The Nebraska Supreme Court Friday upheld a state law which requires mandatory blood testing of newborn infants. The opinion rejected an appeal brought by a fundamental Christian couple, Josue and Mary Anaya. The Anayas argued that the test infringed their religious beliefs and might shorten their baby's life. The test , which requires pricking an [...]

Lawyers for Yahoo! Inc. have appeared before the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals seeking legal protection for US Internet portals displaying content which is illegal in foreign countries, but is domestically protected by the First Amendment . The hearing, held Thursday before an 11-judge panel, concerned fines imposed on Yahoo by a French court [...]

Former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker will co-chair the newly-formed Commission on Federal Election Reform , a private, bipartisan panel whose members include former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, former House Minority Leader Bob Michel, and former US Representatives Lee Hamilton and Susan Molinari. The commission will be staffed by [...]

Washington's Supreme Court has ruled that a businessman cannot sue a TV reporter for defamation simply for omitting facts from a news report that could have made the plaintiff look better. KXLY-TV in Spokane, Washington ran a report in 1998 about the prosecution of man with Down's syndrome for allegedly harassing Eliot Mohr's business. Mohr [...]

The UK parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee released its annual report on human rights Friday, accusing the US of committing "grave violations of human rights" against prisoners in Guantanamo Bay , Afghanistan and Iraq. The committee has recommended that the British government "make it clear to the United States administration, both in public and private, that [...]

AP is reporting that Terri Schiavo's parents have now filed arguments in their appeal of this morning's federal district court denial of their second emergency request to reconnect their daughter's feeding tube. In court papers they have told the US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals that their brain-damaged daughter's due process and religious rights are [...]

Results of a French poll to be published in Saturday's Marianne magazine show that 55% of French voters intend to vote against approving the European constitution . This is the third survey in recent weeks that indicate that French voters could reject the EU constitution in the upcoming May referendum. The percentage of those against [...]

In Friday's international brief, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro told a press conference Thursday that despite a harshly worded 'letter to the people' released by South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun Wednesday, Japan would not respond aggressively to the current dispute over the ownership of the Dokdo/Takeshima islets; Chief Cabinet Secretary Hosoda Hiroyuki mentioned the International [...]

President Bush signed SB 384 into law Friday, extending the existence of the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group by two years, through March 27, 2007. The panel was established under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998 , and is charged with declassifying federal documents pertaining to Nazi [...]

A French court Friday ordered former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Ridouane Khalid jailed, and former Gitmo detainee Khaled ben Mustafa, who was already in custody, to remain behind bars. Both men were detained at the US military prison since 2002 until their transfer to France earlier this month . Mustafa was taken into custody by France's [...]