The defense team for Pfc. Lynndie England , accused in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, said Friday that military prosecutors have now filed a new and reduced set of charges against her that could substantially reduce any prison term sentence might receive. Nineteen counts of committing abusive and indecent acts that could have resuled [...]

US District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled Friday that two lawsuits against the Federal Election Commission should be combinced, calling their claims "virtually identical." The 2004 Bush campaign and Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. and Marty Meehan, D-Mass. sued the FEC separately last year after it allowed partisan interest groups to spend tens of millions of dollars [...]

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement Friday that an independent Commission of Experts would be appointed to access progress made in Timor-Leste (East Timor) and Indonesia in adjudicating human rights violations that occurred in 1999 when the former Indonesia territory of East Timor voted for independence. UN officials had expressed concern with [...]

An auditing commission appointed by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops reported Friday that the past year has produced 1,092 new allegations of sexual abuse against at least 756 Catholic clergymen. The disclosure of figures came in the national audit of US dioceses examining their compliance with child protections policies passed by church officials in [...]

Mark Thatcher , son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, appeared in a South African court Friday to answer questions about his role in an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea . Last month, Thatcher pleaded guilty to charges to that he helped finance the plot and was fined for his role . As [...]

Chief Justice William Rehnquist will not take part in oral arguments when the US Supreme Court resumes hearing cases next week, a court spokesperson said Friday. Rehnquist was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last October and has missed the court's argument sessions in November, December and January while undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Rehnquist will continue [...]

In a filing submitted to the Supreme Court on Thursday, attorneys from the Justice Department told the court that terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui does not need direct access to al-Qaida witnesses to receive a fair trial. Moussaoui's attorneys are appealing a 4th Circuit ruling on the point and are asking the court for full access [...]

President Bush has signed the Class Action Fairness Act limiting class-action lawsuits, saying it will restore "common sense and balance to America's legal system."

The UN General Assembly's legal committee failed to reach a consensus Thursday on a nonbinding declaration that would have urged urge governments to adopt their own laws on human cloning. As a result, the committee is likely to adopt a proposal supported by the United States but opposed by proponents of stem-cell research that would [...]

Leading Friday's corporations and securities law news, the New Hampshire Bureau of Securities Regulation filed a complaint against AEFA, the personal finance advisory unit of American Express Co. , for failing to disclose to investors that its financial advisors were given incentives to push certain mutual funds over better performing funds. The regulators are seeking [...]