[JURIST] Senior UN official Jan Pronk told the UN Security Council Thursday that unless African Union troops enter the Sudan's Darfur region soon, the entire region might fall into anarchy. Pronk, the UN envoy for Darfur, said that rebels were gaining territory and the whole region may soon see "a total collapse of law and order." Reuters has more. Read Pronk's briefing to the UN here.

[JURIST] Hollywood studio officials said Thursday that they will begin to file hundreds of lawsuits against individuals who file share pirated movies over the internet. According to MPAA head Dan Glickman, the decision to file lawsuits was not easy, but he hopes a preemptive strike will prevent online file sharing of movies from spinning out of control. The MPAA estimates that the industry loses over $3 million per year because of illegal movie piracy. The lawsuits, to be filed in late November, would seek civil penalties up to $30,000 per download and up to $150,000 for willful infringement. AP has more. The MPAA has its policy against anti-piracy online.

[JURIST] A man once ranked as the eighth-most prolific spammer in the world by Internet watchdog Spamhaus has been sentenced to nine years in a Virginia prison for sending hundreds of thousands of unwanted e-mail messages. Jeremy Jaynes, the first person indicted under Virginia's felony anti-spam law, had been charged with four counts for sending more than 10,000 unwanted e-mails per day. His sister, who assisted him, was fined $7500. Though both are North Carolina residents, Virginia's long-arm statute granted the state jurisdiction because the pair used servers located in Virginia to route their messages. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] One North Carolina electronic voting machine is thought to have lost more than 4,500 votes, which could affect the result in several local races; election officials have said that the manufacturer, UniLect, told them that each machine could handle 10,500 votes, but the actual storage capacity was closer to 3000 votes. AP has more. Meanwhile, election-related lawsuits are still in play in several swing states. The ACLU is backing a suit by Florida voters who received their absentee ballots too late to vote; see the ACLU site for details or read the full complaint here [PDF]. Tom Daschle filed suit in a South Dakota federal court alleging harassment of Native Americans at that state's polling places, winning an injunction [PDF] on election day, and the Ohio Democratic Party has sued the Secretary of State, claiming that a dearth of voting machines caused lines so long that many voters left before casting their votes. Read the full complaint here [PDF].

[JURIST] Senior aides said today that controversial Attorney General John Ashcroft was likely to step down before January's inauguration, citing exhaustion and stress. Possible replacements include Ashcroft's former deputy, Larry Thompson, who would become the first African-American attorney general; Marc Racicot, Bush's campaign manager; and White House general counsel Alberto Gonzales. AP has more.

[JURIST] In the wake of Tuesday's election, which saw 11 states ban gay marriage, two Oklahoma lesbian couples have filed a federal lawsuit challenging both their state's ban and the federal Defense of Marriage act. The plaintiffs--one couple that has cohabited for eight years and another that was joined in a Vermont civil union in 2001--argue that the state ban violates equal protection and due process rights. In addition to those issues, an analysis by the Washington, D.C. Ballot Initiative Strategy Center suggests that the gay-marriage bans in Oklahoma, Ohio and Georgia may all be vulnerable to the same challenge that caused Louisiana's ban to be struck down last month, in that the ballot question addressed more than one issue. For further insight into the position of Oklahoma legislators on the issue of same-sex marriage, read this resolution introduced in response to the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage in that state, and the House bill that led to the ballot initiative. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Republican lawmaker expected to head the Senate Judiciary Committee early next year has issued a stern warning to President Bush against appointing Supreme Court justices who would seek to overturn abortion rights, or who are otherwise too conservative to sit on the high court. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), a moderate Republican who will likely take over the Judiciary Committee's top spot from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), spoke Thursday of Senate Democrats' recent success in blocking the president's conservative judicial appointments, saying that he expects Bush "to be mindful of those considerations". Sen. Specter also lamented what he calls a lack of judicial heavyweights on the current Supreme Court. AP has more.

[JURIST] Taiwan's High Court ended seven months of debate and controversy Thursday by refusing to nullify the country's March presidential election, rejecting opposition claims of fraud and complaints about a shooting that injured President Chen Shui-bian just one day before his narrow victory. The investigations associated with the challenge placed a substantial test before one of Asia's youngest democracies, as the election was the only the third time Taiwan has directly elected its leader. AP has the more. The Taipei Times has local coverage, including information on public security concerns in Taipei City following the court's ruling.

[JURIST] CBC News is reporting that, according to reports on Israeli television, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has died in Paris. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the succession process detailed in the Palestinian Constitution.

