Judges say Franken is winner of Senate race

A three-judge panel ruled Monday against Republican Norm Coleman in his dispute with Democrat Al Franken over who should be declared the winner of the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota. The judges determined that “Franken is entitled to receive the certificate of election” after defeating Coleman by 312 votes

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Mumbai attack lawyer under threat

Indian attorney Anjali Waghmare says she has faced protests, threats and her home has been attacked because she has agreed to represent the lone surviving suspect of the Mumbai terror attacks. Waghmare was appointed by a Mumbai court to represent Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, who told the court he can not afford to pay for a lawyer

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Iowa high court strikes down same-sex marriage ban

The Iowa Supreme Court struck down a state law Friday that banned same-sex marriage. Iowa becomes the third state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage, after Massachusetts and Connecticut. Friday’s decision upheld a 2007 ruling by a lower court that Iowa’s 1998 law limiting marriage to heterosexual couples went against the state’s constitution.

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Hindu seeks right to be cremated on pyre

A devout Hindu has told a British court that laws preventing him from being cremated on an open-air funeral pyre in "a sacrament of fire" are a breach of his human rights. Davender Ghai, who emigrated to England from Kenya in 1958, has a number of ailments including diabetes, asthma, anemia and a degenerative spinal disease but says he fears he will not be allowed to die with dignity. The 70-year-old spiritual healer said that when he does die, he would like his eldest son Sanjay, who lives in Canada, to light the pyre as his family watches what they believe is his soul being released from his body.

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Lawsuit on alleged Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse can move ahead

A lawsuit alleging that civilian American interrogators subjected Iraqis to torture and severe mistreatment at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad can move forward, a federal judge ruled Thursday. U.S. District Court Judge Gerald Bruce Lee rejected claims by defense contractor CACI that the company was immune from accountability over claims of physical abuse, war crimes and civil conspiracy.

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Apologetic Fritzl faces incest sentencing

Austrian Josef Fritzl, who faces sentencing for imprisoning and raping his daughter for more than two decades, made a final apologetic statement to the court Thursday, but added, "I can’t go back and change it." On Wednesday Fritzl admitted guilt on all charges, including the murder of one of seven children he fathered by his daughter. Fritzl had already pleaded guilty to incest and other charges, but previously denied charges of murder and enslavement. But on Wednesday Fritzl told the court in St

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Peacekeeper dies in Darfur shootout

Gunmen killed a United Nations peacekeeper in the Darfur region of western Sudan on Tuesday. Eight gunmen opened fire on six peacekeepers in the city of Niyala, in the southern part of Darfur, said Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for a joint peacekeeping operation of the United Nations and African Union in Darfur.

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