[JURIST] Updating an earlier story on JURIST's Paper Chase, a federal judge late Tuesday denied the request of third-party candidates for a full recount of Ohio presidential ballots before the state had certified the election results. Judge James G. Carr in Toledo wrote that he sees no reason why the recount, to which the candidates are entitled under state law, cannot wait until Ohio has completed its official count. State officials expect to certify the results by December 6. AP has more. Election Law @ Moritz from Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law has posted the court filings in the case.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that media conglomerate Viacom has agreed to pay a record $3.5 million to settle FCC allegations of indecency on its radio and television stations.

6:15 PM ET - The complete FCC order [PDF] is now available online. Read an FCC press release [PDF]. Statements from the commissioners are available here. AP has more.

[JURIST] Malaysia's second-highest court has upheld a teacher's decision to expel three Muslim boys for wearing turbans to school. The ruling overturns an earlier ruling that any school's ban on turbans violated the right to freedom of religion. The Court of Appeal judge Gopal Sri Ram held courts have no place getting involved in disputes between students and school principals. The Malaysian government does not allow overt religious symbols in its schools in an effort to prevent friction among the country's different religious groups and to discourage the spread of conservative Islam. Exceptions are made as Sikh students may wear turbans and Muslim girls may wear a headscarf. The opposition Islamic party, Pas, denounced the decision, saying the government would not be practicing religious tolerance if it supports the students' expulsion and likened the ban to the French headscarf ban. The turban worn by the boys is not part of local Muslim costume but is typically worn by those who have studied religious schools abroad and those who support Pas. BBC has more.

[JURIST] Two third-party presidential candidates have filed a federal lawsuit in the US District Court in Toledo to force a recount in Ohio. The candidates are not interested in overturning President Bush's victory but instead are concerned with continuing reports of voter irregularities. Dan Trevas, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party, said the party intends to join the recount request after the secretary of state certified the results, which is expected on December 6. Keith Cunningham, director of the Allen County Board of Elections and incoming president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials, feels the lawsuit is frivolous and is considering mobilizing counties around the state to resist any recount. Read the Ohio Democratic Party's press release announcing the intention to seek a recount here. Read the complaint in Anita Rios v. Blackwell here [PDF] and other important documents related to the lawsuit here. AP has more.

[JURIST] The EU has delayed a vote to take place later this week on a proposed law governing when patents can be obtained for technological developments after Poland expressed some reservation over whether to support the law. The law, known as the software patent directive, seeks to establish uniformity on patent laws across the EU, but Poland signaled doubts about the proposal because it could allow patents on software, which has been opposed by all. A vote was scheduled during the meeting of the Competitiveness Council in Brussels later this week, but it will likely be delayed until sometime in December. Software developers have also sought to block patents on programs. The proposed law was agreed to by EU member states in May. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] The judge who will rule on whether to suspend an EU antitrust order against Microsoft pending its appeal has called a meeting between the parties for Thursday after two supporters of the EU case withdrew. Judge Bo Vesterdorf called the closed-door meeting to discuss "procedural matters," but sources suggested that the meeting would center on the impact of Microsoft settlements with Novell Inc. and the Computer and Communications Industry Association earlier this month, prompting them to withdrawl support for the EU. The case, before the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, will decide whether Microsoft must comply with an EU antitrust order while it is on appeal. JURIST's Paper Chase has extensive coverage of Microsoft's legal battles with the EU. AP has more.

[JURIST] A retired judge appointed to handle the dispute of election results in the San Diego mayor's race said he will not order the count certain flawed write-in ballots and will not stop the results from being certified. In the election dispute, incumbent Mayor Dick Murphy leads city Councilwoman Donna Frye by 2,205 votes. However, Frye, who ran a last-minute write-in campaign, sought to include about 4,000 ballots on which voters failed to fill in a bubble next to her name. Helgesen said he would not order registrar's office to count those ballots. Helgesen also said he would not block the certification of results, essentially finalizing the victory claimed by Murphy on Friday unless Frye chooses to appeal. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the dispute. AP has more.

1:25 PM ET - From San Diego, the Union-Tribune has local coverage of the ruling.

