Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has told the joint House and Senate Judiciary Committee that his proposal to reinstate the death penalty would ensure that no innocent people were executed by including multiple levels of review and a unique "no doubt" standard of guilt. The proposal would utilize scientific evidence such as DNA and a review [...]

Bankrupt energy company Enron Corporation has agreed to pay over $1.5 billion to settle claims that it gouged California, Oregon and Washington and companies such as Pacific Gas & Electric Co., Southern California Edison Co., and San Diego Gas & Electric, during the 2000-2001 energy crisis. Parties settling with Enron will divide a bankruptcy claim [...]

Leading Friday's international brief, Zimbabwe Local Government and National Housing Minister Ignatius Chombo admitted to reporters today that reconstruction plans announced by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe would be incapable of meeting the housing needs of individuals made homeless by "Operation Murambatsvina" (the African term sometimes translated "Operation Restore Order" or "Operation Drive Out Rubbish") in [...]

A memo dated Thurday obtained by Associated Press and prepared by the general counsel's office of the independent commission reviewing the base closings could disrupt US Department of Defense efforts to consolidate or dissolve up to 30 Air National Guard flying units in various states. The memo says the use of the base closure law [...]

Australian Prime Minister John Howard told a news conference Friday in the wake of the London bombings that Australia should reconsider introducing a national identity card, an idea the country debated but shelved back in 1987. Howard, who opposed the 1987 plan for an Australia Card , said circumstances had changed and the proposal should [...]

Spokesmen for several of Iraq's religious minorites, including Chaldo/Assyrian Catholics , Iraqi Turkmen Muslims , and Mandaeans have expressed concern that new Iraqi constitution due out in a month may leave out any meaningful provisions guaranteeing religious freedom. Panel members at a National Press Club discussion Thursday called on the United States to ensure that [...]

Negotiations over a global anti-terrorism treaty get under way again the week of July 25, according to Mohamed Bennouna, chairman of the UN General Assemby's treaty-writing (Sixth) legal committee. Earlier this month G8 leaders called for early agreement on a draft of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism , which has been stalled in the [...]

AP is reporting that a US federal appeals court has ruled that Guantanamo detainees may be tried by military commissions. Read the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals opinion in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. JURIST's Paper Chase provides background coverage of the Hamdan case. AP has more. 12:35 PM ET – The ruling overturned a lower [...]

The Pakistan government Friday asked the Supreme Court of Pakistan to rule on a controversial Islamic law passed Thursday by the conservative Islamist legislature of the country's North West Frontier Province . President General Pervez Musharraf is seeking the Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of the new law which bears a resemblance to Afghan regulatons [...]

At a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing Thursday, three top military lawyers said they had lodged complaints about the definition of torture put forth by the US Department of Justice and its application to the interrogations of enemy combatants held by the US. The testimony marked the first time the JAGs have publicly acknowledged objections [...]