A California school district has agreed to stop teaching a philosophy class discussing intelligent design theory as part of a settlement agreement filed Tuesday, according to the legal director for the Americans United for Separation of Church and State . A group of parents sued the school district last week arguing the "Philosophy of Design" [...]

South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has established a policy to prosecute political crimes committed during apartheid in South Africa by individuals who were denied amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) . The new policy indicates that the National Director of Public Prosecution will make decisions on whether to prosecute, and that the [...]

Judges on the Iraqi High Criminal Court (formerly, the Iraqi Special Tribunal ), the court trying Saddam Hussein , are in disagreement over how to choose a new chief judge to replace Rizgar Amin . Amin resigned last week in protest of criticism surrounding his handling of the trial, and was replaced temporarily by colleague [...]

Russia's official newspaper, Rossiskaya Gazeta reported Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law granting tighter state control over non-governmental organizations, including those foreign-based, though there has been no official announcement from the Kremlin. The law, approved by parliament last week, has been widely criticized , but its supporters defend the measure as [...]

The federal trial of former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell on charges of corruption opened Tuesday with jury selection. Campbell, who served as mayor from 1994 to 2002, has strongly denied charges of racketeering, fraud and bribery, which included accepting more than $160,000 in illegal contributions in return for city contracts during his administration. He was [...]

An Austrian arbitration court has ruled that the country must return $150 million in artwork to the heir of the family from whom the works were seized by the Nazis, bringing to a close a case that wound its way through both Austrian and US courts. Both parties agreed to abide by the ruling, issued [...]

A coalition of civil rights groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the Bush administration's warrantless domestic spying program . In the ACLU lawsuit the plaintiffs are seeking a declaration that the NSA program, which authorizes warrantless wiretaps on international communications originating in the US, is unconstitutional under the [...]

In addition to its ruling in the Oregon assisted suicide case, the US Supreme Court on Tuesday limited the citizenship of a bank to the state in which its main office is located for purposes of diversity jurisdiction. The Court in Wachovia Banks v. Schmidt , 04-1186, reversed a Fourth Circuit decision that no diversity [...]

Four Cambodian civil rights leaders arrested on defamation charges were unexpectedly granted bail and released from jail Tuesday. Leaders from the Cambodian Center for Human Rights , along with a journalist and union leader were released pending trial, after intense international pressure and a request by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen that the four be [...]

The UK House of Lords has blocked government plans to issue national identification cards , objecting to three aspects of the proposal including questions of cost. The Lords on Monday voted to halt the legislation until the anticipated costs to launch the ID card program were revealed, but government officials said making such information public [...]