Vermont: Judge declares death penalty as unconstitutional

A federal judge declared the federal death penalty law unconstitutional Tuesday in a ruling defense lawyers said could provide a new argument for challenging capital cases across the country.

U.S. District Judge William Sessions said recent cases, including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found juries and not judges must hand out death sentences, have rendered existing death-penalty law unusable.

Since the high court’s ruling in June, a federal judge in New York has ruled capital punishment is in itself unconstitutional. Other federal judges, in Virginia and Pennsylvania, have upheld the Federal Death Penalty Act.

Washington: Republicans, Hispanics lobby for Bush’s court nominee

In need of just one Democrat to salvage President Bush’s judicial nomination of Miguel Estrada, Republican politicians and Hispanic advocacy groups on Tuesday lobbied Democrats to confirm the first Hispanic to the nation’s second-highest court.

However, there is no evidence yet that Estrada, a Washington lawyer who was on Bush’s legal team in the Florida recount battle two years ago, can get the support of any of 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Without approval from at least one Democrat, Estrada’s nomination would fail in committee without a vote from the full Senate.

Estrada will face questions Thursday from the Senate Judiciary Committee on whether he is qualified to sit on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, a steppingstone in the careers of three current Supreme Court justices.

Washington: U.S. team recovers remains in North Korea

Eight sets of remains believed to be from U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War began their journey back to the United States Tuesday, the Pentagon announced.

The remains, found near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea by joint U.S. and Korean teams, were flown to a U.S. base in Japan.

Five sets of remains were believed to be from U.S. Army soldiers who fought Chinese forces in November and December 1950, the Pentagon statement said.

The three other sets of remains, discovered by a second team, were recovered along the Kuryong River about 60 miles north of the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. The area was the site of battles between Communist forces and the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry and 25th Infantry divisions in November 1950.

Pakistan: At least six die in shooting at Christian charity

Gunmen entered the third-floor offices of a Christian welfare organization on Wednesday in Karachi, spraying it with automatic weapons fire and killing at least six people, police said.

The shooting occurred at the offices of the Institute for Peace and Justice, a Pakistani Christian charity that does work in the city. Among the dead were three Pakistani Christians and three Muslims, police said. Four others were injured.