US v. Hayat, et al., United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, new charges filed on September 22, 2005 . Read the full text of the superseding indictment here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Bush administration may again decide to temporarily suspend the Jones Act in order to facilitate petroleum shipments between US ports if Hurricane Rita hinders supplies from reaching refineries, according to a government source Friday. The law says that only vessels built and owned by citizens of the United States and flagged in the United [...]

AP is reporting that Lester Crawford , commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration , has resigned. 4:08 PM ET – Crawford's resignation comes just two months after his Senate confirmation as FDA chief . During the confirmation process, Crawford was criticized for dragging his feet while serving as the FDA's acting commissioner on making [...]

The European Union Friday presented a motion to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna that would condemn Iran's nuclear program as a violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , but would not refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. Earlier this week, Germany, France and Great Britain dropped their demand [...]

In Friday's environmental law news, Alameda County California supervisors have approved a plan that would mandate the shutdown of windmills during the winter migratory bird season. The Altamont Pass has over 5,000 windmills and is located along the Pacific Flyway , the main route for the winter migration of birds. According to studies by the [...]

Diplomats said Friday that a French-led working group of the UN Human Rights Committee has completed drafting a treaty that would bind signing countries to prevent enforced or involuntary disappearances , calling them "crimes against humanity". The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances proposes the prosecution of any "arrest, detention, [...]

Leading Friday's states brief, an Alabama Circuit Court judge has overridden a jury's recommendation of life imprisonment, and sentenced Kerry Spencer to death for the murders of three police officers. Under Alabama law, a judge may override the sentencing recommendation of the jury, and in this case Circuit Judge Tommy Nail felt the horrors of [...]

A federal district court sided with two national gun rights groups Friday by issuing a restraining order to stop Louisiana law enforcement officials from taking weapons away from individual gun-owners in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina , according to the National Rifle Association (NRA) . The NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) called the [...]

A North Korean official said Friday that his country has "fully resolved" all issues regarding North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens , and would not cooperate in any further investigations regarding missing Japanese nationals taken to the Communist state to teach Japanese language and culture at North Korea spy schools because it has "already done [...]

The European Commission Friday strongly condemned a Turkish court's decision to cancel an academic conference to discuss and question the accuracy of Turkey's version of events between 1915 and 1917 leading to 1.5 million deaths in what has been called the Armenian genocide . Turkey is pursuing membership in the European Union, but the EU [...]