WASHINGTON

Supreme Court alleges prosecutorial overreach

The Supreme Court seems deeply skeptical of the federal government’s use of an anti-chemical weapons law to prosecute a jilted woman who tried to poison her husband’s mistress.

Several justices, including Anthony Kennedy, said Tuesday they were “flabbergasted” that the federal government prosecuted the case using a law based on a global treaty banning chemical weapons.

Carol Anne Bond got a six-year prison term. She used chemicals that caused a thumb burn on a friend who became her husband’s lover.

Justice Samuel Alito pointing out that on Halloween he handed children a chemical that could kill dogs: chocolate. But Solicitor General Donald Verrilli said judicial interference in the government’s treaty power could have global repercussions.

GENEVA

Hopes diminish for U.S.-Russian summit on Syria

U.S.-Russian plans for a long-delayed summit on Syria appeared to collapse with the United Nations’ special envoy to Syria suggesting that the opposition’s perpetual disarray was to blame.

U.N. and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi spoke in Geneva, where U.S., Russian and U.N. officials met in hopes of a breakthrough that would let them build on an earlier framework for talks to end the war that’s raged since 2011.

No such agreement was reached, however, and Brahimi suggested that the onus lay on the Syrian Opposition Coalition, which has been unable to assemble what Brahimi called a “credible delegation” to meet with representatives of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

KINSHASA, CONGO

Rebels announce they’ll seek political solution

KINSHASA, Congo — A leader of the M23 rebel group in eastern Congo said Tuesday his movement is ending its rebellion after more than a year and a half as the Congolese military seized the last two hills that had been held by the fighters.

The group will seek to resolve its grievances through “political means only,” said M23 President Bertrand Bisimwa.

Bisimwa ordered rebels to “prepare troops for the process of disarmament, demobilization and social reintegration on terms to be agreed upon with the Congolese government.”.

– From news service reports

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