In Wednesday's environmental law news, the US House of Representatives voted late Wednesday night to remove provisions from a budget bill that would have allowed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore drilling along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Twenty-five House Republicans had threatened to join Democrats to scuttle the budget bill if [...]

Decree announcing a state of emergency in France and the application of the 1955 emergency laws, President Jacques Chirac, November 9, 2005. Read the full text of the decree and the 1955 laws (as amended) in French. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Legislators on a US House and Senate conference committee for the USA Patriot Act and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005 are closing on a deal that would limit certain law enforcement powers under the Act in the process of making many of its provisions permanent. Under the tentative deal, still officially under wraps, judges [...]

US lawmakers Wednesday expressed some discomfort with a proposal by the Bush administration to increase the response role of the US Department of Defense in disasters during a hearing of a House Armed Services Committee subcommittee. House members questioned whether such a plan would leave the military stretched too thin, and also noted that the [...]

Judith Miller , the New York Times reporter at the center of the CIA leak case , has left the newspaper after 28 years there, the Times announced Wednesday . Miller negotiated with the paper for several weeks about her departure after she was jailed for 85 days this summer for failing to reveal her [...]

Doctors directed to examine former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet have declared him fit to stand trial for the first time on charges that he coordinated the killings of political opponents during the 1970s. According to a report prepared by the examining doctors and revealed by sources Wednesday, Pinochet appeared lucid and showed no signs of [...]

The Pentagon has said it will not seek the death penalty against Omar Ahmed Khadr , an 18-year-old Canadian citizen detained at Guantanamo Bay who admitted throwing a grenade that killed a US medic while fighting with the Taliban in 2002. The decision, announced Tuesday, has pleased the Canadian government, which had sought assurances that [...]

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments in US v. Georgia and Goodman v. Georgia , a consolidated case in which it will decide whether states can be sued by disabled inmates under the Americans with Disabilities Act for failing to accomodate them. In the case, the Court heard the appeal of Tony Goodman, [...]

Egyptian judges have raised questions about the accuracy of the final results in September's presidential election, although they said that any irregularities did not affect the outcome of the race. An informal association of judges in Egypt released a report Tuesday in which they acknowledged being unable to completely supervise the election as legally required. [...]

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Wednesday said treason charges would be leveled against the leaders of violent protests that left 42 dead following a confrontation with police last week. Meles called the protests an "Orange Revolution gone wrong," in reference to protests in Ukraine last year. The opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy party [...]