A group of gay marriage opponents in Massachusetts said Wednesday they had gathered enough signatures to put a proposed constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage on the state ballot. The group, lead by the Massachusetts Family Institute and comprised of Christian and conservative activists, was required to gather 65,825 signatures before state lawmakers could decide whether [...]

The National Education Association (NEA) has promised to appeal a Wednesday ruling by a federal judge in Michigan dismissing its lawsuit challenging the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) . According to the complaint , filed by the NEA and individual school districts in Texas, Michigan and Vermont, school districts should not be forced to [...]

Leading Thursday's international brief, the Turkish Parliament has voted to investigate the grenade bombing of a former Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) member in the primarily Kurdish town of Semdinli. The attacker, an informant for the paramilitary police, was chased from the scene and captured at his vehicle, along with two paramilitary police officers. Parliament set [...]

Clinic for Women, Inc. v. Carl J. Brizzi, Indiana Supreme Court, November 23, 2005 . Excerpt: The Indiana Legislature has passed a law that requires a woman seeking an abortion to give her informed consent prior to the procedure and, except in the case of a medical emergency, specifies that a physician (or other medical [...]

Army prosecutors Wednesday dropped charges against a US soldier accused of abusing a mentally retarded detainee in Afghanistan . Spec. Nathan A. Jones was accused of kneeing or kicking the detainee in the thigh at the Bagram detention center in 2002 and then lying about it. Officials at Fort Bliss said, however, that although Jones [...]

A law requiring women seeking an abortion in Indiana to undergo counseling about medical risks and abortion-alternatives and wait at least 18 hours after the session before obtaining an abortion has been upheld against facial challenges by the Indiana Supreme Court . The court ruled Wednesday that because the Indiana statute does not "impose a [...]

An unassuming law office outside of Memphis, Tennessee has been implicated in a Spanish investigation into whether the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has secretly flown terror suspects to other countries for intense questioning and perhaps torture. The law office of Douglas R. Beaty is listed in Tennessee state records as having the same business [...]

English Attorney General Lord Goldsmith has told British newspapers that ran a story on a leaked UK government document purportedly describing conversations in April 2004 between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President Bush over the Iraq war that they could be subject to prosecution under Section 5 of the UK Official Secrets Act [...]

Michael Rigas, the former executive vice president of Adelphia Communications Corp. and son of founder John Rigas pleaded guilty in Manhattan Wednesday to falsifying a financial record. His plea negates the need for retrial on other charges of securities and bank fraud. Rigas entered into a plea agreement under which he will receive between six [...]

Leading Wednesday's international brief, the Nepal Supreme Court issued a ruling Wednesday suspending the new Code of Conduct law that governs the behavior of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Nepal. Justice Parmananda Jha issued the stay in light of a petition filed Monday by nine Nepalese NGOs. The NGOs, as well as other international NGOs , [...]