Sunni Industry Minister Usama Abdul Aziz Al-Najafi said Friday that he expects a 'no' vote in the upcoming referendum on the proposed Iraqi constitution , scheduled for Saturday. The prediction comes despite a last-minute deal between Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni negotiators intended to win Sunni support. Under the agreement, a commission will be established to [...]

Following a proposal Monday by UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke , Britain's Parliament on Thursday added 15 terror organizations with suspected links to al Qaeda to a list of 25 organizations already banned under the Terrorism Act 2000 . Prominent newly-banned groups include Ansar Al Islam , a group blamed for multiple attacks in Iraq, [...]

Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle on Thursday subpoenaed telephone records from the home and political campaign office of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) Earle also subpoenaed the telephone records of DeLay’s daughter, Dani DeLay Ferro, in his effort to uncover information on the fundraising activities of DeLay’s political committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, [...]

South Africa on Thursday repealed the oppressive Black Administration Act , ending the last vestige of apartheid. The 1927 Act had provided a uniform system of administration and regulation for black people by empowering tribal chiefs and regulating the succession of estates. Its enforcement also thwarted attempts by black women to purchase or lease property [...]

Leading Thursday's states brief, a New York appeals court ruled today that a member of a Vermont civil union has no standing to sue a Manhattan hospital for malpractice in the death of his partner. In finding that the partner had no standing, the court stated, "any contrary decision, no matter how circumscribed, will be [...]

Human Rights Watch said Thursday that hundreds of individuals accused of minor crimes in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina struck are still detained in temporary local correctional facilities, awaiting a hearing before a judge. The chaos in the days after the hurricane forced parish prisons to be evacuated and courthouses to be closed. One parish [...]

Uzbek police have arrested activist Mukhtabar Tojibaeva , hours before she was expected to attend a human rights conference. Tojibaeva, who heads up the human rights organization Fiery Hearts, has been a vocal critic of the Uzbek government's alleged massacre of 200 Uzbek citizens during an uprising in the town of Andijan on May 13. [...]

The US Department of Justice on Thursday announced that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will plead guilty to charges that it conspired with other technology companies to fix prices on some of its dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips. Under the plea deal, Samsung has agreed to pay $300 million in fines, the second largest antitrust [...]

Harriet Miers will not withdraw her nomination to the US Supreme Court, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters Thursday. McClellan, when asked if Miers might withdraw her name, insisted that, "no one that knows her would make such a suggestion." The Miers nomination continues to be a favorite target of conservative critics who have [...]

The Association of Muslim Scholars on Thursday urged Iraqis to reject the draft Iraqi constitution when it comes up for referendum on October 15 . A spokesman for the influential Sunni group asserted that even with the Iraqi government's latest agreement intended to win Sunni support, the draft constitution still risked a breakup of the [...]