In a clash of opposing viewpoints, a group of strongly conservative Iraqi women Tuesday confronted a sit-in by their liberal counterparts in Baghdad's Firdous Square as the August 15 deadline for the country's constitution nears. The liberal secularists were passing out leaflets and calling on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and others to press for female [...]

The Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday proposed new radiation exposure limits for the Yucca Mountain waste dump project with the goal of ensuring a safe public site for hundreds of thousands of years. The proposal is intended to satisfy a July 2004 court decision that rejected the EPA's plans to protect against radiation for 10,000 years [...]

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales addressed lawyers attending the annual meeting of the American Bar Association Monday, arguing for support of several controversial legal issues on the Bush administration's agenda. Gonzales urged the group to endorse Supreme Court nominee John Roberts as strongly as it had when Bush named him to a federal appeals court [...]

A key suspect believed to be connected to the abduction and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl was brought before a civil court Tuesday in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. Mohammad Hashim Qadir was held in connection with a separate case, involving the killing of a man on June 5, though police said he would [...]

The US State Department said Monday that it may deny a visa application by new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad due to allegations that he was part of the 1979 hostage crisis . Both a former agent and Ahmadinejad himself have denied the accusations, and the White House admits it has no proof linking him to [...]

Attorneys for Wal-Mart have asked a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to dismiss a class action lawsuit that claims as many as 1.6 million female employees were discriminated against. A district judge originally certified the class last year, but Wal-Mart told the federal appeals court Monday that the [...]

After Iran announced an end to negotiations and a resumption of its nuclear program on Monday, the International Atomic Energy Agency held an emergency meeting Tuesday in Vienna to discuss the situation and before the meeting, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei urged that negotiations be continued . European Union negotiators have been working with Iran [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak said Tuesday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair's plan to deport Islamic extremists is likely to result in violations of international human rights law. While such laws prohibit Britain from deporting people to a country where they may face torture or death, Blair said he planned to obtain [...]

Jailed Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji has ended his eight-week hunger strike in response to concerns of family and friends for his deteriorating health, a spokesman for Iran's judiciary said Tuesday. Ganji has been imprisoned since April 2000 and was sentenced to six years in prison in 2001 for "collecting confidential information harmful to national security [...]

A former UN official pleaded guilty Monday to US charges that he accepted close to $1 million in bribes from UN contractors in the Oil-for-Food scandal . Alexander Yakovlev, a procurement officer and the first UN official to face criminal charges, pleaded guilty to accepting and soliciting bribes, wire fraud, and money laundering after having [...]