Voters in Switzerland will decide in a referendum set for Sunday June 5 whether gay couples should have the right to register as partners and have legal rights similar to as married couples. A recent poll says 67 percent of Swiss voters want the measure approved. If passed, the new law would bring Switzerland in [...]

Republican insiders claim that the Bush administration is preparing to send dozens of new judicial nominations to the Senate for confirmation in an effort to test the bipartisan filibuster deal struck last week by moderates on both sides of the aisle. Under the deal Democrats have pledged not to filibuster nominations except in "extraordinary circumstances," [...]

Maverick Andrei Illarionov , a top economic advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Thursday that the recent conviction of oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky for fraud and tax evasion had caused Russia major harm and had dramatically changed the country's political landscape. While the Kremlin denies any political motive in the arrest, trial and 9-year [...]

Three US soldiers attached to Fort Carson , Colorado, have been ordered to stand trial for murder in connection with the death of an Iraqi general . Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer, Chief Warrant Officer Jeff L. Williams, and Spc. Jerry Loper are charged with murder, assault, and dereliction of duty during combat actions. On [...]

In a move to end two weeks of protests , Bolivian President Carlos Mesa Thursday signed a decree for an October 16 election to pick members of a constituent assembly to rewrite the Bolivian constitution, acceding to a demand of the country's indigenous majority. A referendum will be held the same day to determine whether [...]

A same-sex marriage bill introduced in the California Assembly appears to be dead after coming up four votes short of approval on its third go-round Thursday, making it likely that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will not get a bill on the subject this year. Bill sponsor Assemblyman Mark Leno complained afterwards that gay and lesbian couples [...]

US Army Pvt. Brandon Hughey , who fled to Canada after refusing a deployment order to Iraq and deserting his unit at Fort Hood, formally asked the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board for asylum Thursday. Hughey has claimed that the war in Iraq is illegal and that he had a moral obligation to desert; he [...]

In the wake of decisive referendum defeats for the proposed EU Constitution this week in France and the Netherlands , UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is expected to announce in the House of Commons on Monday that the legislation for a British referendum on the constitution will be suspended . The constitution needs to be [...]

Host country Sweden says it intends to push for strict new rules on polluters at the 28th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting convening in Stockholm June 6-17. A draft proposal that has been under neogotiation for some 20 years would require companies and organizations to take appropriate precautionary measures and would hold them liable for any [...]

A federal judge Thursday ordered the US Army to release 144 photographs and four movies taken by an American soldier relating to prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib . The photographs, provided by Sgt. Joseph Darby , set off the prisoner abuse scandal in 2004 when he described them to his commander. The court order came [...]