A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that congressional legislation that permits medical insurance for US military personnel to pay only for abortions needed to save the life of the mother was constitutional. The three judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit criticized the legislation however, as "callous and unfeeling." The [...]

The last of the publicly accessible documents authored by US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts in storage at the Reagan Library in were released simultaneously Thursday in California and Washington, DC. The thousands of pages of material complete the greater-than 50,000 pages of work product produced by Roberts while he was a junior White House [...]

David Radler, former Chicago Sun-Times publisher, Mark S. Kipnis, former lead counsel for Hollinger International , and Ravelston Corp, a private company controlled by Conrad Black were charged with five counts of federal mail fraud and two counts of federal wire fraud on Thursday. The two men and the company are part of an ongoing [...]

Leading Thursday's states brief, a New Jersey court of appeals has ruled that a jury should decide whether Porfirio Jimenez is mentally competent and able to face the death penalty. A spokesman for the Office of the Public Defender said that, "Most states have gone with the ruling that the judge makes the decision. Now, [...]

Four people filed suit Thursday against the Transportation Security Administration in an Anchorage federal court alleging that the agency illegally collected information about passengers in testing the Secure Flight Program last fall. Earlier this month, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that privacy concerns about the program were being overstated . However, in [...]

Dennis Rader, the BTK killer, was sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms on Thursday after pleading guilty in June to 10 murders. Since Kansas did not have the death penalty at the time of the crimes, the life terms handed down were the toughest sentence possible. AP has more.

Indonesian Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin has confirmed that the Indonesian government will grant general amnesties to all members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) currently incarcerated by the government. The amnesty is part of the Helsinki peace agreement between the GAM, the largest independence group in the Aceh province, and the [...]

The Nepalese Royal Commission for Corruption Control arrested two government officials Thursday and issued an arrest warrant for a third on corruption and tax evasion charges adding up to nearly $400,000 (USD). Director-General of Inland Revenue Department Abanindra Kumar Shrestha and Ministry of Finance officer Sharada Prasad Dahal were arrested on corruption charges, while an [...]

Prosecutors in the French Caribbean island of Martinique have initiated a manslaughter investigation against West Caribbean Airways . The investigation will target the airline's increasingly controversial safety record to determine if WCA was at fault for the crash on Tuesday which killed 160 people . The plane reported engine troubles and then suddenly crashed in [...]

Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen reported Thursday that senior leaders in the Tamil Tigers have agreed to attend peace talks to be held with representatives of the Sri Lankan government . The date and location of the talks has yet to be decided, but the meeting will be the first between the two sides [...]