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WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Supreme Court refused to weigh in Friday on whether US presidents have the authority to indefinitely detain a terrorist suspect in the United States without charges. But it sent the issue back for a new hearing before the federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, which ruled in July that former president George W. Bush had that power in the case of Ali al-Marri, an alleged Al-Qaeda sleeper agent. The high court's action effectively delayed resolution of an issue that, while different, could have implications for the estimated 245 "enemy combatants" still being held by the...

Barack Obama's designated chief of staff -- responding to Republicans' concerns that his tough, partisan approach might run at odds with Barack Obama's administration -- said it's up to the new president to set a bipartisan "tone." Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, appearing Sunday on ABC News' This Week, dismissed such charges by saying Obama will maintain his pledge to govern in a bipartisan manner. Last week, the Republican National Committee put out a press release calling Obama's choice of Emanuel, "Obama's Broken Promise" because the Illinois politician has a reputation for being "hyper-partisan."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Ethics Committee on Thursday dismissed a complaint against Sen. David Vitter, a suspected patron of a prostitution ring headed by a woman who killed herself last month. In a letter to the Louisiana Republican, the panel said the conduct at issue allegedly occurred before his Senate candidacy and time in office. In addition, it did not result in his being charged criminally, the committee said. As a result, the panel said it did not have jurisdiction, dismissing "without prejudice" the complaint filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, a private watchdog...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian officials on Sunday ruled out an attack as the cause of an explosion that killed 11 people in the southern city of Shiraz, saying it was an accident that was likely caused by leftover ammunition. The explosion ripped through a mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers late Saturday as a cleric delivered his weekly speech against extremist Wahabi beliefs and the outlawed Baha'i faith, the semiofficial Fars news agency said. Authorities said besides the 11 killed, 191 people were wounded, some of them critically, the state IRNA news agency reported. On Sunday, the deputy interior minister...

A federal judge on Wednesday tossed out a lawsuit that accused a Boeing Co. subsidiary of illegally helping the CIA secretly fly terrorism suspects to overseas prisons to be tortured. U.S. District Court Judge James Ware ruled that national security could be jeopardized if the lawsuit was allowed to go forward. CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden had earlier invoked the government's so-called "state secrets privilege," which lets intelligence agencies bar the use of evidence in court cases that jeopardize national security. In public and confidential statements filed with the court, Hayden urged the judge to dismiss the lawsuit filed by...

MIAMI (AFP) - A judge in Miami on Monday dismissed a lawsuit alleging the ruler of Dubai enslaved thousands of children and forced them to work as camel jockeys, saying the suit fell outside the court's jurisdiction. Judge Cecilia Altanoga ruled in favor of the defense, which argued that Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum did not have sufficient contacts in Florida to justify trying the suit in the southeastern US state. "We've said from the beginning that this case doesn't belong in US Courts and were gratified by Judge Altonagas careful legal analysis and ruling," said Habib Al-Mulla, a spokesman...

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - The former suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey killing left jail Thursday after a judge dismissed child pornography charges against him, saying prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to take the case to trial. John Mark Karr, who was not in court for the hearing, was ordered released immediately by Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Rene Chouteau, ending his two-month odyssey in the U.S. criminal justice system after he was extradited from Thailand on suspicion of killing the 6-year-old beauty queen. He did not comment to reporters as he left the Sonoma County jail flanked by his attorneys,...

WASHINGTON -- A magistrate judge in the District Court of Washington, D.C. has dismissed a lawsuit by the survivors and families of victims of the June 25, 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that sought millions of dollars in damages against the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In an opinion handed down June 6, 2006, Judge Deborah A. Robinson asserted that the plaintiffs "offered no evidence regarding the action of any official, employee or agent" or the Iranian regime, its intelligence ministry (MOIS), or the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, IRGC. The opinion comes at a delicate...

LOS ANGELES - Elizabeth Taylor on Tuesday dismissed tabloid reports that she was being treated for early Alzheimer's disease or was gravely ill. The Academy Award-winning actress, who uses a wheelchair because of back problems, was asked about the reports during an appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live." "Oh come on, do I look like I'm dying?" the 74-year-old actress asked King in a rare television interview. "Do I look like or sound like I have Alzheimer's?" Taylor said tabloids report such things "because they have nothing else dirty to write about anybody else." She said her back problems go...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Authorities on Tuesday dismissed speculation that Osama bin Laden might be hiding in Pakistan's mountainous north — a region more known for its spectacular scenery than Islamic militancy. A recent visit to the resort town of Chitral by at least one American prompted allegations from a local lawmaker from a hard-line Islamic party that the FBI or CIA had set up an office there to hunt for the al-Qaida chief. "These sort of stories keep appearing," Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao told a news conference in the capital, Islamabad. He denied American agents were based in Chitral....

