Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has decided not to submit a bill to parliament that would allow women to succeed to the throne, Japanese media reported Friday. Koizumi had supported a proposal that would change the country's male-only succession law, the 1947 Imperial Household Law , to allow female monarchs, but cooled his support earlier [...]

US Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and 14 other Republican senators have introduced a proposal that would rewrite an asbestos bill to allow asbestos-related lawsuits only under strict medical criteria, rather than establishing a $140 billion fund for all victims. Cornyn introduced the plan as an amendment to the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act , [...]

Andrew Lindberg , chief executive of the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) , has stepped down from his position as the Australian judicial inquiry continues its fourth week of investigations into alleged Australian connections to the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal . Lindberg has given up all responsibility within the company, and will officially resign on April 30. [...]

The number of discrimination charges against private employers filed with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission declined by five percent in 2005 , the third straight year the number of complaints fell. EEOC officials point to several factors as potential causes of the decrease, including the EEOC's outreach and prevention efforts as well as a [...]

Leading Friday's international brief, Zimbabwe Lands Minister Didymus Mutasa has told reporters that following controversial constitutional reforms that took effect last year, there are no longer any white farmers operating legally in Zimbabwe. Mutasa said on state television late Thursday that all farmland is now owned by the state and any farmer must have government [...]

The US Air Force on Thursday released revised interim guidelines concerning the free exercise of religion in the Air Force which remove several restrictions on the promotion of religious beliefs. The revised guidelines, endorsed by the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces , remove a warning for top officers about promoting personal religious [...]

After receiving a royal pardon, Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy returned home to Cambodia Friday after a year of self-imposed exile in France. Sam Rainsy had fled to France after his parliamentary immunity was revoked for accusing Prime Minister Hun Sen of trying to kill him in 1997. He also accused Prince Norodom Ranariddh , [...]

A long-term renewal of the USA Patriot Act now seems likely as four key Republican senators who had been holding out on approving an extension have reached an agreement with the White House. Sixteen key provisions of the Patriot Act were set to expire at the end of last year, but members of Congress were [...]

Court documents filed by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the CIA leak case show that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby , Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, testified to a federal grand jury that he was authorized by superiors to leak information contained in a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) to reporters in the summer of [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Thursday instructed a lower court to reconsider a challenge to Georgia's controversial voter ID law that required voters to show government-issued photo identification before casting their ballots, but left in place an injunction barring the law's enforcement. The three-judge panel instructed the lower court to [...]