Leading Tuesday's states brief, the ACLU filed a lawsuit today against North Carolina asking the court to rule that a "holy scripture" suitable for oath administration includes the religious texts of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and other non-Christian faiths as well as the Christian Bible. Last month, two state judges in Guilford County ruled that an [...]

A witness testified at a military Article 32 hearing Tuesday that dogs handled by two American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison bit and injured two Iraqi detainees. Pvt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II, who in November was convicted of abusing Abu Ghraib detainees , alleged that the soldiers, Sgts. Santos A. Cardona and Michael J. [...]

An Indonesian court Tuesday sentenced a man to a four year jail term for his role in the 2004 Jakarta suicide car bombing outside the Australian embassy. Agus Ahmad is the second man convicted by the South Jakarta district court for taking part in the bombing and one of eleven militants on trial . The [...]

The UN Security Council Tuesday unanimously adopted a resoluton to closely scrutinize and keep track of all countries and rebel organizations that abuse children in any way or recruit children as soldiers . Resolution 1612 allows the UN to monitor the governments and rebel organizations in Burundi, Ivory Coast, Congo Republic, the Democratic Republic of [...]

The European Commission announced a proposal Tuesday that would require all customers making money transfers within the EU to register their name, address, and account number with the bank in an effort to stop the funding of terrorism. The information would be required regardless of the transfer amount and banks would ultimately reject any transfer [...]

Two Republican senators proposed legislation Monday dealing with the detention of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo . Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced an amendment to a pending defense bill that would officially authorize the government to hold prisoners at Guantanamo. Graham expressed concern about federal courts interfering with the process, although the most recent Guantanamo ruling upheld [...]

British politicians on Tuesday questioned a proposal that would allow the government to hold terrorism suspects for up to three months without charge . The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has asked that the period be extended from the current maximum of 14 days to 90 days as part of new initiatives to fight [...]

US District Judge for the District of Nebraska Laurie Smith Camp ruled Monday that Union Pacific Railroad discriminated against women by covering a range of preventive drugs, but not contraception, in its health care plan. Planned Parenthood supported the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, alleging that the failure to cover contraception violated the federal Civil Rights [...]

A draft chapter of the new Iraq constitution obtained by the Associated Press has raised concerns similar to those raised last week after another leaked draft obtained by the New York Times story prompted questions about the future of women's rights in the country. Both drafts make gender equality subject to Islamic law and appear [...]

According to Bhakta Bahadur Koirala, chairman of the anti-graft commission in Nepal , ex-prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and former public works minister Prakash Man Singh have been sentenced to two years in jail and fined $1.26 million each for their roles in a scandal involving the $464 million Melamchi Water Project . The contractor, [...]