Legal marijuana could be the first billion-dollar industry not dominated by men, writes Gogo Lidz.

A Kentucky sheriff has defended a deputy officer who restrained two disabled elementary schoolchildren by using handcuffs, last autumn. The sheriff says the deputy did nothing wrong.

The problems that arose during the attempted execution of an inmate in the US could hasten the end of capital punishment, says Heide Brandes in Oklahoma City.

A former head of MI5 believes the US will seek a deal with whistleblower Edward Snowden in a bid to prevent him divulging more secret intelligence material.

A federal judge has ruled that a massive US phone-tracking programme is legal.

Ohio’s prison system is reviewing how Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro - perhaps the most notorious figure behind bars in the state – managed to hang himself with a bedsheet while in protective custody.

US soldier Bradley Manning has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for giving hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.

A gay couple is pursuing a discrimination complaint against a US bakery, saying the business refused them a wedding cake to honour their ceremony and alleging that the owners have a history of turning away same-sex couples.

As the lone surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing lay in hospital under heavy guard, the American Civil Liberties Union and a federal public defender raised concerns about investigators’ plan to question Dzhokhar Tsarnaev without reading him his rights.

The size of the US government’s secret list of suspected terrorists who are banned from flying to or within the United States has more than doubled in the past year.

A LAWSUIT brought by the parents of Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old Irish girl who committed suicide in Massachusetts after relentless bullying, has been settled for $225,000 (€173,000).

A US federal judge has sided with government lawyers investigating the disclosure of classified documents on WikiLeaks and upheld a ruling that Twitter must turn over account information to prosecutors.

US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is in a critical condition after being shot in the head today while meeting with constituents in Arizona, a hospital spokeswoman has said.

CONSTANCE McMillen, an 18-year-old lesbian student at a US school who fought for the right to take her girlfriend to her prom, said she was one of only seven students to show up at a private party chaperoned by school officials last Friday night.

Constance McMillen, an 18-year-old lesbian student at a US school who fought for the right to take her girlfriend to her prom, said she was one of only seven students to show up at a private party chaperoned by school officials last Friday night.

Fifty-one-year-old Scott Roeder has been convicted of the murder of one of the only doctors in the US who offered late-term abortions.

THE US government asked an appeals court to halt the release of disturbing images of prisoner abuse, saying the photos could incite violence in Pakistan as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The US Defence Department will release a "substantial number" of photos depicting abuse of prisoners by US personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American Civil Liberties Union said.

US military interrogators assaulted Afghan detainees in 2003, using investigation methods they learned during self-defence training, according to Pentagon documents.

US immigration agents have been ordered to stop sedating deportees without a judge’s permission.

An Iraqi man is suing airline and federal officials after they refused to let him board a flight at New York’s JFK Airport because he wore a T-shirt inscribed with an Arabic phrase.

FBI agents have documented more than two dozen incidents of possible mistreatment at the Guantanamo Bay military base, including a detainee whose head was wrapped in duct tape for chanting verses from the Koran.

A leader of the incoming Democratic Congress, business travellers and privacy advocates have expressed outrage over computerised “terror score” assessments.

In a jail cell at an immigration detention centre in Arizona sits a man who is not charged with a crime, not suspected of a crime and not considered a danger to society.

George Bush has been given the go-ahead by a court to continue his domestic spying programme while his administration appeals against a ruling that it is unconstitutional.

New York’s highest court today ruled that gay marriage is not allowed under state law, rejecting arguments by same-sex couples who said the law violates their constitutional rights.

The US government defended warrantless domestic surveillance in court for the first time today, saying the programme is well within the president’s authority but arguing that it would require revealing state secrets to prove that point.

THE US Supreme Court, in an abortion case of relatively narrow scope, cleared the way yesterday for a Missouri prison inmate to terminate her pregnancy.

Saying the US “does not surrender to blackmail,” a judge in New York ruled today that pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America’s image.

The FBI has thousands of pages of records in its files relating to the monitoring of civil rights, environmental and other advocacy groups, the US Justice Department admitted today.

The US military in Iraq has detained five Americans for suspected insurgent activity, Pentagon officials said. The five have not been chargd or had access to a lawyer, and face an uncertain legal future.

US President George Bush is pressuring Congress to renew the Patriot Act by highlighting the actions of Ohio police who helped catch a man accused of plotting attacks on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and a Midwest shopping centre.

The top US commander in Iraq authorised prisoner interrogation tactics including the use of dogs, stress positions and isolation, according to a memo.

A US Army investigation found systematic abuse and possible torture of Iraqi prisoners at a base near the northern city of Mosul, just as top military officials became aware of abuse allegations at Abu Ghraib, documents show.

Human rights groups filed a lawsuit against US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of eight men allegedly tortured by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Parents have voiced outrage at a California primary school which is making children wear radio frequency identification badges to track their every move.

Twenty-three terror suspects tried to hang or strangle themselves at the United States military base in Guantanamo Bay on Cuba during a mass protest in 2003, the United States military confirmed.

US military officials will investigate charges of abuse against terrorist suspects being interrogated at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, authorities announced.

Pentagon officials are investigating new allegations by a civil liberties group that military interrogators at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay questioned detainees under the guise of friendlier FBI agents.

Fresh claims of a prisoner abuse cover-up in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay hit the US military today.

US President George W Bush said he looked forward to signing into law newly passed legislation to end the “abhorrent practice” known by critics as partial birth abortion, thereby giving anti-abortionists a victory that has eluded them for a decade.

Movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger attempted to terminate his rivals in the race for the governorship of California today, as the top candidates went head to head in a live TV debate.

A JUDGE postponed debate on Wednesday night over whether a guardian should be appointed for the six-month-old foetus of a mentally disabled rape victim, in a case that has attracted the involvement of Governor Jeb Bush and pro-choice activists.