State v. Ross, Supreme Court of Connecticut, May 9, 2005 . Read the court's opinion , a concurrence , and the dissent . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The newly formed Iraqi government on Tuesday created a 55-member committee that will begin work on drafting the country's permanent constitution by the August 15 deadline prescribed by the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) , the interim Iraqi constitution. The committee includes 28 members of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance party, 15 from the Kurdish coalition, [...]

Kenyan prosecutors on Tuesday dropped charges against three men for plotting the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi that killed 224 people. The three, Salmin Mohammed Khamis, Mohammed Kubwa Seif and Said Saggar Ahmed, still face charges for alleged conspiracy in connection with the 2002 bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel that killed 15 [...]

Russia and the European Union agreed to work on strengthening political and economic relations during a summit Tuesday, but the agreement was tempered by harsh language by Russian President Vladimir Putin on relations with the Baltic states. During a press conference following the summit, Putin said Russia was working on border agreements with Latvia and [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Tuesday unanimously rejected a lawsuit brought against Vice-President Dick Cheney for refusing to disclose internal communications of the National Energy Policy Development Group , Cheney's energy task force composed of government employees. The suit, filed jointly by watchdog group Judicial Watch and the Sierra [...]

The Connecticut Supreme Court late Monday night ruled that convicted serial killer Michael Ross was competent to end his death-row appeals , leaving the way open for him to be executed by lethal injection this Friday at 2 AM. Ross is convicted of raping and murdering eight women in Connecticut and New York in the [...]

Due to surging numbers of Iraqis held by the US in prison camps, US military commanders have undertaken a $50 million project to expand three existing prisons and build a fourth. The number of Iraqi prisoners has risen steadily, doubling since October and reaching over 11,350 last week. This figure is only expected to grow [...]

State officials and rights groups have voiced financial and privacy concerns over the Real ID Act , the controversial identity legislation passed last Thursday in the US House of Representatives as a rider on an $82B emergency supplemental appropriations bill for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and headed for likely approval in the Senate later [...]

Hans Blix , former UN chief weapons inspector and current head of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission , said in a New York press conference Monday that the US is undermining its position as a nuclear power player by not taking the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as seriously as it should. Blix believes that American [...]

Fifty-nine percent of Germans are in favor of the new EU Constitution according to a new Infratest poll released just days before the Bundestag , the lower house of the German parliament, votes on the pact Thursday. There will be a second vote in the German upper house, the Bundesrat later in May. Only 15 [...]