The Kuwaiti Ministry of Islamic Affairs issued a religious edict Saturday declaring that Kuwaiti emir Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah should have the final decision on granting women political rights if Muslim clerics disagree. According to Saturday's fatwa, "a decision by the ruler should end disputes on matters" upon which there is no religious [...]

President Bush juggled his weekend schedule to return to Washington Sunday to be ready to sign proposed legislation that would send Terri Schiavo's case to the federal courts . Previously, urgent legislation passed while the president has been out of town has been flown in for him to sign. White House press secretary Scott McClellan [...]

Jordan's state security court has sentenced Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to 15 years in prison in absentia for a plot to attack the country's embassy in Iraq. Zarqawi, designated the most-wanted man in Iraq {AP report] by US authorities, was convicted along with Miqdad al-Dabbas of "conspiring to carry out terrorist acts". Dabbas was detained before [...]

Former Bosnian Serb general Vinko Pandurevic , wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for war crimes during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, has agreed to surrender to the UN war crimes court in The Hague. Pandurevic is wanted for his connection with the massacre of some 8,000 Muslims by Serb forces in the [...]

WNBC in New York is reporting that US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has announced a compromise with Senate leaders on a federal legislative initiative to keep Terri Schiavo alive by allowing her case to be appealed to the federal courts. The Senate will meet to consider the measure later today; the House will meet [...]

Ibrahim Jaafari, Iraq's leading Shiite candidate for Prime Minister, said Saturday that he would introduce Sharia Islamic law and federalism if selected. Jaafari's Daawa party currently holds a majority of National Assembly seats from the January general election. A poll conducted by the US International Republican Institute shows public sentiment in Iraq on the application [...]

The Hong Kong Bar Association Friday criticized the Hong Kong regional government's recent declaration that under the Hong Kong Basic Law the successor of a chief executive who steps down early shall serve out only the remainder of the unexpired term, calling it the first time that mainland China's interpretative approach to the regional constitution [...]

Subpoenas of Michael and Terri Schiavo, House Government Reform Committee, March 18, 2005. Read the text of the subpoenas via Abstract Appeal. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Saturday's Los Angeles Times reports that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will propose significant changes to the organization at a General Assembly meeting Monday. According to a draft copy of Annan's scheduled Report on Larger Freedom obtained by the newspaper, he will ask the General Assembly to approve an expansion of the Security Council from 15 [...]

Former US attorney general John Ashcroft has accepted a part-time position as Distinguished Professor of Law and Government at Regent University , the Virginia Beach Christian graduate school headed by evangelist Pat Robertson . Ashcroft's first course in April will be a week long and will cover "leadership in times of crisis." He is scheduled [...]