JOPLIN, Mo. - A seventh grader who opened fire at a middle school will be one of the youngest suspects ever tried as an adult in Missouri, resulting in a legal response that straddles two courts.

Thomas White is accused of taking an assault rifle to Joplin Memorial Middle School on Oct. 9 and pointing it at administrators, teachers and students before firing a shot into the ceiling.

He then allegedly repeatedly tried to shoot Principal Stephen Gilbreth as Gilbreth ushered him out of the school. Police said the rifle jammed because of the improper setting of an ammunition clip in the gun. No one was wounded.

White dressed in a trench coat, camouflage pants and a crudely fashioned mask the day of the incident. He allegedly had a pellet gun, a Marine Corps manual and a map of a Kansas park campground in his backpack, authorities have said.

At White's certification hearing in December, juvenile officer April Foulkes recommended he be tried as an adult because of the seriousness of his alleged offense and the threat it posed to the community.

White, now 14, is charged with first-degree assault, armed-criminal action and attempted escape. He is being held at the Jasper County Jail, awaiting a preliminary hearing. His bond is set at $250,000.

He is one of the youngest offenders ever to be certified as an adult in the state. Three St. Louis girls, two age 14 and one 13, were tried as adults in a 2004-2005 murder case.

Missouri enacted a new juvenile crime law in 1995. The state based its policies on a philosophy that young offenders were not fully developed criminals and could be changed, said Tom Breedlove, the Division of Youth Services deputy director.

Before 1995, an offender had to be 14 or older to be certified for trial as an adult. Like many other states, Missouri lowered the age to 12 for any felony and eliminated a minimum age for the most serious violent crimes.

Judges now must hold adult-certification hearings for any juvenile accused of murder, rape, sodomy, first-degree assault, first-degree robbery or drug trafficking, and for any young offender with two prior felonies. The judge is allowed to decide whether the case should remain in juvenile court.

In White's case, if he is convicted, he faces an approach to juvenile crime known as blended sentencing and a state program involving dual courts' jurisdiction.

Foulkes said if White were to be adjudicated as a juvenile, the court's options would be limited to placing him on probation or committing him to DYS.

Brent Buerck, senior program administrator with DYS, said young offenders sentenced under the dual-jurisdiction program can actually be kept up to the age of 21. The program first began in 1996 and saw its first releases in 1999.

"With the dual jurisdictions, 83 percent of the kids who have successfully completed the program are not in prison," Buerck said.

The Netherlands Justice Ministry has extradited Dutch citizen Wasem al Delaema to the US for his role in attempted killings of US soldiers in Iraq during October 2003, according to the Ministry on Saturday. The extradition follows a ruling by the Appeals Court in The Hague that al Delaema could be extradited for the terror attacks, saying the Court expected the US to observe the prisoner's rights. The US Dept. of Justice (DOJ) asserts that al Delaema will face trial in federal district court rather than a military commission and that he potentially may serve any sentence in the Netherlands, which could be a maximum of life imprisonment. Al Delaema's trial will be the first for a person accused of terrorist activities in Iraq during the war in that country.

Dutch authorities captured al Delaema in the Netherlands in May 2005. The DOJ charged al Delaema in July 2005 after he was seen on a videotape obtained by Dutch prosecutors showing the insurgency group Fighters of Fallujah how to set landmines near US military routes; however, al Delaema claims he was forced to appear on the videotape after being beaten. Al Delaema was indicted in September 2005 on four conspiracy charges in addition to several charges related to possession and training in the use of explosives.

The decision late Thursday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that it was improper for the EPA to let power plants circumvent environmental laws - for instance, restocking polluted water with new fish instead of paying to upgrade their technology.

It said the EPA's decisions must "be driven by technology, not cost," unless two technologies produce essentially the same benefits but have much different costs.

"EPA's goal is to protect fish and the ecosystem while meeting the nation's need for reliable energy sources," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, the agency's assistant administrator for water. The agency was reviewing the decision, he said.

The ruling drew praise from environmental groups and six states that had sued.

The American Civil Liberties Union is urging a federal appellate court to continue its challenge to the Bush administration's domestic spying program.

The Bush administration appealed to the court after a federal judge in Detroit ruled the program was unconstitutional.

But the administration now says the case is moot and should be dismissed since the surveillance is monitored by a secret court.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said the judges who oversee the program are reviewing applications to spy on people believed to be linked to al-Qaida, and there is no longer any controversy.

But the A-C-L-U says the administration might return to surveillance outside the secret panel without a court order against it.

Spain Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos argued for an expanded European constitution in his opening statement at the “Friends of the EU Constitution” summit that got under way in Madrid Friday. The summit is only open to delegates from the 18 countries that already have ratified the constitution, as well as delegates from Ireland and Portugal, where ratification is strongly supported and seems likely, and seeks to find ways to convince countries that have not ratified the constitution to do so. Moratinos advocated a more comprehensive constitution that could address topics such as immigration, climate change, and defense.

While most summit delegates argued against modifying the constitution, others agreed with Moratinos, and said that the current text is at the threshold for being so minimalist that any further reductions would destroy the worth of the document entirely. Of the countries that have not ratified the current text, several have advocated significant reductions.

State lawmakers, governors, and privacy advocates have express concerns about implementing the federal law, with many objecting to the expensive undertaking required for state compliance and privacy concerns associated with the federal requirements. In December 2005, the National Governor's Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, collectively released a report concluding that states are unprepared to implement the law and may need up to eight years to acquire the resources and time to successfully enact the legislation.