France and the United States locked diplomatic horns behind closed doors in the UN Security Council Wednesday over which court should try war criminals from the long-troubled Darfur region of Sudan. France, along with eight of the other 15 Security Council members, favors the new International Criminal Court in The Hague; the US, which has [...]

French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) has filed a legal complaint against Google News, the most popular online news aggregator. The AFP complaint says Google News infringed its intellectual property rights by pulling and displaying photos, headlines and leads of news stories from the websites of AFP subscribers. The outcome of the lawsuit will likely [...]

As expected , former Bosnian Serb general Vinko Pandurevic surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Wednesday. Pandurevic is alleged to have been one of the commanders in charge of the forces that expelled or killed most of the Muslim members of the UN-protected Srebrenica enclave in 1995. Pandurevic has been charged [...]

The Florida Senate has just voted against SB 804 that would have prohibited the suspension of sustenance or hydration of a person in persistent vegetative state when family members disagree on the course of action based on alleged prior oral statements of the person and where that person left no prior written directive. The bill [...]

AP is reporting that the US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a request from the parents of Terri Schiavo for an expedited rehearing en banc of their case, which a three-judge panel turned back early this morning. The only legal recourse left for the Schindlers at this stage now appears to be an [...]

A New York appeals court has ruled that Federal Insurance, the company that insured Tyco International executives, must pay the legal bills for former CEO Dennis Kozlowski, who is currently on trial on charges of grand larceny, falsifying business records and violating state business laws. The unanimous state Supreme Court Appellate Division did leave open [...]

Speaking after earlier brief comments on the Schiavo case Wednesday by President Bush , White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Wednesday afternoon that at this stage there was nothing more the President could do. "There really are not other legal options available to us…We have explored all our options previously." AP has more.

The Italian Senate Wednesday approved a broad constitutional reform bill that will increase the prime minister's executive authority, minimize the risk that governments will collapse mid-term, redistribute power between the houses of parliament, and increase the self-rule of Italy's 20 regions. The changes to the Italian constitution must be approved by popular referendum, which will [...]

UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Jack Straw has announced reforms to the way Britain uses its secret intelligence. Straw announced the reforms Wednesday as part of a written statement to Parliament on the government's implementation of the recommendations in the Butler report , which concluded that there were "serious flaws" in [...]

The Florida Senate has begun debate on Terri Schiavo legislation. An amended version of SB 804 would prohibit suspension of sustenance or hydration of a person in persistent vegatative state when family members disagree on the course of action based on alleged prior oral statements of the person and where that person left no prior [...]