A United Nations committee Friday adopted a draft of a new treaty to fight nuclear terrorism after years of negotiations. The draft defines acts of nuclear terrorism and strengthens the framework to combat it. The text now goes to the General Assembly for formal adoption, with the treaty opened for signature on 14 September. "The [...]

As anticipated , former US National Security Advisor Sandy Berger pleaded guilty Friday to illegally taking and destroying classified documents from the National Archives . The former Clinton Administration official acknowledged that he intentionally took and deliberately destroyed three copies of the same document dealing with terror threats during the 2000 millennium celebration and then [...]

Former Connecticut Governor John G. Rowland arrived Friday at Loretto , a minimum-security federal prison in Pennsylvania, to begin his year-long sentence for corruption of office. Rowland was sentenced two weeks ago to one year in prison, four months of house arrest, three years probation, and an $82,000 fine after pleading guilty last December . [...]

Leading Friday's corporations and securities law news, the FBI has announced it has started an investigation into auto supplier, Delphi Corp. , over improper accounting at the firm. Delphi, which had launched an internal investigation into its accounting practices after receiving subpoenas from the SEC and Department of Justice (DOJ) , announced last month that [...]

Florida circuit judge Judge George Greer Friday denied a request from the St. Petersburg Times for the release of investigative summaries regarding alleged mistreatement of Terri Schiavo . The dozens of files in question are held by Florida's Department of Children & Families , which initiated investigations of possible abuse after medical scans on Terri [...]

US Department of Defense spokesmen have said that US forces in Iraq are holding a man with joint US and Jordanian citizenship who is said to be a senior operative for terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi. The unidentified suspect, who is the first American known to be captured fighting for the Iraq insurgency, is said [...]

Lawmakers in Rhode Island have said that they will consider amending the statewide smoking ban that took effect last month in light of a Newport Superior Court judge's Thursday ruling that certain exemptions in the law were irrational, and therefore unconstitutional. The Public Health and Workplace Safety Act includes temporary exemptions for certain establishments, including [...]

New Jersey Democratic Senator Frank R. Lautenberg took House Republican leader Tom DeLay to task Friday for making anti-judicial remarks in the aftermath of Terri Schiavo's death that appeared to threaten some kind of recrimination. Clearly angered by the event and by the inaction of what he called in a news conference "an arrogant, out [...]

In Friday's international brief, reports filtering out of Zimbabwe following Thursday's national elections indicate that the vote is being heavily criticized. Foreign media have been continually denied access to the country, and domestic media are required to operate under tight governmental control. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai , president of the Movement for Democratic Change , [...]

Nepalese King Gyanendra Friday lifted the house arrest of Nepali Congress Girija Prasad Koirala and freed nearly 257 other people detained after he declared a state of emergency in February . Three weeks ago King Gyanendra lifted similar house arrest restrictions placed on former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba . Since disbanding the country's government, [...]