In some of his most pointed remarks since becoming pontiff in April, Pope Benedict XVI spoke out against same-sex marriage , artificial birth control and divorce Monday while speaking to a group at Rome's St. John's Cathedral. The Pope called marriage between persons of the same sex and other departures from traditional church views on [...]

Former Massachusetts Speaker of the House of Representatives Thomas Finneran was indicted Monday on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying about his role in a redistricting plan . Finneran, considered for many years the most influential state politician, resigned to run the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council in September 2004. A lawsuit was originally [...]

Lawyers for former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy said Monday he is unwilling to reach a plea bargain with prosecutors and is prepared for a retrial if necessary. Scrushy denies wrongdoing in the $2.7 billion accounting fraud case in which prosecutors have charged him with wire and mail fraud, money laundering, and violations of the Sarbanes-Oxley [...]

Taiwan's largely ceremonial National Assembly will conduct its final business Tuesday as it votes on proposed amendments to the island-nation's constitution . The passage of the amendments is virtually guaranteed, as the two largest political parties in Taiwan are both in favor of them and both have threatened to fire their delegations for failure to [...]

The Nepal Bar Association has called for the immediate dissolution of the royal government and new parliamentary elections after approving a resolution Sunday that characterized the 1 February declaration of a state of emergency by King Gyanendra as an 'extreme violation' of the Nepalese Constitution. The association representing over 10,000 legal professionals in Nepal made [...]

The South Korean Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs announced Monday a plan to enact a law that would allow families of South Koreans kidnapped by the North Korean government in the 1960s and '70s to recover against South Korea for abuses that occurred as a result. Officials in South Korea were responsible for [...]

A prosecutor in the trial of former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian said in his opening remarks Monday that Al-Arian was at one time the most powerful man in an organization responsible for the deaths of more than 100 people in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. The former computer science [...]

Voters in Chad went to the polls Monday to decide whether the current limitation of two terms on the country's president should be removed from Chad's constitution . The referendum is being held in response to a bill passed by the Chad Parliament that will remove all term limits from the constitution if approval is [...]

A trial chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ruled Monday that former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj would be granted provisional release pending his war crimes trial at The Hague, but immediately stayed the order for 24 hours to allow filing of a proscution appeal under Rule 65 (F) of the [...]

Kyrgyzstan Prosecutor General Azimbek Beknazarov announced Monday that he had issued an international arrest warrant for former Kyrgyz Prime Minister Nikolai Tanaev , believed to be hiding in Moscow, Russia after fleeing there following the April ouster of the Krygyz government after popular protests after a disputed election. Beknazarov said that he had sufficient evidence [...]