[JURIST] Following up on an international story reported earlier on JURIST's Paper Chase, Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko appeared before opposition members of parliament Tuesday and declared himself president in the wake of a disputed election. Yuschenko read the oath of office before a 200,000-strong crowd of supporters gathered outside parliament. Official results of the election indicated a narrow victory for Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, but exit polls showed a much wider margin in favor of Yushchenko. Yushchenko declared a campaign of civil disobedience, while international response was mixed with some observers citing fraud and Russia recognizing a Yanukovych victory. AP has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's former driver and alleged al Qaeda member, have asked the US Supreme Court to hear their challenge to the government's strategy in holding military commissions for detainees at Guantanamo Bay. In a ruling handed down earlier this month, US District Judge James Robertson blocked Hamdan's trial, saying that the government must first determine that the detainees are not prisoners of war before putting them on trial. Judge Robertson also ruled that the detainees are entitled to more legal rights and that the guidelines for the trials must be changed. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia agreed to hear the Justice Department's appeal of the ruling on a fast-track schedule, but the Supreme Court has now been asked to hear the case first. Lawyers for Hamdan say that courts, alleged enemy combatants "and the world community stand to benefit from clear guidance as to how the United States may wage the legal war on terror in the future. Our country has a pressing need to know that those implicated in that war are being treated in the way the Constitution, our statutes, and the laws of war demand." AP has more.

Previously on JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Justice Department to appeal Guantanamo Bay military trial ruling
• BREAKING NEWS ~ Judge stops Guantanamo proceedings as unlawful
• Lawyer for bin Laden driver seeks Guantanamo hearing delay
• Guantanamo detainees face trial before military commission

[JURIST] In Tuesday's corporations and securities law news, American International Group Inc. (AIG) announced it has submitted a settlement offer to the SEC and reached an agreement with the Department of Justice over an investigation into the financial services company's dealings with PNC Financial Services Group and Brightpoint Inc. The SEC is specifically investigating whether AIG helped PNC commit accounting fraud. AIG already paid a $10 million fine to the SEC last year to settle allegations that it helped Brightpoint commit accounting fraud. Read the AIG press release here [PDF]. AP has more.

In other news, the SEC is reportedly close to settling with Time Warner over accounting questions at the media company's America Online unit. Time Warner would pay $750 million but will not have to admit or deny the allegations that AOL improperly pumped up its revenue and profit before and after buying Time Warner in 2001. AP has more.... Computer Associates International Inc. named IBM veteran John Swainson as its new president and chief executive. The move comes after an accounting scandal at the company which has led to charges being filed against many former executives. Computer Associates has a press release announcing the move here and a webcast in RealPlayer or Windows Media. AP has more.... McDonald's Corp. announced vice chairman Jim Skinner will take over as CEO as its former CEO, Charlie Bell, abruptly resigned to focus on his fight with colon cancer. Read the McDonald's press release here. AP has more.... Wal-Mart announced it has agreed to establish officially-sanctioned unions in its forty Chinese stores, but only after workers request to form one. Read Wal-Mart's stance on unions here. The Financial Times has more.... Russia's tax authorities have asked the Moscow Arbitration Court to uphold 72.04 billion rubles in fines it has levied against oil giant Yukos. Paper Chase has continuing coverage of the Yukos controversy. AP has more.

[JURIST] Presenting the legislative agenda for the 2004-2005 session of Parliament, the British government has pledged to introduce "legislation to increase security for all." In the Queen's speech, read Tuesday morning, proposals to create a "British FBI," introduce a national ID card system and extend the taking of DNA samples from prisoners were announced. A draft counter-terrorism bill, which is expected to include no-jury terrorism trials, was also included on the list of expected bills (JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the proposed counter-terrorism bill). The Serious Organised Crime Agency, modeled after the FBI, would replace several current agencies and would investigate drug and people trafficking, fraud and internet crimes. The Guardian has more on the Queen's speech and additional detail on the proposed FBI-style agency. The Guardian also has the full text of the Queen's speech and the main points of the speech from BBC News.

