The US House of Representatives passed a Republican-backed energy bill late Thursday aimed at increasing domestic production, including provisions that would permit drilling in the Alaska wildlife refuge and protect the manufacturer of gasoline additive MTBE from liability for water contamination. The Energy Policy Act of 2005, which has received the strong support of the [...]

US military spokespersons issued statements Thursday clarifying proposed changes to the military’s policy on consensual sodomy, refuting earlier interpretations by rights groups that the amendments would decriminalize consensual sodomy among members of the armed forces. Pentagon officials did ask Congress to approve a change to the military justice code’s treatment of consensual sodomy, but claim [...]

AP is reporting that a military jury has convicted Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar of murder and attempted murder in a grenade attack on fellow soldiers in Kuwait. 8:05 PM ET ~ Akbar, 33, was charged with killing two fellow soldiers and wounding 14 others in the attack, which took place in the early stages of [...]

The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it has reached a settlement agreement with Hynix Semiconductor as part of the DOJ's ongoing investigation into price-fixing in the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) industry. Under the agreement, which must be approved by the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Hynix will plead guilty [...]

Former Merrill Lynch executive Daniel Bayly has been sentenced to 30 months by in prison US District Judge Ewing Werlein for his role in an Enron Nigerian barge scam. Bayly will also face six months of supervision after prison and must pay $840,000 in fees and fines. Judge Werlein found the losses caused by Bayly's [...]

In a case somewhat similar to that of brain-damaged Florida woman Terri Schiavo, Justice Mark Hedley of the High Court in London Thursday upheld a court order allowing a critically ill baby to die if she stops breathing. Charlotte Wyatt was born 3 months premature with serious brain, lung, and kidney damage. Physicians say she [...]

In Thursday's environmental law news, US District Judge Shira Scheindlin has ruled that some 80 lawsuits can proceed against oil companies claiming that a gasoline additive, methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) , contaminated groundwater. The suits allege that the oil companies contaminated wells and underground aquifers across the country by adding MTBE to gasoline as a [...]

Saajid Badat , the British man who has admitted to conspiring with "shoebomber" Richard Reid to blow up an aircraft, will be sentenced on Friday after entering a guilty plea to a conspiracy charge in February. Badat, who did not go forward with his plan, was to use an explosive device similar to the one [...]

Leading Thursday's international brief, the first troops of the UN peacekeeping force assigned to Sudan arrived in Khartoum Thursday to prepare the way for the more than 10,000 troops to follow. The 44 peacekeepers that arrived in the Sudanese capital were mainly staff officers sent to set up command and control elements for the next [...]

The office of the Pentagon's general counsel has sent leaders of the US Senate and House of Representatives Armed Services Committees a draft copy of a proposal saying that consensual sodomy between members of the US military would no longer be a criminal act. The change would bring the military legal code closer to the [...]