Diplomats at an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency are working Thursday on a resolution that expresses "serious concern" over the restart of Iran's nuclear program , but stops short of asking the UN Security Council to impose sanctions. Instead, the IAEA draft states a desire to resolve the matter through negotiation. Iran's [...]

The Republican National Committee has spent over $722,000 on lawyers from the highly-regarded Washington firm Williams & Connolly to defend James Tobin on vote tampering charges, an RNC spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. Tobin, President Bush's 2004 campaign chairman for New England, faces four felony charges that he conspired to jam phone lines and block Democratic voting [...]

New documents on the legal career of US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts are expected to be released Thursday by the National Archives and the Ronald Reagan presidential library, but Senate Democrats are continuing calls for even more material to be made available for scrutiny in advance of Roberts' confirmation hearing next month. At issue [...]

Omar Bakri Mohammed, the British cleric who fled to Lebanon after being named in an investigation into possible treason charges for allegedly praising the London bombings, was detained by Lebanese police Thursday. Bakri, who has dual Lebanese-Syrian citizenship, arrived in the country on Saturday, shortly after the British government announced plans to deport and exclude [...]

Leading Wednesday's corporation and securities law news, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has suspended controversial corporate governance rules for mutual funds promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The suspension will last until a lawsuit brought by the US Chamber of Commerce and other groups challenging the new rules [...]

Myers v. Loundoun County Public Schools, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, August 10, 2005 . Excerpt: The district court, applying the three part test of Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971), upheld the Recitation Statute, concluding that the statute did not have a religious purpose or effect and did not [...]

The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday upheld a Virginia law requiring daily recital of the Pledge of Allegiance in Virginia public schools. Attorneys for plaintiff Edward Myers had argued that the phrase "one nation under God" was tantamount to governmental establishment and endorsement of religion, a violation of the Establishment Clause . The [...]

Cyprus Foreign Minister George Iacovou told reporters Wednesday that he is unaware if former UN Oil-for-Food chief Benon Sevan is in the country, but if he is, any extradition request from abroad will likely be met with opposition. Several reports indicate that Sevan, a Cyprus national, traveled to Cyprus following his resignation from his honorary [...]

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has denied an appeal request to reinterpret its November 2004 ruling that upheld the conviction of an American tried in Peru on charges she collaborated with the terrorist group Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement . Lawyers for Lori Berenson claimed that her trial failed to meet international standards for fairness, [...]

Leading Wednesday's states brief, the California Supreme Court held today without comment that it will not immediately review a March ruling that declared the state ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. In that ruling, Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer wrote, "It appears that no rational purpose exists for limiting marriage in this state to opposite-sex partners." [...]