The 12th General Conference of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union (AIPU) ended Tuesday with members of Arab states calling on the United Nations to adopt a resolution which bans offenses against religion, including Islam. The member countries harshly criticized the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad printed in European publications and urged the UN to bring individuals who [...]

Algerian Islamist Rachid Ramda has gone on trial in France for his alleged role in several deadly bomb attacks in Paris in 1995. Ramda was arrested in Britain in 1995, but delayed his extradition ten years until December 2005 with a series of appeals. He is charged with criminal association with a terrorist organization and [...]

One inmate was killed and three others wounded Tuesday as Afghan police fired on rioters trying to push down a gate at a Kabul prison, ending a day-long truce at the tense facility. Negotiations between the parties broke down Tuesday, prompting renewed rioting among inmates at Policharki prison . Police have blamed the riots on [...]

America Online (AOL) has filed three lawsuits in federal court in Virginia against international groups that allegedly stole information from AOL users, violating Virgina's anti-"phishing" law, the first of its kind in the US. The company, based in Dulles, is seeking $18 million in damages from the groups, claiming that thirty people violated the Virginia [...]

US District Judge Reggie B. Walton has indicated that he may offer a compromise over requests by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby for access to classified information in his trial on perjury charges . Walton issued an order Monday that reduced the number of intelligence briefings that he might order to be turned over the case, [...]

The Utah House of Representatives Monday voted down a much-watched bill that would have challenged the teaching of evolution in high school science classes in the conservative state. The so-called "Origin of Life" bill as initially presented would have required teachers to issue a disclaimer to students saying that not all scientists agree on the [...]

The trial of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein resumed in Baghdad Tuesday with prosecutors at the Iraqi High Criminal Court – formerly the Iraqi Special Tribunal – continuing to present their case on charges of murder, torture, forced expulsions and illegal imprisonment stemming from a crackdown on villagers in Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt [...]

The Bush administration has rejected a request by a group of House Democrats asking that a special counsel be appointed to investigate NSA spying on people within the United States. In a letter to President Bush Monday, the 18 legislators called for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to appoint a special counsel, arguing that any surveillance [...]

The US Supreme Court issued two unanimous rulings Tuesday, limiting the scope of both the Hobbs Act and the Sherman Antitrust Act . In Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, Inc. , 04-1244, the Court ruled that the Hobbs Act's prohibition on threats of violence did not shield abortion clinics from demonstrations by anti-abortion protestors. [...]

The US government has agreed to a $300,000 settlement of claims by an Egyptian that he was abused while being detained by US authorities for months following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The settlement reached with Ehab Elmaghraby is the first reached by the federal government over claims arising from the rounding up of hundreds [...]