UPDATE: According to the latest updates from Haaertz, the spokesman from the French hospital where Arafat has received treatment has said that Arafat's medical situation is complex, but that Arafat has not died. Additionally, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia has denied reports of Arafat's death. However, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker confirmed that Arafat died Thursday morning. AP has more on the hospital's denial of the report.

Haaertz has more on Israeli reaction to news that Arafat was near death. For more on issues surrounding the succession process, CBS has background, as does UPI (here).

UPDATE: Luxembourg PM retracts statement on Arafat's death, calling it a "misunderstanding". Doctors at the Paris hospital where Arafat was rushed on Friday continue to deny his death, but now report that the gravely ill Palestinian leader has slipped into a coma. AP has more.

[JURIST] Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who is on trial for last year's hotel bombing in Bali, has called his trial a joke Thursday, saying that the US and Australia are masterminding his trial. Bashir, who is alleged to be the spiritual leader of militant Islamic network Jemaah Islamiah, faces multiple charges including conspiring, planning and inciting acts of terrorism, using his position to influence and persuade others and withholding information. Presenting their opening arguments, Bashir's defense lawyers called the charges against Bashir a "legal fiction." Channel NewsAsia has more. AFP has more on Bashir's Thursday court appearance.

Previously on JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Indonesian cleric goes on trial for hotel bombing
• Indonesia indicts cleric for 2003 hotel bombing
• Indonesian cleric to be charged in terror case
• Indonesian court allows detention of terror suspect
• Indonesian court hears request to free terror suspect from custody
• Indonesian terror suspect files suit over arrest
• Indonesian high court rules anti-terror law cannot be applied retroactively

[JURIST] Lawyers for convicted DC sniper John Allen Muhammad have told the Virginia Supreme Court that Muhammad cannot be sentenced to death because he did not pull the trigger in the 2002 killings. As reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, Muhammad received the death penalty after being convicted of two counts of capital murder. In arguments before the state high court, defense lawyer Peter Greenspun argued that the Virginia law allows the death penalty only for triggerman in cases like Muhammad's. Prosecutors have said that Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo formed a sniper team and are equally culpable. The Virginia Supreme Court has briefs filed in the appeal. AP has more.

[JURIST] Florida's Supreme Court is considering whether to restore a $145 billion class action verdict awarded to sick Florida smokers in their suit against the tobacco industry. After the two-year trial, Florida's 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled that its early certification of the case as a class action on behalf of 300,000 to 700,000 ill Floridians was a mistake and tossed out the $145 billion award. Lawyers for the plaintiffs told the state Supreme Court that it should reduce the award amount if the justices think it necessary, but that the appellate court decision to overturn the verdict and punitive judgment should be reversed. Lawyers for the tobacco industry say that "this case exemplifies the chaos that can result from improperly certified class actions." Watch recorded video and read a transcript of Wednesday's oral arguments. The Florida Supreme Court has briefs and other case documents. AP has more. JURIST's Paper Chase has background.

[JURIST] Elections officials will begin counting provisional ballots Thursday in Ohio and around the country. Due to John Kerry's concession speech Wednesday (reported here on JURIST's Paper Chase) and President Bush's acceptance speech (text from the White House), the ballots will not impact the presidential election, but could still affect the results of other races. AP has more on Ohio's provisional ballots. The Sun-Sentinel has more on vote counting in Florida. The Albuquerque Journal has more on the situation in New Mexico.... Lawyers in Florida are calling for major election reform in the state, saying that problems during Tuesday's voting could have led to a protracted legal battle if the contest between Bush and Kerry had been closer. Problems reported in Florida include absentee ballots not being sent to out-of-state voters, improper challenges of voters, malfunctioning touch-screen voting machines and illegal demands that voters show two forms of identification before casting their ballot. The Miami Daily Business Review has more.... Critics of electronic voting machines are saying that problems reported during Tuesday's elections are a fraction of those that occurred and that voters may have miscast ballots without knowing there was a problem. E-Commerce Times has more.... This wraps up JURIST's daily round-up of law-related stories relating to the election. Paper Chase will, of course, continue to cover ongoing developments as they happen.

[JURIST] Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Thursday, Nov. 4.

C-SPAN's Washington Journal takes a look at how President Bush's election victory could shape the Supreme Court over his next term. Watch a live webcast beginning at 7:45 AM ET (via C-SPAN).

The US House and Senate are in recess until Tuesday, Nov. 16.

At the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, a status conference will be held for the trial of Mitar Rasevic and the the Enver Hadzihasanovic and Amir Kubura trial continues. Watch a webcast of the conference beginning at 9:30 AM ET (3:30 AM local time). The webcast is on a 30-minute delay for witness protection purposes. ICTY has background on the Rasevic trial and the Hadzihasanovic and Kubura trial.