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Iran's president on Wednesday dismissed Western concerns over its nuclear program as "a big lie," a day after key U.N. Security Council members agreed to present Tehran with a choice of incentives or sanctions in deciding whether to suspend uranium enrichment. Meanwhile, in a letter to Time magazine published on its Web site, a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offered new options for solving the impasse with the United States and its allies. Hassan Rohani, Iran's former top nuclear negotiator, said Tehran would consider ratifying an International Atomic Energy Agency protocol that provides for intrusive...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2005 – Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld isn't planning to leave his job anytime soon, he said here today. "I have no plans to retire," Rumsfeld said on Capitol Hill after meeting with several members of Congress to discuss the situation in Iraq. The secretary's comments came amid rumors and a news report that assert Rumsfeld would soon depart the Pentagon. "Those reports have been flying around since about four months after I assumed my post in 2001," he said. A New York Daily News article published today speculated that Rumsfeld would leave his post early in...

LONDON (AP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday defended the war in Iraq, and brushed off a new question about a government memo that suggested Washington had been determined to justify the invasion. "I was glad that we took the action we did," Blair told the House of Commons when asked about the so-called Downing Street memo. His comments came a day after President Bush rejected suggestions that Washington set a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and urged patience. According to the leaked minutes of a July 23, 2002, meeting between Blair and top government officials...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A federal judge Monday tentatively dismissed parts of a discrimination lawsuit brought by a group of doctors and residents who accused the county of trying to dismantle a troubled inner-city hospital. The nonprofit group Friends of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center Inc. doesn't have legal standing for several of its claims, because it wasn't directly harmed by the county's decision to close the hospital's trauma unit, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper tentatively ruled. The judge, however, said she was inclined keep some portions of the lawsuit, including accusations that the Los Angeles County Board of...

"I can wage a better war on terror than George Bush has." So speaks Senator Kerry in the U.S. presidential campaign's final days, again reminding voters that the key issue in this race remains as it was a year earlier - deciding which candidate will better protect Americans from terrorism.As with so many topics, the basic difference between Kerry and President Bush is one of character, with the challenger repeatedly changing his mind and the president sticking with one position.On occasion, Mr. Kerry adopts Bush-like terminology. For example, in September 2004 he talked about the war on terror being "as...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran said Monday the international community has no reason to be suspicious about its nuclear ambitions, despite allegations by the United States that it is trying to produce nuclear weapons. "Iran has not violated any of its commitments to international treaties in its nuclear program," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency. His comments came a day after U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration sees a new international willingness to act against Iran's nuclear program. The world is finally "worried and suspicious" about the...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal appeals court on Tuesday dismissed more than a dozen lawsuits that accused power companies of double-billing the state of California millions of dollars during the energy crisis. In tossing out Attorney General Bill Lockyer's lawsuits against Reliant Resources, Inc., Dynegy Inc. and other energy concerns, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California courts don't have jurisdiction over the issues at the heart of the complaint. The suits alleged the generators reaped millions by being paid to hold power in emergency reserve that they then sold on the open market. Lockyer argued...

Judge Dismisses Slave Reparation Case Monday January 26, 2004 6:01 PM By MIKE ROBINSON Associated Press Writer CHICAGO (AP) - A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit brought by descendants of slaves against corporations they say profited from slavery, saying the plaintiffs had established no clear link to the companies they targeted. The court still left the door open for further litigation. ``Plaintiffs' attempt to bring these claims more than a century after the end of the Civil War and the formal abolition of slavery fails,'' U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle said. He said the plaintiffs' claims ``are...

Blix dismisses Blair's weapons claim Former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has dismissed claims Saddam Hussein had laboratories for developing weapons of mass destruction. His comments came as Tony Blair said that the British-American Iraq Survey Group had already uncovered "massive" evidence of a network of secret laboratories. Mr Blair made the claim in an interview with the British Forces Broadcasting Service. He said: "I think in any event we have got to carry on the work that we are doing, because contrary to some of the things that appear, the Iraq Survey Group has already found massive evidence...

ANKARA - Turkey's powerful and staunchly secular army has dismissed one of its officers for opposing ties with Israel. Hurriyet, the country's largest daily newspaper, revealed that the officer was recently dismissed from the Turkish Armed Forces in a decision by the 15 top generals and admirals. According to Hurriyet editor-in-chief Ertugrul Ozkok, the officer, who was working aboard one of the Turkish Naval Forces frigates, rejected an official assignment to set sail for Israel. "When the officer was asked why he did not want to go to Israel, he said: 'I am Muslim, Israel has been oppressing Muslims. That's...