one Italian and the wounding of two others, released April 30, 2005 . Excerpt: Recommend that no disciplinary action be taken against any Soldier involved in the incident… Based upon previous successful coordination [...]

The Navajo Nation president Sunday veteod a proposal that would have banned same-sex marriages on the tribal reservation. The measure setting various restrictions on marriage, including a same-sex marriage ban, was unanimously approved last month by the Tribal Council , which said it was seeking to uphold family values. President Joe Shirley Jr. said same-sex [...]

AP is reporting that the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Insitutional Rights, 04-1152, considering whether universities may ban military recruiters from their campuses without having federal funding withdrawn under the Solomon Amendment . The US Third Circuit Court of Appeals blocked enforcement of the Amendment last year. [...]

The 2005 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference opened Monday in New York, with almost 190 nations gathering to review progress under the 1970 treaty . The conference comes as nuclear tensions with North Korea and Iran increased this week, with North Korea announcing it was ending negotiations over its nuclear program and Iran claiming it [...]

Guatemala will create a security unit to offer increase protection for 19 judges and six magistrates who have received death threats, according to a plan approved by the country's supreme court on Friday. The court announced the plan at the end of a week marred by violence, in which a judge was killed and a [...]