The UN Security Council Tuesday for the first time condemned acts of sexual abuse and exploitation committed by UN peacekeepers and urged countries contributing troops to work to prevent such behavior from occurring in the future. A statement drafted by the US was read encouraging member states to avoid situations such as that seen in [...]

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told the UN Security Council Tuesday that Iraq will allow the International Advisory and Monitoring Board to keep monitoring its oil production and spending related to oil revenues. Zebari said that oversight from the group would demonstrate that oil revenues are used for the benefit of all Iraqi citizens. The [...]

The Massachusetts legislature Tuesday overrode a Friday veto by Gov. Mitt Romney on a bill allowing scientists seeking to do stem cell research in Massachusetts to bypass approval from the local district attorney. The new law does, however, give the state Department of Public Health some regulatory controls and prohibits human cloning. Both the state [...]

Former Montreal advertising executive Paul Coffin pleaded guilty Tuesday to 15 counts of fraud in a corruption scandal that has nearly brought down the government of Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin . Coffin, originally charged with 18 counts until 3 were dropped by the Crown, admitted to repeatedly creating fake invoices in a sponsorship scam [...]

Following claims circulated by Vanity Fair earlier Tuesday , the Washington Post has confirmed that retired FBI deputy director W. Mark Felt, now 91, was Watergate's "Deep Throat". Reporters Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and former editor Ben Bradlee acknowledged Felt's hitherto-secret identity, with Woodward and Bernstein saying in a statement that "W. Mark Felt was [...]

Leading Tuesday's international brief, the leading opposition party in Ethiopia has filed suit with local courts in the capital city of Addis Ababa seeking to prevent the official certification of the results of the disputed national elections held 15 May. The Coalition for Unity and Democracy claims that nation-wide fraud and electoral misconduct denied it [...]

Members of an Alabama jury apparently split over whether to convict former HealthSouth Corp. CEO Richard M. Scrushy have agreed to add an hour of work to their daily deliberations, according to a federal court official's statement Tuesday. The jury has typically worked for four and a half hours daily since getting the case on [...]

In a White House press conference Tuesday US President George W. Bush slammed a report from rights group Amnesty International as "absurd" after the organization referred to US detention facilities abroad as an international "gulag." Bush stressed that the US "promotes freedom around the world" and that every instance of abuse – involving a very [...]

The Sudanese government Tuesday arrested the Darfur coordinator for the Dutch branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) , the second arrest of an MSF aid worker in two days. Vince Hoedt was detained over a March 2005 report alleging mass rape in the Darfur region. The Dutch head of MSF Paul Foreman was arrested earlier [...]

Government officials in the Netherlands are making a final plea to Dutch voters in an effort to persuade them to support the European constitution in a June 1 referendum, an uphill battle after voters in France rejected the charter earlier this week. Unlike the French vote however, the Dutch poll is not binding on the [...]