Russian prosecutors said Friday that they have arrested four people suspected of planning the Beslan school siege last year, in which over 300 people died. Five other suspects were killed while resisting arrest. A Russian commission investigating the attack has said that senior Kremlin officials were at fault for the lack of organization during the [...]

US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson said Friday that corporate lawyers should devote more time to helping clients obey the law, rather than evading it. Speaking to a gathering of securities lawyers , Donaldson called on lawyers to deliver common-sense advice to their clients rather than engage "in rhetorical somersaults to justify the [...]

In Friday's international brief, France has announced that it will hold a national referendum on the European constitution on May 29. France just recently approved an amendment to its constitution to allow such a referendum. French President Jacques Chirac is hoping to capitalize on the recent 'yes' vote on a similar referendum in Spain. Opposition [...]

President Bush Friday nominated acting Environmental Protection Agency administrator Stephen Johnson to fill the job permanently. In White House remarks, the President said: … his immediate task is to work with Congress to pass my Clear Skies Initiative. This innovative legislation will reduce power plant pollution by 70 percent, without disrupting the economy or raising [...]

A federal grand jury in Indianapolis Indiana has indicted Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban on charges he tried to sell the names of US intelligence operatives in Iraq to Saddam Hussein's government. Charges outlined in the indictment include conspiracy, acting as a foreign agent without notification and violating the Iraqi sanctions in place before Saddam [...]

Judge James Kleinberg of the Superior Court of California, Santa Clara County issued a preliminary ruling Thursday holding that three computer industry blogs – PowerPage, Apple Insider, and Think Secret – could not claim the same First Amendment {Cornell LII backgrounder] and California Shield Law protections that allow journalists to refuse to reveal their sources. [...]

Although heckled by members of his own Likud Party , Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Thursday announced his final rejection of demands for a national referendum on his Gaza disengagement plan , which calls for the evacuation of more than 8,000 Jewish settlers this summer. Sharon said he "will not let the extreme fringes dictate [...]

Michael Powell , outgoing Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission , said Thursday that he did not support extending broadcast indecency rules to cable television or satellite televsion or radio. Powell has supported efforts to increase penalties and enforcement for over-the-air broadcasts of indecent material, but he pointed out that most subscribers to cable and [...]

Domestic guru and corporate high-flyer Martha Stewart left the women's prison in Alderson, West Virginia early Friday morning after being discharged at the end of her five month prison sentence for lying to investigators about stock trading. A few hours later, after a flight on a private jet, she arrived at her 153-acre estate north [...]

Responding to a Brazilian complaint that US subsidies to cotton farmers are driving down world prices and hurting the cotton market, the appeals court of the World Trade Organization Thursday upheld the previous findings of trade judges that the US subsidies broke trade rules. The ruling by the WTO Appellate Body means that the US [...]