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 [...]

Human Rights Watch has accused prison officials at the New Orleans Templeman III prison facility of leaving hundreds of inmates to fend for themselves during Hurricane Katrina , calling the prisoners' experience a "nightmare." The human rights group interviewed prison staff and dozens of prisoners who said they had been locked in their cells for [...]

A British Muslim man was found guilty in London Friday for "possessing articles useful for terrorists" including a hand-written instruction manual explaining how to fire mortars and secret codes that British police linked to al Qaeda. Andrew Rowe had been under surveillance by British police prior to his arrest and several searches of his homes [...]

Judges, lawyers, and even prisoners are on the move across Texas as residents prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Rita . The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit , already bounced from its usual home in New Orleans , has announced closures for its temporary location in Houston. The US Marshals Service has [...]

Federal prosecutors said Thursday that new charges have been filed against one of the men arrested in California earlier this year on terrorism charges. Hamid Hayat, 23, now faces charges of providing material support to terrorists in addition to accusations that he lied to the FBI about attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. He [...]

The Federal Election Commission on Thursday dismissed complaints that Republican and conservative groups acted improperly to get third-party candidate Ralph Nader on the ballot during the 2004 presidential campaign. Nader said the complaints were "frivolous". The FEC said they had no reason to believe that any of the groups broke the law. Earlier this year, [...]

Lawyers for jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky said Friday that they will appeal his conviction on tax and fraud evasion charges to the European Court of Human Rights . A Moscow court Thursday denied Khodorkovsky's appeal and an appeal to the Russian Supreme Court is also planned, but a ruling from the Russian court [...]