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GENEVA (AP) - The top U.N. rights body on Thursday passed a resolution proposed by Islamic countries saying it is deeply concerned about the defamation of religions and urging governments to prohibit it. The European Union said the text was one-sided because it primarily focused on Islam. The U.N. Human Rights Council, which is dominated by Arab and other Muslim countries, adopted the resolution on a 21-10 vote over the opposition of Europe and Canada. EU countries, including France, Germany and Britain, voted against. Previously EU diplomats had said they wanted to stop the growing worldwide trend of using religious...

Lawyers for Rep. John P. Murtha will appeal a recent ruling advancing a defamation lawsuit brought against the Pennsylvania Democrat by a U.S. Marine under investigation for killing Iraqi civilians. Justice Department lawyers representing Murtha on Nov. 16 filed notice that they planned to appeal a federal district court judge’s Sept. 28 ruling allowing the lawsuit to proceed and ordering Murtha to give sworn testimony in the case. Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich sued Murtha in August 2006, accusing the 17-term congressman of defaming him during a news conference last year on the Nov. 19, 2005 killings of Iraqi civilians...

Islamo-Fascism Memory Hole by: Malcolm A. Kline, November 02, 2007 Critics of the Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week (IFAW) events that author and activist David Horowitz presented last month should have actually attended some of the IFAW lectures. They might have learned something, particularly from Nonie Darwish, a brave Muslim woman whose criticisms of Islamo-Fascism have put her life at risk. Instead, they sought to discredit the event. The most egregious act was probably the fake flyer proclaiming anti-Muslim bigotry on the part of the Young America’s Foundation (YAF) chapter at George Washington University (GWU) that sponsored the IFAW on campus. Stories...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a defamation case against Rep. John P. Murtha and ordered the Pennsylvania Democrat to give a sworn deposition in the case. A Marine Corps sergeant is suing the 18-term congressman for alleging ''cold-blooded murder and war crimes'' by unnamed soldiers in connection with the deaths of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha. The deaths became prominent in May 2006 when Murtha, who opposes the Iraq war, said at a Capitol Hill news conference that a Pentagon war crimes investigation will show Marines killed dozens of innocent Iraqi civilians in...

A federal judge has ordered Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.) to testify in a defamation case related to the deaths of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha in 2005, according to the Associated Press.

A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a defamation case against Rep. John P. Murtha and ordered the Pennsylvania Democrat to give a sworn deposition in the case. A Marine Corps sergeant accuses the 16-term congressman of falsely accusing him of "cold-blooded murder and war crimes" in connection with the deaths of Iraqi civilians. The Justice Department wanted the case dismissed because Murtha was acting in his official role as a lawmaker. Assistant U.S. Attorney John F. Henault said the comments were made as part of the debate over the war in Iraq. U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer said...

A service offering a complete "revenge package" in which people can destroy the financial status and relationships of their enemies at the click of a mouse is being offered over the Internet. For as little as $20 a month, customers of the confidentialaccess.com Web site can make the credit ratings of people they dislike plummet, and even have them suspected of fraud...

A mine company executive sued the state Democratic Party over a TV ad that he claims defamed him by quoting him as saying the deaths of 14 miners last year were statistically insignificant. Massey Energy Co. Chief Executive Don Blankenship filed the lawsuit against the West Virginia Democratic Party and party chairman Nick Casey on Friday in Kanawha County Circuit Court. Statements attributed to Blankenship in a Feb. 19, 2006, article in The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown, Md., were misrepresented in the party’s “Not For Sale” ad, he alleged in the lawsuit. A methane explosion at International Coal Group’s Sago Mine...

Democrat's claim of grand jury probe riles congressman An angry Brian Bilbray blasted Democratic challenger Francine Busby yesterday as “the poster child for unethical political activities” for making unsubstantiated allegations that he is under criminal investigation. During a live appearance on NBC 7/39, Busby said voters in the 50th Congressional District ask her two questions that “I can't answer but Mr. Bilbray can.” “One is, why are you being investigated by a grand jury – a criminal grand jury – and why won't you talk to the people in this district?” Bilbray, the Republican incumbent, testily replied he is the...

A Weston, Fla., woman who spoke out publicly against a Utah-based company affiliated with a controversial chain of boarding schools for troubled teens around the world has won an $11.3 million Internet defamation verdict. On Sept. 19, Susan Scheff and her Weston-based company, Parents Universal Resource Experts Inc., won the jury verdict in Broward Circuit Court against Carey Bock, a woman whom Scheff helped in getting Bock's two sons out of a school in Costa Rica. The judgment included $5 million in punitive damages. Scheff filed the suit in December 2003, alleging that Bock posted defamatory statements about her on...

