President Barack Obama says the Civil Rights Act opened doors for freedom but inequities remain on the legislation's 45th anniversary. On Thursday, Obama released a statement praising the 1964 law that ended legal discrimination. Obama says Americans must continue to break down barriers to equality and fulfill the promises of that legislation. Obama says the act won passage because Americans of all backgrounds "stood up, sat down, and marched in freedom's cause" together.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Amnesty International said on Thursday Israel inflicted "wanton destruction" in the Gaza Strip in attacks that often targeted Palestinian civilians during an offensive in December and January in the Hamas-run enclave. The London-based rights group, in a 117-page report on the 22 days of fighting, also criticized the Islamist movement Hamas for rocket attacks on Israel, which it called "war crimes." Among other conclusions, Amnesty said it found no evidence to support Israeli claims that Gaza guerrillas deliberately used civilians as "human shields," but it did ...

An appeals court judge strengthened the status of prenuptial contracts in British law Thursday by ruling that a German heiress' premarital agreement with her former husband should influence how their assets are divided. British law does not generally recognize prenuptial contracts. But Lord Justice Mathew Thorpe, who heard the case of Katrin Radmacher and her former husband Nicolas Granatino, said the current low status of prenuptial agreements "reflects the laws and morals of earlier generations." "It does not ...

A bipartisan group of 37 US senators have sent a letter to Vietnam's president calling for the "immediate and unconditional release" of a dissident Catholic priest jailed for eight years in 2007. The lawmakers urged Nguyen Minh Triet to intervene in the case of Father Nguyen Van Ly, who was convicted in a half-day trial in the city of Hue for spreading propaganda against the communist state. The senators -- led by Democrat Barbara Boxer and Republican Sam Brownback -- said Ly's trial appeared "seriously flawed," stressing that the pro-democracy ...