A panel of the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Friday struck down a Virginia law prohibiting a controversial late-term partial-birth abortion procedure, finding it unconstitutional because it lacks an exception to protect a woman's health. The 2-1 decision upheld a 2003 ruling finding the law "unconstitutional on its face." In a pointed dissent Judge [...]

Saddam Hussein's morale has dropped due to the the magnitude of the charges against him and the fact that his trial will be before an impartial court, according to Judge Raid Juhi of the Iraqi Special Tribunal , speaking in an interview published Saturday in the London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat . Juhi said that Saddam [...]

The Navajo Nation's Tribal Council voted Friday to override Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr.'s veto of a same-sex marriage ban it approved last month for the UnitedS States' largest Indian reservation. The Dine Marriage Act of 2005 defined marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. The vote on the veto override was [...]

Italian prosecutors have appealed the 2004 acquittal of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on charges that he bribed judges to block competing industrialist Carlo De Benedetti from buying a state-owned food conglomerate. In 1985, judges stopped the sale and the food group eventually ended up being partitioned and sold in pieces. In Italy, both acquittals [...]

Former FBI No. 2 W. Mark Felt , also known as "Deep Throat", is not likely to be prosecuted for revealing information to reporters during the Watergate scandal according to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, speaking Friday. Felt's identity was revealed earlier this week in a Vanity Fair article, but the incident occurred 30 years [...]

Koran Inquiry: Description of Incidents, US Southern Command, June 3, 2005 . Excerpt: During an interrogation in FEB 02, a detainee complained that guards at Camp X-ray kicked the Koran of a detainee in a neighboring cell four to five days earlier.The interrogator reported the first detainee's complaint in a memorandum dated 27 FEB 02. [...]

Montoy, et al., v. Kansas, et al., Supreme Court of the State of Kansas, June 3, 2005 . Excerpt: The initial attractiveness of the Board's suggestion that we accept H.B. 2247 as an interim step toward a full remedy pales in light of the compelling arguments of immediate need made by the plaintiffs and amici [...]

AP is reporting that the Pentagon has confirmed that a US soldier at the terror detention camp at Guantanamo Bay kicked a detainee's Koran and that a guard's urine was splashed on the Islamic sacred text. 8:35 PM ET – These instances and several others in contravention of US military rules for treating the Koran [...]

In a long-awaited decision handed down Friday, the Kansas Supreme Court rejected the state's proposed $145 million dollar finance plan for public schools. In late March 2005 lawmakers approved the additional $145 million in state funding to be used primarily for programs aiding special education, low income students, and bilingual learning. The ruling is the [...]

Leading Friday's international brief, Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer Friday vetoed a part of the new penal code {JURIST report] approved by the Turkish Parliament that would have lowered the penalty for anyone caught teaching the Koran outside of approved religious educational institutions. Under old Turkish law, schools and religious educational organizations wishing to teach [...]