A recent Federal Communications Commission ruling that would allow wiretapping of Internet calls was challenged Tuesday by privacy and technology groups in federal appeals court in Washington. The ruling makes it easier for law enforcement officials to tap Internet phone calls by mandating standards that would allow the wiretaps to be made. Internet call providers [...]

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Egyptian police Tuesday clashed with relatives of political prisoners demonstrating outside the country's Interior Ministry. The protesters called for the immediate release of the detainees, mostly Islamists and suspected members of the Gamaa Islamiya and Jihad organizations, who were imprisoned after leading a violent campaign against the regime in the 1980s and 1990s. Egyptian human [...]

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A group of former international political leaders supporting the defense of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein called Tuesday for a UN investigation into last week's kidnapping and murder of Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi , a lawyer representing one of Hussein's co-defendants. In a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former Algerian president Ahmed Ben Bella, [...]

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US Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NB) introduced a package of four bills on US immigration policy Tuesday that depart from Bush administration policy. Hagel, a possible contender for the Republican nomination in the US 2008 presidential election , proposed legislation that would allow many of the 8 to 12 million illegal immigrants currently living in the [...]

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Britain's House of Lords on Tuesday substantially amended the Blair government's controversial Racial and Religious Hatred Bill . The bill outlawing incitement to religious hatred was originally proposed last year , and Prime Minister Tony Blair began pushing again for its adoption after the July bombings in London. Critics of the proposed legislation, including comedians [...]

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A senior UN official said Tuesday that reported election results from the October 15 referendum ratifying the Iraqi constitution are correct. Carina Perelli, director of the UN Electoral Assistance Division , called the results "accurate" and defended the standards and controls used in the election and the subsequent audit of votes. Just days after the [...]

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