Another acquaintance of Senator George Allen said Tuesday that she heard him use a racial slur in 1976, contradicting a statement he made Monday in an effort to tamp down similar accusations. Mr. Allen’s campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, called the account by the woman, Ellen G. Hawkins, “another false accusation.” Mr. Allen, a Virginia Republican whose re-election campaign has been knocked off balance by the accusations, said Monday that he did not remember ever using the term and that “it is absolutely false that that was ever part of my vocabulary.” Mrs. Hawkins, who described herself as a rural Virginia...

One of Virginia's best-known political analysts said Tuesday that he had never personally heard Sen. George Allen use racial epithets, but insisted claims by former Allen teammates and acquaintances are valid. Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press, "I didn't personally hear GFA (Allen's initials) say the n-word. ... Also in interviews with the AP and Salon.com late Sunday, [former teammate Ken] Shelton claimed that on a hunting trip to Louisa County in 1973 or 1974, Allen stuffed the severed head of a female deer into the oversized...

Elin Woods smiles as USA and European team wives prepare to travel to The Curragh racecourse for the Wives Race Day prior to the start of the 2006 Ryder Cup. STRAFFAN, Ireland – Tiger Woods was outraged Wednesday at an Irish magazine and a tabloid that linked photos of his wife to various pornography sites, and his agent was studying the merits of a lawsuit. “My wife, yes, she has been a model prior, and she did do some bikini photos,” Woods said. “But to link her to porn web sites and such is unacceptable, and I no not...

TORONTO -- Five years after 9-11, it's apparent that we all aren't getting along. And the political left is throwing plenty of mean punches. A case in point is that new Bush snuff movie, "Death of a President." Some might say that "snuff movie" is too strong a term -- but how else to describe a movie that clearly revels in the prospect of George W. Bush's being assassinated? Anyone who doubts that movies still have the power to stir up passions ought to come here, to the Toronto International Film Festival, which rates as the most important movie conclave...

MIAMI, June 30 (UPI) -- A lawyer has sued a Florida-based Web site claiming he was defamed on Don'tDateHimGirl.com. The site allows women to vent about ex-boyfriends and spouses and, presumably, to warn others about their exes' nasty habits. But Todd Hollis of Pittsburgh says his former girlfriend published false and malicious information about his health and sexual habits. "When you have to explain to someone that you don't have herpes or that you are not a dog or that these accusations are malicious and false it really bothers you," Hollis told the Miami Herald. "You feel awkward when you...

Man sues over Web site comments Fri Jun 30, 11:51 AM ET PITTSBURGH - A city attorney is suing the creator of a Web site that lets women dish dirt on men they claim have wronged them, saying they made defamatory statements about him. Attorney Todd J. Hollis sued because he contends two Pittsburgh-area women and other anonymous users posted items about him on http://www.dontdatehimgirl.com in which they claim he is unfaithful, among other things, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Thursday. Hollis filed the suit Thursday in Allegheny County against Tasha C. Joseph of Miami, who created the site, which bills...

I’ve spent much of the past week trying to get a letter to the editor published in The New York Times in response to the recent Tom Friedman rant (subscription required) against GM (see “Hyperbole and Defamation at The New York Times,” June 1). I failed. This is my story. For those of you who haven’t read it already, Mr. Friedman spent 800 words on the Times op/ed page to accuse GM of supporting terrorists, buying votes in Congress and being a corporate “crack dealer” that posed a serious threat to America’s future. He suggested the nation would be better...

“Vietnam veterans will not be intimidated by John Kerry,” retired Air Force Colonel George “Bud” Day said in response to the Massachusetts Senator’s newly created legal expense trust fund to finance his court battles against a group of highly-decorated Vietnam War veterans. Col. Day added, “Why one of the wealthiest men in the Senate would expect others to pay his lawyers and use questionable Senate privileges against veterans is shameful.” Col. Day is chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation (VVLF), a group of Vietnam combat veterans who sued Sen. Kerry for “conspiracy and defamation.” Day is the most decorated...

Mexico Offers Help in Exchange for Visas by Amanda B. CarpenterPosted Mar 27, 2006The Mexican government placed a full-page advertisement in major U.S. newspapers last week that said Mexican efforts to stop illegal emigration into the U.S. would be contingent on the United States' providing a "sufficient number of appropriate visas" to Mexican nationals who now enter the U.S. illegally. The ad was a summary of "Mexico and the Migration Phenomenon," a policy declaration adopted last February by Mexico’s Federal Congress. In the declaration, the Mexican government calls for a "bilateral medical insurance system" for Mexican workers in the U.S....

WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court refused Monday to block a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times over columns that linked a former Army scientist to the 2001 anthrax killings. Authorities have never solved the mysterious mailing of anthrax-laced letters that killed five people and sickened 17 not long after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Steven Hatfill, a physician and bioterrorism expert, was labeled a "person of interest" by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, although he was never charged and has since sued Ashcroft and others. A federal judge had thrown out Hatfill's lawsuit against The New York Times over...