[JURIST] The International Conference on Iraq opened Tuesday in Egypt, addressing security concerns, election procedures, and the insurgency problems the fledgling democracy faces. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the world to support the election process in Iraq, as well as speed up the actual production of the $30 billion (USD) that has been promised for rebuilding in Iraq. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu al-Ghait, the conference host, began the day with a call for Iraq to allow as many individuals as possibleto participate in the upcoming vote. French foreign minister Michel Barnier also called for a time frame for the removal of coalition troops from Iraq, but the communique released by the conference at the end of the day was understood to not address this question. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on Iraq. Al-Jazeera has more.... Moscow has officially recognized Ukranian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych as the winner of the Sunday election for Ukranian President on Monday. The election has been hotly contested as rigged and rife with fraud. Supporters of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko protested the results and have gathered in the capital city of Kiev, with reports from Ukranian media outlets now putting their numbers over 100,000. The protestors have erected tents and have pledged to remain until the Ukranian Parliament undertakes an investigation into the allegations of fraud. As reported in JURIST's Paper Chase Monday, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has said that the elections failed to meet international standards. The official US observer, Senator Richard Lugar, has alleged a "concerted and forceful fraud" and the US State Department has warned that a failure to review the alleged fraud could result in a re-examination of the US's relations with Ukraine. Itar-Tass has more on Putin's recognition of Yanukovych. BBC News has more.... The UN Staff Union in Geneva passed a resolution Monday stating their strong support of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The resolution was in response to a draft statement prepared by the New York staff union that expressed dissapointment and concern with UN management in light of the recent Food-for-Oil and DRC sexual abuse scandals. Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, clarified that the resolution approved Friday, reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here, was critical of UN management, not Annan, and that rumors of Annan's resignation were "ridiculous" The UN News Centre has more.... The Office of the UN Secretary-General submitted a report Monday that cited the rise in the presence of illegal weapons on the streets of Haiti as the reason for the increasing unrest in the country. Annan urged the UN Security Council to expand the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti a further 18 months until the end of May, 2006 in light of the country's scheduled elections for February, 2006. The UN News Centre has more.... EU Defence Ministers announced Tuesday that they have approved a Rapid Reaction Force to be composed of French, Italian, British and Spanish troops. The RRF will be composed initially of four units of 1,500 troops. Other EU countries are expected to contribute troops at a later time. The RRF would be used to fill in for peacekeeping and humanitarian missions until a UN authorized force would be deployed. UK Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said that the RRF was not the beginning of a European standing army and that its deployment would be subject to approval from the EU. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Reacting to a new report concluding that federal enforcement of civil rights laws declined sharply during the Bush administration, a Justice Department spokesman has said that "this administration believes in and has vigorously enforced the criminal civil rights laws." The study, released by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, concluded that federal prosecutors filed charges for violations of civil rights laws against only 84 defendants in 2003, down from 159 in 1999. The Justice Department has called the numbers "incorrect," saying the actual number of defendants prosecuted last year was actually 151, up from the number of prosecutions in 1999. David Burnham, co-author of the TRAC report, said the research was based entirely on information provided under the Freedom of Information Act. AP has more. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the TRAC report.

[JURIST] Iraq's Interim Defense Minister Hazim Shaalan told Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat Tuesday that Saddam Hussein will go on trial for crimes against humanity before the end of the year. Shaalan also said that the deteriorating security situation in Iraq was impeding the collection of evidence against Saddam and other former Iraqi officials. Saddam will tried on war crimes and crimes against humanity charges by the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Aljazeera has more.

[JURIST] In response to last week's assassination of a top Venezuelan prosecutor, President Hugo Chavez has ordered government ministries to urgently devise and implement a plan to combat terrorism. Former police inspector Ivan Simonovis has been detained in the investigation of the assassination of Danilo Anderson, who was prosecuting a case against 400 political figures and business leaders who supported the April 2002 coup that unseated Chavez. Simonovis, who is also suspected of involvement in the 2002 coup, was seized by military intelligence agents as he tried to board a flight to the US Monday night. The Financial Times has more.

Previously on JURIST's Paper Chase...

