In Thursday's international brief, Savo Todovic, former deputy commander of the Serb-run Foca concentration camp , was officially charged at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on Wednesday. The indictment alleges a combination of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and breaches of the Geneva Convention, for a total of 18 charges. Todovic was [...]

Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko will be sworn in as the new Ukrainian president at noon on Sunday. The Ukrainian Parliament voted to approve a Sunday ceremony after the country's Supreme Court rejected an appeal by former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych , saying there was not enough evidence to support his claim that millions of people [...]

A UK government spokesman announced Thursday that the court-martial of three British soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi civilians has been "halted" at the request of the defense. The soldiers, from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers , are accused of using civilians to simulate sex and violence. The case is similar to one involving the abuse [...]

Pre-trial motions in a lawsuit brought by Washington Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi contesting the 129-vote victory of Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire in a hand recount begin Thursday. The case, which gets under way in heavily Republican Chelan County, will most likely reach the state Supreme Court, which has ruled on election-related issues several times [...]

Chief Justice William Rehnquist will swear in President Bush for his second term at Noon Thursday during the 55th Presidential Inaugural Ceremony . Rehnquist, battling thyroid cancer since October, has missed Supreme Court sessions for the past three months while receiving chemotherapy and radiation. Chief Justices, who are traditionally asked to swear in the president, [...]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Thursday, Jan. 20. The 55th Presidential Inaugural Ceremony will be held today, beginning at 11:30 AM ET as Vice President Dick Cheney takes the oath of office. President Bush will be sworn in at 12 PM ET. View a schedule [...]

Written answers to questions posed by Senate Judiciary Committee members in connection with the nomination of Alberto Gonzales for US Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, January 19, 2005 . Review answers to questions by Senators Biden, Coburn, Durbin (Part I;II), Feingold, Feinstein, Graham, Grassley, Hatch, Kennedy (Part I;II;III), Kohl, Leahy, Levin, Schumer, Sessions and Specter. Reported [...]

Khalid v. Bush and Boumediene v. Bush, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Judge Richard Leon, January 19, 2005 . Excerpt: Thus, to the extent these non-resident detainees have rights, they are subject to both the military review process already in place and the laws Congress has passed defining the appropriate scope [...]

The US District Court for the Middle District of Florida Wednesday upheld a federal law allowing states to ban same-sex marriages. The ruling is believed to be the first to formally uphold the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act . The case arose from the claims of two women who wanted their Massachusetts same-sex marriage acknowledged [...]

Defense lawyers representing 12 Kuwaiti nationals detained in Guantanamo Bay said Wednesday that their clients looked emaciated and had complained of abuse, including physical abuse, torture and humiliation. The attorneys, Kristine Huskey and Thomas Wilner, made the observations after their first interviews with the detainees since the US Supreme Court ruled in Rasul v. Bush [...]