Six of Iraq's 18 provinces reported partial election returns Thursday that showed the United Iraqi Alliance , a Shiite party, with strong results in the National Assembly race. The Alliance had been endorsed by the country's most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani , and led all other parties in the six reporting provinces. [...]

In Thursday's international brief, Israel has announced its approval of a plan to release as many as 900 detained Palestinians in coming weeks. The details of the exact number of prisoners to be released, and the conditions for their release, have yet to be determined, but the announcement was accompanied by a pledge to begin [...]

Ulster County Court Judge J. Michael Bruhn reinstated 24 criminal misdemeanor charges against New Paltz Village Mayor Jason West late Wednesday for marrying 24 gay couples in February 2004. West was charged with the misdemeanor counts last year, but the charges were dropped when a town court judge ruled that there were constitutional problems with [...]

Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy has reportedly left the country after the country's parliament stripped him of immunity, exposing him to liability for defamation. Cambodia's National Assembly Thursday achieved the two-thirds majority needed to overturn rules protecting Rainsy and two other members of the Sam Rainsy Party . As a result of the decision, the [...]

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says he expects to see "harsh judgments" of the UN in an interim report to be released Thursday on the purported mismanagement of the $64 billion Oil-for-Food program. Annan set up a blue-ribbon inquiry chaired by former US federal reserve chairman Paul Volcker in the wake of allegations of fraud [...]

French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin has called on French lawmakers to back a new proposal to break up all neo-Nazi groups numbering some 3,000 in France. De Villepin said the groups were responsible for 65 acts of violence in 2004. The minister is seeking to crack down on the spread of neo-Nazism via the [...]

Michael Chertoff , President Bush's nominee for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security faced repeated questions Wednesday from Democrats at his Senate confirmation hearing about any role he might have played while at the Justice Department in sanctioning improper interrogation techniques used on alleged alleged terrorists. Testifying before the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs [...]

Lord Goldsmith, Britain's attorney general, announced Thursday that seven British soldiers suspected of murdering an Iraqi civilian in southern Iraq will stand trial. The troops, who had been extensively questioned about the death of Nadhem Abdullah on May 11, 2003, will face court martial in Germany. This is the first time that UK soldiers in [...]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Thursday, Feb. 3. The US Senate convenes at 9:00 AM ET today, and it is expected to vote on the nomination of Alberto Gonzales for attorney general. Watch a live webcast via C-SPAN 2. The Woodrow Wilson International Center for [...]

State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush, February 2, 2005. Read the full text of the Address here. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.