• UPDATE ~ Chavez accuses US exiles of terror attack on top Venezuelan prosecutor
• Venezuelan bomb may have killed senior prosecutor

[JURIST] Lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights and the New York chapter of the National Lawyers Guild have filed a class action suit against New York city officials, saying the officials violated the constitutional rights of protestors by orchestrating massive arrests and detentions during the Republican National Convention. Initially filed on behalf of twenty-three people, the suit seeks a permanent ban on the use of mass arrests as a means of crowd control during political demonstrations. As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, the ACLU also filed two federal lawsuits last month over arrests made during the convention. Those suits allege that the New York police held those arrested longer than allowed and fingerprinted many who were only accused of minor crimes. Tuesday's Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] In Tuesday's environmental law news, signatories of the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer meet this week to discuss the progress that has been made in the reduction of ozone depleting substances (ODS). It is expected that at least 17 developed countries will ask for an extension of the final phase out day for methyl bromide, used in agriculture as a fumigant pesticide. Under the protocol, use of the chemical in developed countries has been held at 1995 levels, and is set for a total phase out on January 1, 2005. Developing countries have until 2015 to phase out the chemical. Background on the protocol is here. The Financial Times has more.

In other news, the San Francisco Commission on the Environment today will consider a proposal that would place a tax on grocery bags. The tax would help offset the cost to the city for the cleanup, disposal and recycling of plastic garbage bags. Many proponents of the tax are environmentalists who hope to cut down on the use of plastic bags which they view as environmentally unfriendly. The tax would increase the price of the currently free grocery bags to 17 cents a piece. If the proposal is approved by the Commission, it would have to be approved by the city's Board of Supervisors and the Mayor. USA Today has the full story....At a New Jersey state board meeting yesterday, environmentalists voiced their support for a proposal that would add carbon dioxide to the list of air pollutants to be regulated by the state's Department of Environmental Protection under the Air Pollution Control Act. Regulation of the gas has not occurred on the federal level, but New Jersey and 8 other northeastern states have declared their intent to regulate carbon dioxide in the region, setting emission levels and allowing the trade of pollution credits between industrial companies. New Jersey is expected to finalize the listing in the next few months. The NJ Star-Ledger has more.

[JURIST] Congress has approved a program that creates a federal copyright enforcement czar, as part of the omnibus spending bill passed over the weekend. Under the new legislation, the president can appoint a copyright law enforcement officer to coordinate federal agencies responsible for administering intellectual property law and law enforcement efforts to stop international copyright infringement. Additionally, the bill provides funding for the National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council, which was established in the early 1990s to set policies, objectives and priorities designed to protect American intellectual property overseas and to coordinate and oversee implementation of intellectual property law enforcement throughout the government. Reuters has more. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on an additional copyright reform bill passed by the Senate over the weekend.

[JURIST] Three UN workers who were kidnapped in Afghanistan while helping to conduct the recent Afghan presidential election were released unharmed Tuesday morning. As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, the hostage-takers had said they would release the UN workers in exchange for the release of 26 Afghan prisoners, some of whom are believed to be held at Guantanamo Bay. While the circumstances of their release are unclear, Afghanistan's Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said that "no prisoners were released, no money was paid, no demand was accepted" in order to secure the release of the hostages. BBC News has more.

Previously on JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Afghan hostage-takers focus on release of 26 prisoners
• Kidnappers of UN workers in Afghanistan demand release of prisoners

[JURIST] Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Tuesday, November 23.

The US House and Senate are in recess. The US House will reconvene on Monday, December 6 at 2 PM. The US Senate will reconvene on Tuesday, December 7 at 9:30 AM.

US Army General Paul Kern will give a speech on the investigation into Abu Ghraib prisoner treatment at the National Press Club. Watch a live webcast beginning at 1 PM ET (via C-SPAN).

The trial of Slobodan Milosevic continues Tuesday at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Watch a webcast of the trial beginning at 9:30 AM local time (3:30 AM ET); the webcast is on a 30-minute tape delay. The ICTY has background on the case.... Also Tuesday, the trial of Fatmir Limaj and his co-defendants continues at the ICTY. Watch a webcast beginning at 2:45 PM local time (8:45 AM ET); the webcast is on a 30-minute tape delay. The ICTY has case information.

At the United Nations, the General Assembly will meet at 10 AM ET to discuss the situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Watch a live webcast.

The British State Opening of Parliament for the 2004-2005 Session, featuring the Queen's Speech will begin at approximately 11:30 AM local time (6:30 AM ET). Watch a live webcast and read background on the opening of Parliament.