The US House of Representatives voted Thursday to extend the Patriot Act , a key document used to combat terrorism in the US. The measure was approved 257-171 with 43 Democrats joining 214 Republicans in voting to extend key provisions of the Act that were set to expire at the end of the year. The [...]

The White House said Thursday it would veto the Senate bill for next year's defense spending if members of the Senate moved to regulate or set up a commission to investigate conditions at US detention camps. Democrats stated Thursday they will present an amendment to create an independent national commission to investigate detainee abuses at [...]

Leading Thursday's corporations and securities law news, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has informed the SEC of its intentions to merge with electronic exchange unit Archipelago and form a publicly traded company. In a preliminary filing with the SEC, the companies said that current seat-owners on the exchange will control 70% of the new [...]

Former CEO of HealthSouth Corp. Richard Scrushy petitioned a judge Thursday to terminate the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil suit against him for corporate fraud charges since he was acquitted of criminal charges last month. Scrushy's lawyers said in his brief to the court, "After being pursued for years by all the king's horses [...]

Fifty-two detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp are protesting their detentions and allegedly inhumane treatment by refusing meals, according to a statement released Thursday by the naval base's Joint Task Force . The prisoners have so far given up nine consecutive meals, but US military officials said "indications are that this is a temporary [...]

London police arrested two men Thursday as suspects in the noon hour attacks on a bus and three subway trains . Officials said one of the men was arrested near the home of Prime Minister Tony Blair , while the other was detained close to the Warren Street station where one of the attacks occurred. [...]

Saddam Hussein on Thursday questioned why he only has access to his lawyer during interrogation sessions before judges investigating the charges against him. In a new released videotape of Saddam, he asked Judge Munir Haddad, "The lawyer only sees his client when there is an investigation session. Is this the law?" Saddam also voiced his [...]

After another four explosions in the UK Thursday , the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in Britain immediately expressed the need for new and broader powers to deal with terrorism , such as the ability to hold a terror suspect up to three months without charge. The ACPO's recommendations are even broader than the [...]

Leading Thursday's states brief, the South Dakota Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that remarriage does not automatically terminate alimony payments, but recipients must show there is a good cause to continue the payments. Justice Judith Meierhenry wrote, "Absent a showing of extraordinary circumstances, alimony should have ceased" upon her remarriage. The court also noted, in [...]

An official for the UN Mission in Democratic Republic of the Congo accused neighboring Uganda on Thursday of harboring Congolese guerrilla fighters and violating a UN Security Council resolution . Uganda denied allegations that Congolese rebels were using their land to build a new political movement, but the UN has seized a document identifying a [...]