Wyoming may bring back firing squads
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Prompted by the shortages of available drugs for lethal injections, Wyoming lawmakers are considering changing state law to permit execution of condemned inmates by firing squad.
A Wyoming legislative committee has directed its staff to draft a firing-squad bill for consideration ahead of next year’s legislative session starting in January.
A Republican state lawmaker in Utah recently announced that he intends to introduce firing-squad legislation in his state’s next legislative session in January as well.
BP wants high court to review settlement
NEW ORLEANS – BP PLC said Wednesday it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether businesses must prove they were directly harmed by the 2010 Gulf Of Mexico oil spill to collect payments from a 2012 settlement.
The announcement came two days after judges of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 8-5 against reconsidering the issue. A three-judge panel of the circuit court in March had upheld a district court ruling that businesses did not need to prove direct harm.
BP initially estimated it would pay roughly $7.8 billion to resolve spill claims. The company later said the claims administrator was misinterpreting the settlement in ways that could add billions of dollars worth of bogus or inflated claims and it could no longer estimate the deal’s ultimate cost.
Libyan general wants council to run country
TRIPOLI, Libya – Libya’s renegade general has called for handing power to a presidential council to oversee transitional period until holding new parliamentary elections.
Gen. Khalifa Hifter in a televised statement late Wednesday accused the current parliament of turning Libya to a state “sponsoring terrorism” and a “hideout to terrorists” who infiltrated the joints of the state, wasted its resources and controlled its decision making.
Hifter who has been winning support from the country’s weakened military units, tribes, and even officials has waged an offensive he said targets Islamist militias and their backers in parliament, who described Hifter’s campaign as a coup.
Associated Press
