The woman stands close to a mirror fingering her throat. Then, sweeping back a mane of red hair, she injects heroin into her jugular vein. A nurse keeps an eye on her from behind.

The scene unfolds in North America's first and only legal injection site, promoted by its founders as a safe, humane facility for drug abusers, now facing a court challenge from a government that sees it as a facilitator of drug abuse.

Defenders of the taxpayer-funded site, in a seedy, drug-infested district of Vancouver, British Columbia, say it is a providing a form of health care, and that health care is a provincial matter under Canada's constitution. The federal government counters that its writ trumps provincial rights because heroin is a federally banned substance.

The case opens before the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa on Thursday, and has drawn international attention. Insite, as the Vancouver center is called, is the only facility of its kind in Canada. More could open if the top court agrees Insite is legal.

As of 2009, there were 65 injection facilities in 27 cities in Canada, Australia, and western Europe, according to the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The World Health Organization has called them a "priority intervention" in slowing the spread of AIDS via infected needles.

A homeless single mother charged with intentionally enrolling her son in the wrong Connecticut school district asked prosecutors on Wednesday to drop the case so school officials can handle the matter administratively.

Tanya McDowell deserves to be treated the same as 26 other families who were caught this year for doing the same thing in Norwalk schools, said her lawyer, Darnell Crosland.

The other out-of-town children who were put into Norwalk schools were sent back to their hometown districts, but none of their parents were arrested.

McDowell's case and another mother's nine-day incarceration recently in Ohio have raised questions about uneven enforcement of school residency rules nationwide, particularly as many school districts are cracking down in tight budget times.

In the Ohio case, nearly 50 out-of-town parents were caught sending their children to a high-performing suburban school district, but only an Akron resident — like McDowell, a low-income, black single mother — was criminally charged.

A top Pakistani court has ruled that President Asif Ali Zardari must relinquish his position as chief of the country's ruling party.

The Lahore High Court ruled on Thursday on a petition filed by a lawyer who had argued that Pakistan's constitution prohibits the president to also head a political party.

A spokeswoman for Zardari says she had not seen the ruling and declined comment.

It's unclear what impact the ruling will have, but it will likely to put Zardari on the defensive. His Pakistan's People's Party is seen as very unpopular and has struggled to keep its ruling coalition intact.

Zardari could ignore the ruling or appeal it, which could stretch out the proceedings for many more months.