Several voting rights groups filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of Ohio Thursday demanding that Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell preserve the paper ballots from the 2004 presidential election , just two days before federal law allows states to destroy the ballots. The voting rights groups, including the Ohio Voter Rights Alliance [...]

An attorney for US Army Sgt. Ricky Clousing , an Iraq war veteran, said Thursday that his client will face a desertion charge at a special court-martial stemming from his June 2005 defection from Fort Bragg . Clousing, who has said he refuses to participate in a war with "no legal basis to be fought," [...]

New Orleans Parish criminal court Judge Arthur Hunter Thursday deferred a threatened review of prisoner records in anticipation of release which he earlier said he would begin on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina Tuesday. Instead, Hunter said that New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan must sort through the backlog of an estimated 6,000 pending [...]

California's State Assembly passed the nation's first bill to restrict greenhouse gas emissions Thursday, by a vote of 46-31. The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 grants new authority to the California Air Resources Board to set specific emission targets for various industries and set fees to raise money for new emission reduction initiatives. The [...]

The UN Security Council passed a resolution Thursday authorizing the deployment of UN peacekeeping troops to the Darfur region of Sudan under the authority of the current UN Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) . The new peacekeeping force will replace the current African Union force whose mandate is set to expire September 30. The resolution [...]

Margarita Lopez Torres et al. v. New York State Board of Elections et al., United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, August 27, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Implementation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons safeguards agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran, International Atomic Energy Agency, August 31, 2006 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Israeli military court trying Palestinian parliament speaker Aziz Dweik and 18 Hamas cabinet ministers on charges of membership in a terrorist organization adjourned Thursday after granting defense lawyers two days to prepare arguments on diplomatic immunity . The defense, which asked for an eight-day extension, contends that the officials should be shielded from prosecution [...]

Former Argentine President Raul Alfonsin has testified that amnesty laws preventing prosecution for human rights abuses during the so-called Dirty War of the late 1970s and early 80s helped to prevent rebellion during the transition from military rule to democracy. Nevertheless, Alfonsin said he "felt pained in enacting the laws" and was "relieved" when the [...]

The Bangladesh High Court on Thursday confirmed the death sentences that a trial court imposed in May on seven Islamic militants who murdered two judges in a bombing last year. The men include the leaders of two banned groups: Shayek Abdur Rahman of Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) , which wants to turn Bangladesh into an [...]