New York-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch Wednesday issued a new report calling for Afghan President Hamid Karzai to establish a Special Court to try high-level government officials and others accused of taking part in atrocities committed during Afghanistan's civil war from April 1992 to March 1993. The authors of the report recommended thatthe court [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the US government Wednesday on behalf of a US citizen detained by US forces in Iraq since May 17. Cyrus Kar, a 44-year-old filmmaker , was in Iraq shooting a historical documentary when he was stopped at a checkpoint. According to the Pentagon, the taxi he [...]

A federal judge has ordered New York Times reporter Judith Miller to jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA operative's identity. Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, called the order a "draconian act." AP has more. 4:33 PM ET – Bloomberg has an updated report; a [...]

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said Wednesday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is a "qualified" candidate for the vacancy created on the Supreme Court by the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor . Senator Reid also came to the aid of President Bush, who defended Gonzales from criticism by some social conservatives yesterday , [...]

Leading Wednesday's international brief, in a ruling originally expected in June, the Santiago Appeals Court has held that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was not entitled to immunity from prosecution for alleged human rights abuses during Operation Colombo. An earlier ruling on Pinochet's immunity was delayed due to an alleged minor stroke suffered by Pinochet. [...]

Ukranian lawmakers engaged in a protracted fistfight in parliament Wednesday as a debate over legislative reforms required for WTO accession grew ugly in Kiev. Communists sounded sirens as Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn attempted to call for order after both sides resorted to punches. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko remains confident that the legislative package will be [...]

AP is reporting that TIME magazine reporter Matthew Cooper has agreed to comply with government demands to testify before a grand jury investigating the identity leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame . TIME previously turned over Cooper's notes . Cooper told the judge presiding in his case Wednesday that he had received a direct communication [...]

A Spanish court Wednesday blocked the marriage of a Spanish man to his Indian partner because India bans same-sex unions. The ruling by a judge of the Supreme Court of Justice of Catalonia is the first snag on Spain's recently passed same-sex marriage law , only the third of its kind worldwide (Belgium and the [...]

President Bush Wednesday named former Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN) as an "informal adviser" to help guide his future Supreme Court nomination through the Senate. Thompson, perhaps better known for his acting career , was elected to serve the remainder of Al Gore's term in 1994 and easily re-elected in 1996. He served on the Senate [...]

L. Patrick Gray , a Nixon loyalist and acting FBI director during the Watergate investigation who ended up resigning after he admitted destroying relevant documents, died Wednesday in Atlantic Beach, Florida, at 88. Gray said in a June television interview that he felt betrayed when former FBI deputy director W. Mark Felt was confirmed as [...]