Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to sign into a law a measure passed by both houses of the Russian parliament that will abolish the country's inheritance tax, according to reports on Monday. After Putin made the proposal in an April address his plan was swiftly enacted, receiving 414 votes of approval in the 450-seat [...]

The World Tribunal on Iraq an unofficial grouping of antiwar activists and intellectuals who have held some 20 meetings around the world over the last two years, concluded its final session in Istanbul Monday by releasing a scathing preliminary declaration insisting that the Iraq war was an illegal war of aggression based on false information, [...]

A Spanish prosecutor Monday called for legal rather than military means of fighting the war on terror during closing arguments in the trial of three men suspected of aiding the 9/11 attacks. Apparently referring to US strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said "We don't need wars. We don't need detention camps, but rather this [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday upheld an FCC determination that broadband cable modem companies are free from the mandatory regulations that apply to common-carriers. The 6-3 ruling means cable companies are allowed to keep rival internet providers from using their lines, a decision that lessens competition and consumer choice. The decision is likely to [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that police officers are immune from suits based on how they enforce restraining orders. In a 7-2 decision the Court said that a woman whose estranged husband murdered her three children did not have a constitutional right to police enforcement of the restraining order in place against her husband. [...]

The US Supreme Court recessed for the summer Monday morning without any announcement from Chief Justice William Rehnquist on his possible retirement from the bench after 33 years of service. Speculation had been rife that the ailing and increasingly frail Rehnquist, 80, might take the occasion of the court's last sitting of the term to [...]

The US Supreme Court has ruled that the Ten Commandments can be displayed on the grounds of a state capitol building. The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had previously ruled in Van Orden v. Perry that a six-foot-tall display of the Commandments on the grounds of the Texas state capitol in Austin was constitutionally [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that developers of software violate federal copyright law when they provide computer users with the ability to share music and movie files downloaded from the internet. Read the Court's opinion . AP has more. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had previously held in MGM [...]

Dennis Rader , charged with 10 murders that took place between 1974 and 1991 as the "bind, torture, kill" (BTK) killer, pleaded guilty on Monday as his trial began in Wichita, Kansas. Prosecutors said before the hearing that no deal had been made. No date was set for sentencing, but Rader cannot face the death [...]

The US Supreme Court has ruled that the Ten Commandments cannot be displayed in courthouses. The US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky that Kentucky counties that had put framed copies of the Ten Commandments in county courthouses and schools were in violation of the Establishment Clause [...]