Democrats on the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations claimed in a minority staff report on the UN Oil-for-Food scandal released Friday that the US Treasury Department failed to respond to UN requests for help in investigating business improprieties and missed an opportunity to stop at least one US corporation from [...]

A lawyer for former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby , who resigned Friday after a grand jury indictment , has outlined a possible defense for his client's alleged false statements before a grand jury. Joseph Tate suggested that Libby's inconsistent "recollections" to the grand jury and FBI investigators were the result of [...]

In a statement released Friday, the US State Department announced that it has extended an invitation to Guantanamo Bay prison to three UN human rights rapporteurs. State Department officials say "the invitation was extended in an effort to broaden understanding of US detention operations" and counter reports that detainees at the prison camp are treated [...]

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein accepted a last minute offer of exile from Arab leaders in 2003 just before the US-led invasion of Iraq, according to an Al Arabiya television documentary. According to the report, the deal could have averted war, but was thwarted when members of the League of Arab States refused to assent [...]

Portugal's constitutional court has blocked a national referendum designed to relax the country's abortion laws. Prime Minister Jose Socrates and the ruling Socialist party had intended to hold the referendum on November 27 to decide whether abortions during the first ten weeks of pregnancy should become legal. Currently, Portugal has one of Europe's strictest laws [...]

The Alaska Supreme Court issued an opinion Friday ending the state practice of denying benefits to same-sex partners of public employees. While the high court determined that the policy violated the equal protection clause of the Alaska Constitution because it treated unmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples differently, the benefits plans will remain in effect until [...]

Transcript of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's Press Conference, October 28, 2005 . Read the full transcript of the press conference via the Washington Post. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

In a brief statement Friday afternoon outside the White House, President Bush called Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's "legal proceedings" against resigned Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby "serious", but stressed that Libby is presumed innocent and entitled to due process and a fair trial. He said that Libby had "sacrificed much" in the [...]

A New York appellate court has upheld a lower court ruling banning New Paltz Mayor Jason West from performing same-sex marriages. The unanimous five-judge panel said West "acted beyond his authority" when he presided over 24 gay marriages last year. West was tried for violating New York's domestic relations law , but has repeatedly argued [...]

Robert Hebel v. Jason West, New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, October 27, 2005 . Read the full text of the opinion here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.