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A New Jersey state senator has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a federal law banning sports betting in 46 states. State Sen. Raymond Lesniak, a Democrat representing portions of Union County, filed the suit Monday, arguing the 17-year-old law is unconstitutional because it treats four states differently than the other states. Under the law, sports betting is prohibited in all states except Delaware, Oregon, Montana and Nevada, although only the latter two currently allow wagering. "This federal law deprives the State of New Jersey of ove

A federal judge ruled Monday that the controversial morning-after pill Plan B must be made available without a prescription to girls as young as 17, citing the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) willingness to concede to the Bush administration's conservative influences by setting the age limit to 18 in 2006. Plan B, available in the United States since 1999, consists of two pills designed to prevent conception and must be taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse. Only since 2006 has it been available without a prescription, following l

Treasury Department secretary Timothy Geithner and the Obama administration are pressuring Congress to allow the government to seize troubled financial institutions such as insurance companies and investment firms. Currently, banks are the only such entities that the government has authority to take over. Speaking before the House Financial Services Committee, Geithner said "The United States government does not have the legal means today to manage the orderly restructuring of a large, complex non-bank financial institution that poses a threat

On Tuesday, World Tuberculosis Day, the Government of Canada committed C$127.4 million to the fight against tuberculosis (TB) worldwide. The Minister of International Cooperation, Beverley J. Oda, said "Our government has a comprehensive, long-term approach in the global fight against tuberculosis and Canadians can be proud that our country continues to be an international leader. We have achieved significant results, as Canada has already contributed to the successful treatment of more than four million tuberculosis sufferers and saved over h

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has stated that the cholera outbreak that has struck the African country of Zimbabwe seems to have passed its peak. The WHO said that "while data collection and verification remain a challenge throughout the country with the effect that weekly statistics are not always accurate or complete, the overall trend over the last 2 months is of a decreasing number of cases and deaths. "The situation with the current cholera outbreak is improving. The overall trend over the last two months is of a decreasing number

The pilot and co-pilot of Tuninter Flight 1153, which crashed into the Mediterranean Sea in 2005, killing sixteen people, have each received ten-year jail sentences for the ditching of the flight. They were found to have prayed instead of trying to direct the plane to safety when the engines failed. Tuninter Flight 1153, from Bari, Italy, to Djerba, Tunisia, crashed into Italian waters on August 6, 2005. The flight ran into trouble because the ATR 72 twin-engined turboprop had mistakenly been fitted with the fuel gauge for an ATR 42, which has

The Honourable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, opened the Canadian seal hunt amid protests by animal rights groups, at a time when bans on seal product imports are becoming more prevalent internationally. Seal hunters along the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence are allowed to catch a maximum of 270,000 Harp Seal pups from a total estimated population of 5.5 million. 8,200 is the allowable catch of Hooded seals from an estimated population of 600,000, and seal hunters may catch 50,000 grey seals from

A residential four-storey building collapsed in Lagos, Nigeria on Tuesday. At least two people have died, and another fourteen people have been rescued from the debris. The building was located in the Idi-Araba neighbourhood, a densely populated area of the city. A spokeswoman for the Red Cross, Umo Okon, stated that "there are about 14 people so far rescued alive. It was a four-storey building, fully residential. There are still some people trapped inside." Construction workers working at another site nearby helped remove the building's roo

American comedian Stephen Colbert has won a NASA contest poll to determine the name for a new wing on the International Space Station. After using his Comedy Central show The Colbert Report to call on fans to vote in the contest, the write-in name "Colbert" topped the poll with 230,539 votes. NASA officials said they ultimately reserve the right to choose an appropriate name, but have said top vote-getters will receive "the most consideration". The final decision will be made in April. Almost 1.2 million total votes were cast in the contest,

German authorities have searched the homes of Theodor Reppe, a 32-year-old student who owns the "wikileaks.de" domain. Reppe has homes in Dresden and Jena in Germany. Wikileaks describes itself as an "uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis." The police report obtained by Wikileaks states the reasons for the raid were "distribution of pornographic material" and "discovery of evidence". Wikileaks, however, asserts that the raid was in connection to Wikileaks hosting "censorship lists" of websites blocked by gov

On Wednesday, the European Parliament approved the "Single European Sky II" legislation that will lead to the creation of a single European airspace. The single European airspace will result in "more efficient rules, leading to shorter flights, fewer delays and reduced fuel consumption". In turn, this should result in fewer CO2 emissions and cheaper ticket prices. Implementation should be completed by 2012. Currently the European airspace consists of 650 parts with 60 different control centers and 27 air traffic control (ATC) zones. Internatio

Tensions are running high at the U.S. Postal Service as it faces an enormous budget shortfall. Even after announcing it was cutting 3,000 jobs, the beleaguered government agency is still quickly running out of money. Postmaster General John Potter asked the United States Congress for help on Wednesday, once again bringing up the possibility of reducing mail delivery from six to five days a week. The service reduction would save approximately $3.5 billion this year. Another way to cut costs could include changes to how it pays for its employ