Politics

The U.S. Senate has adopted an amendment, proposed by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), to a defense bill limiting detainees' court privileges. The amendment would make the Combat Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) statutory law, the Annual Review Board (ARB) statutory law, require the designated civilian officer to be a government official who is appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, not allow the preponderance of evidence against a detainee be derived from undue coercion, and remove Guantanamo prisoners' right to fi

Marcinkiewicz's cabinet has been given a vote of confidence by Polish parliament. Marcinkiewicz, from Law and Justice Party (PiS), has won the voting with vote distribution 272 for and 187 against. His minority government have gained the support of minor, pro-social parties - Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland (Samoobrona RP), Polish Peasant Party (PSL) and League of Polish Families (LPR). Civic Platform (PO) and The Alliance of the Democratic Left (SLD) voted against the cabinet. Marcinkiewicz believes that his government will stop corru

British Prime Minister Tony Blair could face a House of Commons inquiry into claims that chief police officers were pressured to support a political agenda during Wednesday's vote to extend detention without charge. Chief police officers were asked to lobby MPs wavering over the introduction of a controversial new law allowing police to detain a terror suspect for 90 days without charge. Although the proposal was rejected by the House of Commons, the lobbying has provoked criticism from senior members of the opposition Conservative Party, who

Nearly two months after the German parliamentary election, the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Christian Democrats (CDU) and their sister party, the Christian Socialists from Bavaria (CSU), have reached a hard-fought deal to form a grand coalition, paving the way for Angela Merkel to become Germany's first female chancellor. When the result of the elections on 18th September prevented both parties from forming a coalition with their respective preferred partners, the Greens and the Free Democrats, they were forced to engage in coalition negotia

President Bush accused critics of the Iraq War of rewriting history and distorting the events that led to the U.S. invasion. In an effort to divert criticism of his administration's decision to go to war with Iraq, Bush said that some Democrats viewed the same intelligence and came to similar conclusions. "Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war," Bush said. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat) responded "Attacking those patriotic Am

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town Thursday that disaster may strike there because they "voted God out of your city" by ousting school board members who favored teaching intelligent design. All eight Dover, Pa., school board members up for re-election were defeated Tuesday after trying to introduce "intelligent design" — the belief that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power — as an alternative to the theory of evolution. "I'd like to say to the good citizens

The Dover, Pennsylvania school board became the first to mandate inclusion of Intelligent Design in a public school biology curriculum. For this year's November 8 election, Republicans fielded a pro-Intelligent Design slate of candidates including some returning candidates who had previously voted to include a statement about Intelligent Design in the biology curriculum. A mixed slate of Democrat and Republican candidates came forward as an alternative group of school board candidates, the Dover CARES coalition. They proposed to remove Intellig

Thousands of protestors demonstrated today in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. They left their houses due to unrest over the results of the November 6 parliamentary elections, which, according to the opposition, are faked. The protest lasted about three hours before being shut down. The protest gathered some 15,000 people, but the opposition hoped to gather 30,000 to 50,000 Azeris. Many people were stopped by police on their way to the outskirts of Baku. The main demonstration took place at Gelebe Square. When rioters tried to enlarge the prot

British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has suffered what some consider a humiliating political defeat after the House of Commons dismissed a controversial government proposal to permit the detention of terror suspects for up to 90 days without bringing charges. Under current UK anti-terrorism laws, suspects can be held for up to 14 days without any charges being made against them. Members of Mr Blair's Labour Party used the vote to rebel against the proposal, with a crucial 49 tipping the balance to reject it by 322 votes to 291. It was the first

The United States Vice President Dick Cheney lobbied Senate Republicans to exempt the CIA from the proposed ban on torture of terror suspects held by the United States. According to senators participating in the closed door-session, Cheney argued that the administration needs an exemption from the ban on "cruel, inhumane or degrading" treatment of detainees in United States custody to be effective in the "war on terrorism", although he also said that the United States does not engage in torture. The Vice President's appeal comes at a time when

The Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, was asked in parliament today about the contract to print the new industrial relations legislation booklets. Kelvin Thomson asked the question because the contract was awarded to Salmat Ltd., who has been said to have donated $120,000 to the Australian Liberal Party, of which the Mr Howard is a member. The contract was worth $800,000 AUD. It was revealed by Stephen Smith the week earlier that these booklets were "pulped" at a cost of $152,000 to the taxpayer. The Prime Minster John Howard said tha

Jean-Jacques Le Chenadec has been reported as the first casualty of recent rioting in France. The 61-year old man was beaten by a hooded rioter last week and had been in a coma since the attack. The uprising was set off by the death of two teenagers who were allegedly chased by police and hid in an electric power station where they were electrocuted. The French riots have further intensified over the past few days and are now said to have spread to nearly every city in the country. The French prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, announce