Lawsuits brought by three same-sex couples married in Massachusetts and Canada seeking to have their marriages recognized in Florida have been dropped because the plaintiffs do not want to risk having the US Supreme Court set precedent by rejecting their case. Two of the three suits, which challenge the federal Defense of Marriage Act , [...]

AP is reporting that the US Senate has confirmed Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State by a vote of 85-13. Rice will be sworn in at the White House Wednesday night with a more elaborate swearing-in ceremony by President Bush at the State Department to follow on Friday. 3:03 PM ET – The Senate roll [...]

The Senate Judiciary Committee has just voted 10-8 to approve President Bush's nomination of Alberto Gonzales as US Attorney General. The nomination now goes to the full Senate. AP has a background story on this morning's committee meeting here. 11:25 AM ET – In a statement this morning, ranking Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy explained his [...]

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told the European Parliament Tuesday that despite overtures from newly sworn-in Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, the European Union would not be granting an association accord to the Ukraine, a step that is seen as a pre-acceptance of a nation into the EU. Ferrero-Waldner sais that the EU already had [...]

Citing "constitutional errors", the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday overturned the controversial conviction and death sentence of British national Kenny Richey of Edinburgh. Richey will be released from death row in 90 days unless prosecutors decide to retry the case. Richey moved to Ohio in 1981 to live with his father and was [...]

The president of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq said Wednesday that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had the right to vote in the upcoming national elections, but would not be able to do so due to logistical problems. Abdel Hussein al-Hindawi said that according to the rules governing the right to vote, Hussein would [...]

In Wednesday's international brief, London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens says that no prosecutions will proceed against the four Britons released from Guantanamo Bay based on material gathered by UK MI5 investigators who made trips to the detention facility. The four men were released from Guantanamo Bay to British officials Tuesday. Upon their arrival [...]

Working conditions in the American meatpacking industry are so bad that they violate basic human and workers rights, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch . The report, Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers' Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants , concludes that working conditions in meat and poultry plants are unnecessarily hazardous [...]

UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke announced Wednesday that foreign terror suspects currently being detained in British prisons will be set free and will either be deported or will be subject to "control orders." At one end of the spectrum, the new control orders could require terror suspects to be placed under house arrest but also [...]

Chile's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that judges investigating charges of murder, torture and kidnappings under former dictator Augusto Pinochet's rule should file charges within six months or close their investigations. 365 human rights cases stemming from Pinochet's regime have been working their way through Chile's court system for the past several years with judges reaching [...]