NATO troops Friday arrested former Bosnian Serb policeman Dusan Tesic for allegedly assisting suspected war crimes fugitives. NATO believes Tesic has information on a network that helps fugitives evade the law. NATO did not release the names of those Tesic is believed to have aided; he was previously detained for questioning regarding Bosnian-Serb leaders Radovan [...]

Puerto Rican election authorities have announced Anibal Acevedo Vila, the Popular Democratic Party's candidate, as the country's new governor following a recount of the November 2nd election. The election results are expected to be officially certified on Tuesday. Acevedo Villa won by 3,228 votes from the nation's 4 million residents. As reported previously in JURIST's [...]

Republicans in Washington state Friday asked county auditors to reconsider ballots that were rejected on election day in the state's tight race for governor, a quick move in the wake of Thursday's final recount tally that awarded the race to Democrat Christine Gregoire by 130 votes. Republican candidate Dino Rossi said Thursday that Washingtonians deserve [...]

Signed into law by President Bush December 23, 2004 . Read the full text of the Act here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein's former deputy prime minister and foreign minister, has denied that Iraq used the UN oil-for-food program to extort billions of dollars according to lawyer Badih Aref, speaking Friday for Aziz after having been allowed to meet him for the first time Thursday in Baghdad. Aref quoted Aziz as saying: We used [...]

A Beijing court spokesman announced Friday that the court had ruled against the Chongqing Lifan Industry Group, which must stop selling lookalike Honda brand motorbikes and must pay the Japanese Honda Motor Company 1.47 million yuan ($177,600 USD) in compensation. Analysts say that China is taking a tougher stand on intellectual property rights and, in [...]

President Bush has signed into law a bill that permits the imposition of US sanctions on Sudan in response to the violence in Darfur, which the US has on several occasions characterized as genocide. The legislation, passed by Congress in early December, also freezes Sudanese assets and applies a US travel ban against Sudanese leaders. [...]

Russian state oil company Rosneft announced Thursday that it had bought 100% of Baikal Finance Group, the mysterious entity that last weekend purchased the production arm of Russian oil giant Yukos for over $9B despite temporary restraining order from a US bankruptcy court. The Rosneft purchase effectively expropriates the core of Yukos, from which the [...]

After hearing two days of oral argument on the constitutionality of California same-sex marriages, Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer asked Thursday for written arguments to be submitted to him by January 14. After submission, he will have up to 90 days to make a ruling in the case, which could take it into April and [...]

Ellen Podgor, Georgia State University College of Law: "AP wires report that Former Governor Rowland of Connecticut pled guilty to one count of conspiracy with the specific offense being a deprivation of honest services. The AP story notes that "he plea deal ends the two-year-long investigation into corruption in the administration of Rowland, who resigned [...]