Families of USS Cole victims seek reopening of lawsuit against Sudan News
Families of USS Cole victims seek reopening of lawsuit against Sudan

[JURIST] Lawyers representing the families of 17 US Navy personnel killed in the 2000 al Qaeda attack [US DOD inquiry report; JURIST news archive] on the USS Cole [official website] have filed court papers asking US District Judge Robert G. Doumar of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia [official website] to reopen their lawsuit against the government of Sudan, according to Monday media reports. The families say they will be able to recover additional damages in the case since US President George W. Bush signed the Justice for Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism Act (S 1944) [text] into law on January 28. The Act allows victims of future and prior terrorism-related attacks, excluding those involving Iraq, to seek punitive damages for pain, suffering and emotional distress.

In July, Doumar ordered the government of Sudan to pay $7.96 million in compensation [JURIST report] to the families of the Cole victims, but said he could not award the $105 million sought by the families for pain and suffering as the federal Death on the High Seas Act [text] limited compensation to only economic damages. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.