White House advisor Karl Rove has been told that he will not be indicted Friday by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald in the CIA leak case , according to reports from ABC News and Sky News. Fitzgerald is expected to announce indictments Friday in the two-year investigation into the leak of undercover operative Valerie Plame's identity. [...]

French President Jacques Chirac has called for an international tribunal to try Syrian and Lebanese suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri . The UN International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) submitted its interim report to the UN Security Council last week, which implicated both Syrian and Lebanese security officials in the [...]

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday endorsed a Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation and an accompanying Code of Conduct in efforts to begin establishing new standards for international election monitoring. The new standards stress that human rights and democracy cannot be achieved without the protections of the rule of law, and require that [...]

In Thursday's environmental law news, sixteen firms, including Huffy, Lockheed Martin, Mobil Oil, and Philip Morris, have agreed to pay $14.9 million for polluting groundwater in California. In 1979, a contamination plume, measuring 1 mile wide by 8 miles long, was discovered under Baldwin park in Whittier, CA. Known as the San Gabriel Valley Area [...]

Padilla v. Hanft, Brief of Petitioner for Writ of Certiorari, Supreme Court of the United States, October 27, 2005 . Read the full text of the brief here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Manipulation of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme, Independent Inquiry Committee, October 27, 2005 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Reacting Thursday to the publication of the Volcker committee's final report on the UN oil-for-food scandal , UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the US State Department both emphasized the need to reform program oversight mechanisms at the United Nations which they said allowed Iraqi ex-president Saddam Hussein to corrupt the UN's humanitarian Oil-for-Food Program . [...]

The Constitutional Court of Korea Thursday struck down a statute limiting the scope of medical advertising to statements on types of services offered, types of facilities, and number of employees. The content of hospital and clinic advertising may now include representations as to the capabilities and methods of the provider. The 6-3 majority decision reasoned [...]

The US Department of Justice Thursday endorsed the mergers of Verizon Communications with MCI and SBC Communications with AT&T , requiring both Verizon and SBC to lease to competitors unused or "dark" communications lines that run to office buildings in several metropolitan areas. The DOJ Antitrust Division filed complaints in the US DC District Court [...]

Kenya's debate over its draft constitution has erupted into violence, with supporters and opponents clashing in the streets in what has become an increasingly intense disagreement over a controversial document. Dozens were injured during rioting by machete-wielding demonstrators Wednesday evening in the town of Kakamega in Kenya's Western Province. The incident is the latest in [...]