The committee drafting the Iraqi constitution has until Monday to request an extension if necessary and members will meet that day to decide the issue, according to a committee spokesman. The final constitution is actually not due until August 15, but the deadline of August 1 to request a six-month extension may prove material as [...]

Leading Thursday's corporations and securities law news, the US Senate Banking Committee has approved Rep. Christopher Cox 's nomination to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) . The nomination will now go before the full Senate for final approval. The approval followed days of questioning where Cox vowed to vigorously enforce SEC regulations . [...]

Leading Thursday's states brief, New Jersey Acting Governor Richard J. Codey has ordered the state's Attorney General to file suit against Delaware in the US Supreme Court over British Petroleum's plans to build a liquefied natural gas plant on New Jersey's side of the Delaware River. While the plant to be built on New Jersey's [...]

Republican lawmakers in the Senate on Thursday agreed to delay the Streamlined Procedures Act of 2005 , a bill limiting the rights of death row inmates to extend appeals in federal courts, because of strong Democratic opposition. The bill would limit the ability of prisoners on death row to have their cases reviewed by federal [...]

US judge Sterling Johnson on Thursday sentenced Yemeni cleric Sheikh Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, convicted in March of conspiring to support foreign terrorist groups , to 75 years in prison and fined him $1.25 million. Al-Moayad and his assistant, Mohammed Zayed, also from Yemen, were arrested in Germany in 2003 after telling a federal agent [...]

The US House of Representatives on Thursday approved a massive energy plan that provides huge tax breaks and subsidies to energy companies, but is predicted to only modestly reduce gas prices and US reliance on oil. The 1,725-page bill , finalized after weeks of compromise between the House and Senate , would provide $14.5 billion [...]

Ugandans voted Thursday to decide whether to allow a multiparty system, after a ban of nearly 20 years by President Yoweri Museveni who claimed political parties promoted tribal divisions and were responsible causing civil war. The referendum was the initial step in reforming the country's constitution , which prohibits political parties from campaigning in elections. [...]

Lal Krishna Advani , former deputy Prime Minister of India, was charged along with seven Hindu leaders on Thursday with inciting a mob to destroy a mosque in Ayodhya in 1992. The destruction sparked riots that killed at least 2,000 people. Opponents called the charges "politically motivated" and also called for a permanent replacement temple [...]

Australia has abandoned mandatory detention for some illegal immigrants, one of the most criticized provisions of its immigration law, releasing dozens of children on Thursday. Australia's courts also paved the way for over 1,000 asylum-seekers to avoid deportation. Prime Minister John Howard announced the changes last month in response to criticism that the laws were [...]

Indonesia Thursday continued to characterize an international tribunal for the 1999 East Timor violence as "unnecessary" despite a UN report formally released Wednesday that called for international oversight . Rights groups have also called for Indonesia to go along with the UN's recommendation. Indonesia maintains that a Truth and Friendship Commission it established with its [...]