After signing amended provisions of the Palestinian Basic Law relating to elections over the weekend, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced Monday that parliamentary elections delayed in July because of problems with the electoral law are now set for January 21, 2006. Palestinian Islamic resistance group Hamas had objected to the delay, and Abbas has expressed [...]

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US Department of Justice attorneys asked a US District Court Monday to replace the judge presiding over an Indian trust class-action lawsuit filed in 1996. Class representatives in Corbell v. Norton are suing to force the federal government to account for billions of dollars belonging to approximately 500,000 American Indians and their heirs, and held [...]

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In an interview with the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper to be published Tuesday, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel , whose country is scheduled to take over the six-month rotating EU presidency from the UK at the beginning of 2006, has suggested that EU countries make another attempt to ratify the troubled European Constitution in two [...]

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Leading Monday's corporations and securities law brief, the New York Stock Exchange says it has censured and fined Merrill Lynch for what it called "supervisory and operational lapses." In a press release, the NYSE indicated it has fined the brokerage giant $10 million for, among other things, failure to deliver prospectuses and product descriptions to [...]

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Leading Monday's states brief, the Rhode Island Supreme Court heard oral arguments today on whether a casino proposed by the Narragansett Indian tribe and the Las Vegas-based Harrah's Entertainment would be a constitutional expansion of gambling. Last year, the Supreme Court declared the proposal unconstitutional because it violated the requirement that all lotteries be state [...]

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Senior Teheran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi said Monday it was a lie that jailed Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji , who supporters claim has not eaten for 67 days, was on hunger strike. The situation involving Ganji has provoked comments of concern from the White House, European Union and human rights groups. They have called on Iran [...]

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UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Monday ordered an investigation into the operations of the multi-billion dollar procurement division of the United Nations. Annan said UN Controller Warren Sachs would oversee the division while an independent commission probes earlier charges and the charges stemming from the latest report provided by the panel investigating the Oil-for-Food scandal . [...]

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