The US House Resources Committee Thursday approved the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act , legislation that would overhaul the Endangered Species Act by limiting the government's ability to protect plant and animal habitat while giving new development rights to property owners. The House Committee says that the new legislation is needed because "the Endangered [...]

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani , Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric, said Thursday that he endorsed the draft Iraqi constitution and called for officials in the Shiite Muslim hierarchy to promote a "yes" vote in the upcoming national referendum. Al-Sistani's endorsement comes as Sunni Arab clerics and tribal leaders called for rejection of the charter . [...]

Leading Thursday's states brief, the Florida Supreme Court ruled today that gun makers, sued by cities and counties seeking to recover the costs of providing services for gun-related violence, are not covered by their commercial liability insurance policies. The court found the gun makers' insurance policies excluded property damage and injuries occurring away from the [...]

A Moscow court Thursday rejected the appeal of jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky against his conviction on fraud and tax evasion charges, but reduced his nine-year sentence to eight years. The decision, which followed several postponements of the proceedings , came after just one day of arguments from the prosecution and defense. Khodorkovsky's lawyers [...]

Scotland Yard said Thursday that bombing suspect Hamdi Issac , also known as Hussain Osman, has been charged with attempted murder over the failed 21 July London bomb attacks . Issac was apprehended in Rome days after the failed attacks on the London subway and his case is seen by many as a test case [...]

An Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced the last of six Muslim militants accused in the 2004 suicide bombing at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta to 10 years in prison for aiding those who carried out the attack. Syaiful Bahri was found guilty of violating anti-terrorism laws by "providing assistance" in the suicide bombing that killed [...]

The US Securities and Exchange Commission voted 5-0 at a public meeting Wednesday to give small public companies an additional extra year to comply with requirements to file reports on the strength of their internal financial controls under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 . As with last year's extension for small businesses , the SEC [...]

The office of the New Jersey Attorney General has announced that the state will oversee a county-by-county probe into allegations of election irregularities brought by Republicans. NJ Attorney General Peter Harvey said the state would have some involvement in the investigation and report its findings but added that county officials would lead the probe because [...]

The US Senate Judiciary Committee has approved the nomination of Judge John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States by a vote of 13-5 with all Republican members voting for and five Democrats voting against. Earlier this week, Roberts received an endorsement from Sen. Arlen Specter, chair of the Judiciary Committee, and also received [...]

More prisoners are on California's death row for murdering whites than for killing people of any other race, despite the fact that were more black and Hispanic murder victims during the same time period, according to a new study to be published in the Santa Clara Law Review . The study, which has not yet [...]