The future of a work-in-progress bill to provide $140 billion in asbestos compensation was threatened Tuesday by a looming battle between Republicans and Democrats over judicial nominations. Senators moved a Wednesday Senate Judiciary Committee business committee meeting on the subject to Thurday of this week because of intense debates over the nominees expected to take [...]

Army Spc. Sabrina Harman apologized for her role in the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison during the sentencing phase of her court-martial at Fort Hood, Texas, Tuesday. Harman was convicted Monday of six of the seven charges brought against her, including threatening an inmate with electrocution while he stood hooded on a [...]

Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles has been arrested by federal agents in Miami, according to a report from CNN. Posada, a onetime CIA asset who slipped into the US two months ago, is accused of bombing a Cuban airplane almost 30 years ago. The Venezuelan government has asked the Bush administration to deport him to [...]

China announced Tuesday that it will crack down on Chinese police officials' use of improper interrogation methods on criminal suspects. Chinese police are notorious for using coercion and torture while interrogating suspects . Prosecutors must now review all a criminal's police records as well as explicitly question the suspect to ensure that they were not [...]

Despite President Bush's veto threat, the Senate Tuesday passed a $295-billion highway bill to build more roads and create jobs by an 89-11 vote. The White House said $284 billion was the most it would approve; the House bill was for this amount . The Senate added $11 billion to the bill but said it [...]

Uzbekistan Prosecutor-General Rashid Kadyrov Tuesday denied reports that Uzbek government forces opened fire on demonstrators Friday who were protesting government repression in the eastern city of Andijan. Although Kadyrov claimed that no civilians were killed by government fire, hundreds of witnesses reported that the government troops did shoot into a crowd of hundreds of peaceful [...]

British Member of Parliament George Galloway Tuesday vehemently denied charges that he benefited from the UN Oil-for-Food program while testifying during a hearing before the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee of Investigations . The subcommittee of the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs released a report last Thursday accusing Galloway of accepting "allocations" [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Tuesday referred a war crimes case to a Bosnian national court, the War Crimes Chamber of the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina , the first time it has authorized such a transfer. Under pressure to wrap up cases from the Balkan wars by 2010, the court [...]

An Islamist website has posted a message from Iraq's Al-Qaeda group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi urging Sunni Muslims not to participate in the Iraqi political process, especially the drafting of the new constitution, and calling any who would take part infidels: "Would anyone draft the constitution other than those who do not believe [...]

A UK lawyer representing three Westerners allegedly tortured in a Saudi Arabian prison said Tuesday that her firm would attempt to seize Saudi assets in Britain, including those of Saudi Arabian Airlines, as reparation for the men's mistreatment and to pay for overdue legal costs. The men – two British nationals and a British-Canadian citizen [...]