Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and a bipartisan group of state senators introduced legislation Wednesday that would recognize civil unions for same-sex couples and would outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation. The text of Senate Bill 1000 is not yet available online, but Kulongoski says the bill would: Amend Oregon's existing non-discrimination laws to prohibit discrimination [...]

A British court Wednesday convicted suspected al Qaeda operative Kamel Bourgass of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance by the use of poisons and/or explosives to cause disruption, fear or injury in a plot to spread ricin and other poisons in Britain. British authorities suspect that Bourgass' work was part of a larger plan to [...]

Eric Rudolph , who last week agreed to plead guilty to the Atlanta Olympic bombings, pleaded guilty Wednesday to the 1998 Birmingham abortion clinic bombing , which killed two people and left over 100 wounded. Under the plea agreement, Rudolph will receive four consecutive life prison terms, but will not face the death penalty. Following [...]

Senator Arlen Specter , chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee , has criticized Justice Department and FBI officials for failing to provide the committee details about their demands for records and their use of roving wiretaps and secret search warrants authorized under the USA PATRIOT Act . The Judiciary Committee held a closed-door briefing Tuesday [...]

Lawyers for six Guantanamo Bay detainees filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday asking a judge to force the Department of Justice and Department of Defense to comply with their Freedom of Information Act requests for documents, including medical and psychiatric records, on its treatment of the detainees. The six men, all Algerian, were arrested in Bosnia [...]

AP is reporting that the UN General Assembly has approved the text of a draft global treaty designed to prevent nuclear terrorism. 11:35 AM ET – The approval of the text comes at the end of a seven-year negotiating process characterized by tensions between nuclear and non-nuclear powers. Under the draft, states are obliged to [...]

The US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the State of Florida Tuesday in allowing the state to continue to require released convicted felons to apply to a state agency for restoration of their voting rights. Florida is one of 14 states which have laws allowing convicted felons to be denied voting [...]

In an unexplained decision, the Supreme Court of California late Tuesday blocked the release of files concerning some 117 priests from the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles alleged to have committed sexual abuse. The Archdiocese had been prepared to release the files as early as December as part of a mediation agreement between the Archdiocese [...]

The French Parliament has adopted a bill which will allow patients to decide to discontinue medical treatment, even if that decision will ultimately lead to their death. The bill , passed Tuesday night by the Senate and already approved by the National Assembly , also allows families to remove "non-responsive" relatives from life support machinery [...]

Ukranian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko cancelled her scheduled weekend visit to Russia Wednesday, following statements by Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov that Russia would not withdraw an international arrest warrant out against Tymoshenko. Russian prosecutors have charged Tymoshenko with criminal bribery of Russian Defense officials in her previous position as head of United Energy Systems [...]