Twelve NGOs representing Iraq's minority ethnic groups have promised to work together with the transitional government to ensure that minority rights will be protected under the permanent Iraqi constitution to be drafted by the new National Assembly. The groups concluded a two-day conference in Baghdad Tuesday called "to highlight the fact that Iraqi minorities have [...]

Leading Wednesday's corporations and securities law news, KPMG LLP , the US unit of accounting firm KPMG International , has agreed to pay $22.5 million to settle with the SEC over charges that it allowed Xerox Corp. to manipulate its accounting practices to close a $3 billion gap between actual operating results and the results [...]

AP is reporting that US District Judge Leonie Brinkema has scheduled a Friday hearing to accept the guilty plea of 9/11 terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui . 3:31 PM ET – The order noting that "the court finds that the defendant is fully competent to plead guilty to the indictment" is now online .

In the latest of several attacks on the federal judiciary, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has called the work of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy "incredibly outrageous." In a Tuesday interview with Fox News Radio, DeLay said that it's outrageous that Justice Kennedy is "writing decisions based upon international law, not the Constitution of the [...]

Ecuador President Lucio Gutierrez says he is not even considering resigning, despite massive civil unrest and threats of impeachment aimed at his administration. Gutierrez has faced increasing civilian protests against his government, especially since his announcement of a state of emergency Friday and his firing of the Ecuador Supreme Court . Gutierrez said Tuesday he [...]

A legal challenge to the UK postal voting system set for Thursday could delay the scheduled May 5 national elections . John Hemming, deputy leader of Birmingham city council, is filing the High Court challenge, alleging that the postal voting system fails to protect the right to a secret ballot guaranteed by the Human Rights [...]

Political parties in Spain are in an uproar after the ruling Socialist Party Wednesday initiated a process for officially pardoning victims of former fascist Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco Bahamonde . Franco signed orders for thousands of executions while he ruled Spain between 1938 and 1975, often consigning convicts to death by strangulation with a [...]

The Iraqi Interim National Assembly Wednesday demanded prosecution of a US soldier and an apology from the American Embassy after representative Fattah al-Sheik tearfully described being handcuffed and humiliated at a US checkpoint. Al-Sheik, a Shi'ite, is linked to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr , who led several uprisings against the US military in 2004. The [...]

The Utah Legislature passed House Bill 1001 Tuesday directing state education officials to comply with state education goals before they consider the provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind legislation. Utah is the first of many states unhappy with the federal education law to pass a legislative challenge to it. Parts of the No [...]

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that Russian needs to increase its democratic development in order for the US-Russia relationship to deepen. In an interview with Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy, Rice said that there needs to be an independent media and that President Vladimir Putin should not have so much personal power. Rice [...]