Television and newspaper reports of widespread crime and violence in the days following Hurricane Katrina are proving to be largely unsupported or exaggerated, according to recent reports by journalists and officials. The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Monday that news stories of rapes, murders, sniper attacks and body counts after the hurricane have not been substantiated; [...]

Leading Tuesday's international brief, China's Supreme Peoples' Court regained the power to review death sentences on Tuesday, after nearly six months of intense criticism of the old process, which allowed regional courts to review death sentences. Chinese media highlighted nearly a dozen cases over the last six months of miscarriages of justice, including two sensational [...]

A woman who was ordered by a British court to destroy frozen embryos produced with her former partner is taking her case to the European Court of Human Rights Tuesday, claiming the refusal to allow her to implant the embryos is a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights , which protects the "right [...]

Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif told newly-appointed US Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes Monday that his government plans to lift the state of emergency that has been in place in the country for 24 years. Nazif told Hughes that the process would "take some time because it involves legal and constitutional challenges" [...]

New Jersey Attorney General Peter C. Harvey filed lawsuits Monday against Hess , Shell , and Sunoco , alleging that the oil and gas giants and several independent gas-station owners illegally hiked prices in the days surrounding Hurricane Katrina . The separate suits, believed to be the first civil actions in the US responding to [...]

Australian state and territory leaders Tuesday agreed to strict new anti-terror measures proposed by the federal government of Prime Minister John Howard which include detaining terror suspects for up to 48 hours without charge and using electronic tracking devices to keep tabs on suspects. There was also agreement Tuesday to tighten citizenship laws to make [...]

US District Judge Jed. S. Rakoff Monday denied government claims that he was interfering with the president's constitutional authority to wage war when he ordered that Guantanamo Bay detainees be asked if they want their names to be publicized. The government objected to this procedure last month when Judge Rakoff first ordered the Defense Department [...]

A New York court Monday commenced proceedings in the civil trial arising out of the 1993 truck bombing of the World Trade Center . The court will need to determine whether the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is liable for their failure to act on several warnings that the World Trade Center [...]

Criminal Victimization, 2004, US Department of Justice , released September 25, 2005 . Excerpt: Taken together, the 1-year (2003-04) and 2-year (2001-02 to 2003-04) change estimates indicate that crime rates remain stabilized at the lowest levels experienced since 1973. Read the full text of the report here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Gun control advocates are set to start an intensive media campaign to alert travelers about a new Florida law that allows people to respond to threats by using guns at home or in public . The NRA-supported "force with force" or (to opponents) "shoot first" law formally takes effect Saturday. Peter Hamm of the Brady [...]