President George W. Bush has issued an executive order allowing federal contractors working to rebuild areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina to pay lower wages, effectively suspending regulations under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act requiring contractors to pay workers the minimum of prevailing wages for federally-funded construction projects that are in excess of $2,000. The President is [...]

US District Court Judge Janet Hall Friday agreed with the American Civil Liberties Union that a gag order shielding the identity of librarians who had received an FBI demand for records about library patrons under the Patriot Act prevented their library client from participating in the public Patriot Act debate. The unnamed library and the [...]

Fresh from talks this week with other justice and interior ministers of the European Union , British Home Secretary Charles Clarke said Friday that Britain, currently holding the EU presidency, wants the EU to implement a new set of anti-terror measures before the end of the year. He said an agreement must be made among [...]

New Orleans city attorney Sherry Landry said Friday that the city is now "fully secured" following the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and the disorder that broke out afterwards. She told a news conference that "Fourteen thousand troops are in Orleans Parish. At present they are actively patrolling all areas of the city and running [...]

Pharmaceutical company Merck. said Friday that it has no plans to make a comprehensive deal to settle the thousands of cases against the company concerning side effects of its arthritis drug Vioxx . The drug was withdrawn from the market last year, after a study found the drug to increase the risk of heart attack [...]

An Australian lawyers group is describing new anti-terrorism legislation proposed by Australian Prime Minister John Howard as "draconian" and has called on regional governments to reject it. The Law Society of New South Wales said Friday that the proposal threatened civil rights and Howard had failed to justify the expansion of police powers included in [...]

A Mississippi judge on Friday ordered Edgar Ray Killen to return to prison while he appeals his conviction for the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers. Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon revoked Killen's bail during the appeal after District Attorney Mark Duncan presented evidence that Killen misrepresented his health condition. Defense lawyers for Killen, 80, [...]

The draft Iraqi constitution is expected to receive final approval by the constitutional drafting committee in coming days after the committee agreed Thursday to changes that appeared to ease tensions over the text. Abbas al-Bayati, a Shiite member of the drafting committee, said Friday that negotiators had agreed to an amendment affirming that Iraq is [...]

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was re-elected to another six-year term in a landslide victory announced Friday following Wednesday's multi-candidate presidential vote, the first held in Egypt . The Presidential Election Commission announced the widely expected result of the 10 candidate race. Turnout was low with only 23 percent of voters going to the polls, while [...]

Irish voters remain undecided about the proposed European Constitution despite plans to hold an Irish referendum on the document, according to a report issued Friday by the European Commission Representation in Ireland . The report showed that 50 percent of those surveyed had no opinion on the text, while 37 percent said they supported it. [...]