A federal judge in Argentina has ordered the arrest of a former military leader in the investigation into the death of a student during the country's "Dirty War" in the late 1970s. The judge on Wednesday ordered Luciano Benjamin Menendez and 15 other former army officers to be detained. Menendez is alleged to be the [...]

Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti has said he will investigate hospitals and nursing homes throughout the state for evidence of negligence during the evacuation prior to Hurricane Katrina , making it seem likely that additional charges will be filed in the coming weeks. Charges were filed earlier this week against a couple who ran a [...]

Newdow, et al. v. US Congress, United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, Judge Lawrence Karlton, September 14, 2005 . Read the full text of the opinion here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Frances Newton was executed by lethal injection late Wednesday at Huntsville prison in Texas for fatally shooting her husband and two children in 1987, making her the first black woman executed by the state since it took over executions from counties in 1923. Several dozen protestors were present outside the prison at the time of [...]

A Bosnian court created to ease the caseload of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia opened its first trial Wednesday against war crimes suspect Boban Simsic, a member of a Serb paramilitary group that served under Milan Lukic . Simsic surrendered to EU peacekeepers in January, and tribunal President Medizda Kresco called the [...]

Two men implicated in the growing scandal surrounding Texas Republican campaign groups associated with US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay have been charged with two additional felonies for violations in the 2002 election. Americans for a Republican Majority head Jim Ellis and John Colyandro, former executive director of Texans for a Republican Majority , were [...]

The Grand Bench (en banc panel) of the Supreme Court of Japan ruled Wednesday that a clause of the country's Public Offices Election Law restricting the voting rights of Japanese nationals living abroad is unconstitutional. The court determined that the legislature was negligent in passing the mesaure and ordered the Japanese government to pay 60,000 [...]

US Chief Justice nominee John Roberts wrapped up a third day of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday marked by more jousting with Democratic senators and strong support from Republicans. As time went on, it appeared increasingly likely that Roberts would be approved by the Committee and confirmed by the full Senate in [...]

Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines , the third and fourth largest US air carriers, both filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday. The filings highlighted the financial distress of the airline industry, particularly after spiking oil prices in Hurricane Katrina's wake, and the two airlines are expected to use bankruptcy protection to cut labor and [...]

In Wednesday's environmental law news, Pennsylvania has joined 14 other states suing the US Department of Energy (DOE) , alleging that the agency is 6 to 13 years behind schedule in updating efficiency standards for some household and commercial appliance categories and has failed to issue any new efficiency standards at all since January 2001. [...]