Indonesia's highest court Thursday rejected a challenge from environmental groups and upheld a law enabling 13 mining companies to operate in protected forests. The Constitutional Court ruled that the law did not violate the 1945 constitution and that the government must honor commitments to the companies . Such mining was banned in 1999 but in [...]

AP is reporting that the US terror alert level will be raised to code orange for mass transit in the wake of London explosions, according to US officials. 12:37 PM ET – The UN Security Council has been called into emergency consultative session on the London bombings, and a formal public meeting may follow later [...]

US Defense Department officials Wednesday required CNN to erase any footage that might allow Guantanamo prisoners to be identified during a recent visit . Taking up a challenge to reporters from President Bush to come see the facility amidst allegations of abuse, CNN's visit was also frustrated by a prohibition against speaking to any prisoners [...]

Lawyers for US Army Pfc. Lynndie England will request at a pretrial hearing Thursday that Judge Col. James Pohl be removed from the case. Pohl had presided over England's first trial, in which he threw out her guilty plea after her statements were contradicted by those made by former boyfriend Pvt. Charles Graner Jr. , [...]

A civil trial of American Electric Power , the nation's biggest power company, opened Wednesday on charges by the government and eight states that it had violated the Clean Air Act . The suit against AEP alleges violations in connection with modifications made to power plants that didn't include the installation of pollution-reduction devices. Similar [...]

Myanmar's military government announced Thursday that it had released 400 prisoners but refused to name them. The majority of those released are believed to be political prisoners, many of whom are tied to the National League of Democracy party of Aung San Suu Kyi . UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the lifting of all [...]

A federal judge in Chicago dismissed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking reparations from several companies that benefitted or profited from slavery prior to its abolition. US District Judge Charles R. Norgle ruled that a geneological tie was not enough to show injury, that the suit was brought too late, and finally that the issue is [...]

A California National Guard unit known as the Information Synchronization, Knowledge Management and Intelligence Fusion program is under investigation by military authorities to determine whether it was created to spy on civilians. Activists are concerned that the group's actions are similar to spying done on almost 100,000 civilians during the 60s and 70s. At issue [...]

Class representatives amended a complaint against CardSystems Solutions, MasterCard, Visa, and Merrick Bank Thursday, demanding monetary compensation for negligence. The lawsuit stems from a security breach at CardSystems that resulted in the exposure of some 40 million credit cards to potential fraud . Three representatives filed the suit on behalf of hundreds of cardholders in [...]

Echoing earlier predictions , Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told a gathering of Shiite clerics Thursday that Iraq's new constitution "will be done on schedule". The constitutional commission charged with drafting the charter needs to finish by August 15 in order for the pact to be submitted to a referendum in October. Although disputes over Sunni [...]