"Vasean's Law" is a step in the right direction, but too bad it couldn't be applied retroactively. In the USA, it seems having a driver's license is literally a license to kill. From New York Newsday, Sept. 13:

Drunk driver who inspired Vasean's law released from jail
The drunken driver who mowed down two boys last year, killing one of them, is a free man after serving 38 days of his two-month sentence.

Premier Dalton McGuinty pledged to axe a peneding law to establish a conflict-settlement program based on shariah law in Ontario, and also promised to outlaw existing religious tribunals used for years by Christians and Jews under Ontario's Arbitration Act.

Walter Pincus of the Washington Post reports Sept. 11 that the Pentagon has drafted a revised doctrine for the use of nuclear weapons that envisions commanders requesting presidential approval to pre-empt an attack by a nation or terror group using weapons of mass destruction. The draft also includes the option of using nuclear arms to destroy known enemy stockpiles of nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons.

The document, written by the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs staff but not yet approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, would update rules and procedures governing the use of nuclear weapons to reflect a pre-emption strategy first announced by the Bush White House in December 2002.

A new round of violence—the worst to hit the province in a decade—broke out in Belfast Sept. 10 following a decision to restrict an Orange Order parade. Police said surveillance footage of that violence showed paramilitaries armed with automatic weapons and explosive devices, and members of the Orange Order attacking police and orchestrating the violence.

Al Garza, president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, confirmed on Sept. 7 that his group is beginning operations in Texas sooner than expected, bringing about 50 volunteers to Brownsville this month for "Secure Our Borders," a campaign targeting undocumented immigrants along the border. The campaign was slated to begin Oct. 1, but was moved up a month--it began on Sept. 2--after hundreds of federal Border Patrol agents were redeployed away from the border to Gulf Coast areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. Garza said the border is now even more short-handed and his volunteers are "picking up the slack."

Two weeks ago, the Israeli cabinet voted to demolish de-consecrated synagogue buildings left in Gaza settlements. A court challenge by settlement rabbis to not demolish them was rejected. On Sept. 9, reversing an earlier stance in favor of demolishing, the Israeli cabinet voted 14-2 not to demolish, although the court order still stands. A key turning point was Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, born in Iran, and from a traditional Mizrahi family. Mofaz it is said was swayed by former Sephardic Chief Rabbi and Shas leader, Ovadia Yosef, who declared that Jews must not destroy the buildings. Even though Sharon voted against demolishing the buildings, he referred to them as "houses that were used as synagogues."

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA, ruled unanimously Sept. 9 that Jose Padilla, held for more than three years as an "enemy combatant," can be detained indefinitely without trial. Judge Michael Luttig wrote the decision for a three-member appellate court panel. He is considered to be on President Bush's short list of candidates for a vacancy on the Supreme Court. Padilla's attorneys plan to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

"The court's ruling effectively declares the entire world, including the United States, to be a battlefield subject to military jurisdiction, where American citizens can be stripped of their constitutional rights," said Deborah Pearlstein, director of the U.S. Law and Security Program at Human Rights First, a rights advocacy group in New York and Washington.

More than 200 detainees in Guantánamo Bay are in their fifth week of a hunger strike, the UK Guardian reports Sept. 9. The paper cites statements from prisoners recently declassified by the US government, revealing that the men are starving themselves in protest at the conditions in the camp and claimed abuses by guards—including desecration of the Koran.