Italian prosecutors in Milan Tuesday asked a judge to order Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and 12 others to stand trial on corruption charges relating to alleged fraud, tax evasion and money laundering in connection with a TV rights deal involving Mediaset . Mediaset, controlled by a holding company controlled by Berlusconi's family, has denied [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled 5-3 Tuesday in Small v. US that people convicted of a crime in a foreign country may own a gun in the US. Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority, said that applying 18 U.S.C. 922, which makes it a crime for ex-convicts to possess a gun, to foreign convictions [...]

Syria completed a withdrawal of its military forces from Lebanon Tuesday, ending a 29-year presence just weeks before thr country's's parliamentary elections. The February 14 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri, suspected to be the work of Syrian backers of the Lebanese government, brought about massive civil unrest in Lebanon, and growing dissatisfaction with Syrian [...]

On a visit to France Tuesday, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder voiced support for a call by French President Jacques Chirac for French citizens to ratify the new EU Constitution . Current polls indicate that French voters will reject the constitution when a national referendum occurs on May 29. Speaking at a news conference in Paris, [...]

A resolution amending the Texas Constitution to define marriage as between "one man and one woman" passed the Texas House on Monday by a vote of 102-29. If the resolution receives final passage on the Senate floor, it will be added to the Nov. 8 ballot to be voted on by Texas voters. Currently, domestic [...]

A Japanese court Tuesday refused to grant a petition by a group of Japanese and South Korean citizens seeking to stop Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara from visiting a Shinto shrine honoring Japan's war dead, including convicted World War II war criminals. The petitioners had argued in Tokyo District Court [...]

The Iraq Survey Group investigating the existence of possible Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) reported publicly Monday that it could find no evidence that any such weapons were transferred to Syria in an effort to hide them from inspectors, although it did not rule out the possibility of some unofficial transfers. Review the report [...]

The number of death sentences handed down in 2004 was the lowest since 1976, according to new statistics released by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund . A total of 125 people were sentenced to death by US courts in 2004, down from 144 in 2003, and 300 in 1998. Texas mandated the death penalty in [...]

Mexico City mayor Lopez Obrador returned to work Monday despite government contentions that that was illegal and that he had in fact lost his job after the country's Congress lifted his immunity from prosecution earlier this month on a contempt charge. Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans turned out over the weekend to demonstrate in his [...]

A Chilean court Monday freed a portion of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet's previously-frozen assets to allow the ex-dictator to pay five years of back taxes. Judge Sergio Munoz froze the assets last year after finding that Pinochet and his family put about $17 million in some 100 foreign bank accounts which were never reported [...]