The office of the Pentagon's general counsel has sent leaders of the US Senate and House of Representatives Armed Services Committees a draft copy of a proposal saying that consensual sodomy between members of the US military would no longer be a criminal act. The change would bring the military legal code closer to the [...]

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved two of President Bush's judicial nominees , sending the nominations to the full Senate in what could trigger a partisan face-off over the filibuster. With two 10-8 votes along party lines, the Committee approved the nominations of Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown to the 5th and 2nd [...]

Zacarias Moussaoui , the only person charged by the US in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, could receive the death penalty after he requested nothing in return for agreeing to plead guilty, federal officials have said. Moussaoui has indicated he will plead guilty to a six-count indictment with no stipulation as to [...]

Brazil has granted asylum to ousted Ecuadoran President Lucio Gutierrez , Brazil's Ministry of External Relations said Thursday. The Ministry said Gutierrez sought asylum Wednesday at the Brazilian embassy in Quito, calling its grant of the request a "regional tradition." Gutierrez was removed from his position on Wednesday by a congressional vote after a day [...]

Leading Thursday's corporations and securities brief, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced it will merge with rival Archipelago Holdings Inc. in a move which transforms the NYSE into a for-profit, publicly traded company. The NYSE, known for its busy trading floor, takes on all-electronic Archipelago to effectively compete with the Nasdaq Market Inc. and [...]

Prosecutors have finally charged Mexico City's popular mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador with abuse of authority, a move that could threaten Obrador's run for president. A week after President Vicente Fox considered – then reconsidered a pardon, and two weeks after Lopez Obrador promised he would surrender to authorities when he was stripped of public [...]

The Israeli government has released a report setting material damages to the Jewish people during the Holocaust between $240 billion and $330 billion. The report is the first of its kind, including not only the value of looted Jewish property but also lost income and wages, as well as unpaid wages from forced Jewish labor. [...]

The US House of Presentatives voted late Wednesday to allow oil drilling in the Alaska Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as part of new and wide-ranging energy legislation . The bill's sponsors claim the refuge will produce as much as a million barrels of oil a day which will help the country's growing dependence on [...]

The Texas House of Representatives has passed legislation which would bar homosexuals from becoming foster parents. The ban, part of the state's attempt to revamp its Child Protective Services Agency , passed 135-6 Tuesday with two abstentions and now goes to the state Senate. According to the American Civil Liberties Union Lesbian and Gay rights [...]

Chicago Cardinal Francis George said Wednesday that new pope Benedict XVI , will preserve the church law giving bishops broad power to discipline sexually abusive priests. George said he had previously told then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of the need to keep the law which avoids the lengthy Vatican process for ousting a priest from the church. [...]