The FBI Monday issued a preliminary report showing that the nation's murder rate dropped 3.6 percent in 2004, while violent crimes were down 1.7 percent. Property crimes also fell 1.8 percent. The murder rate had previously risen for the past three years. Large cities and small towns showed the biggest improvement; murders in cities of [...]

A treaty designed to encourage regional cooperation among Balkan states in war crimes trials appeared unlikely to materialize after Croatia on Tuesday ruled out allowing extraditions of suspects. The treaty, drafted by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe , will be reviewed at a conference on Wednesday by representatives from Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro and [...]

Following the UK's lead , Poland announced Tuesday that it may delay a scheduled October vote on the embattled European Constitution . Although France and the Netherlands had already voted agains ratifying the document, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chanceller Gerhard Schroeder have lobbied to keep the process alive . Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski [...]

Majority Shiite members of the special parlimentary committee mandated to draft the charter for Iraq's constitution have balked at Sunni calls for greater representation in the constitutional process, with some urging that the body simply get on with its job without even waiting for the Sunnis to name experts who would be willing to play [...]

A former top executive in Berkshire Hathaway's Gen Re insurance group, will plead guilty later this week to one count of conspiracy, according to his lawyer. John Houldsworth is charged with conspiring to misstate the financial statements of AIG , the biggest insurance company in the US. Houldsworth would be the first to plead guilty [...]

The Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST) has denied recent reports that the trial of Saddam Hussein is imminent, perhaps getting underway in the next two months with the first of 12 specific cases against him . The Tribunal stressed its independence from any political timetable possibly relating to the country's constitution-drafting process, stating "Any appointment to [...]

A New York state housing group claimed in a report released Monday that nearly half of the real estate agencies in New York City's northern suburbs treated blacks and Hispanics unfairly, according to recent tests. The federal Fair Housing Act passed in 1968 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, [...]

New York-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch Tuesday accused the Uzbekistan government of attempting to cover up May a "massacre" in the city of Andijan by blocking an inquiry into the killing of protestors last month by government troops . The group released a report that said many questions about the killings remain unanswered, including [...]

Alaska v. US, United States Supreme Court, June 6, 2005 . Excerpt from the Opinion by Justice Kennedy: In sum we agree with the United States that the proviso is best read, in light of our prior interpretation of it in Alaska (Arctic Coast), as expressing an independent and general rule uncoupled from the initial [...]

Borders, et al. versus King County, et al., oral decision by Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges, June 6, 2005 . Read the full transcribed text of the decision . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.