The filing marked the first time prosecutors at the world's first permanent, global war crimes court have issued charges against a sitting head of state.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked a three-judge panel at the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir to prevent more deaths. Some 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes in Darfur and are still under attack from government-backed janjaweed militia.

"Genocide is a crime of intention — we don't need to wait until these 2.5 million die," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Moreno-Ocampo was undeterred by concern that his indictment against al-Bashir might lead to vengeance against Darfur refugees and the closing of Sudan's doors to relief agencies and possibly peacekeeping troops.

The oldest two justices — half the court's liberal wing — top the list of those considered likely to retire during the next presidential administration. Despite Stevens' and Ginsburg's apparent vigor, change on the Supreme Court is more likely than not over the next four years.

"One would think that over the course of the next four years the actuarial tables would catch up with the oldest members, as they do for us all," said Pepperdine University law professor Douglas Kmiec.

With five justices 70 or older by the time the court meets again in October, interest groups and commentators have been talking about the court's role in the presidential election. One change on a court that divides 5-4 in key cases can alter the results.

But their forecasts depend on three factors: Who wins the presidency, who leaves the court and who is appointed.

Democrat Barack Obama would most likely be replacing liberal justices with like-minded successors. Republican John McCain could get the chance to fulfill a campaign pledge and put a conservative justice on the court in the mold of Chief Justice John Roberts or Justice Samuel Alito.

Alito, among President George W. Bush's two selections, repeatedly has demonstrated the difference one justice can make on a closely divided court. The result in disputes over abortion, religion and school desegregation almost certainly would have been different had Sandra Day O'Connor not retired in 2006.

"Given the likely retirements, the next election probably will determine whether the court gets more conservative or stays ideologically the same," said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at University of California, Irvine.

The Supreme Court rarely becomes a big issue in the presidential campaign and this year — with $4-a-gallon gas, steep declines in the stock market and two wars — appears to be no exception.

The one case decided recently that could have elevated the court's importance in the campaign came out in favor of Americans' gun rights, placating the highly energized and politically effective gun rights groups.

If the case "had come out the other way, we'd be having a very different conversation," Thomas Goldstein, a Supreme Court watcher and advocate, told a Federalist Society meeting a week after the guns decision.

The unpredictably of Supreme Court retirements is another reason why the court rarely becomes an issue in presidential campaigns.

What if the justices decide to grow even older together?

It has happened before. Nine of the last 10 justices who retired or died in office were at least 75; six of those were 79 or older.

No one left the court during President Carter's four years in office, President Clinton's second term or Bush's first.

On the other hand, six justices ranging in age from 76 to 85 stepped down between 1986 and 1994, spanning three presidencies.

Bush had two appointments in the space of three months in 2005. He filled them with two men in their 50s, Roberts and Alito.

Goldstein predicts only Stevens will retire during the next four years and not before he surpasses Oliver Wendell Holmes — who stepped down two months shy of his 91st birthday, in 1932 — to become the oldest sitting justice. That would happen in February 2011.

Goldstein's views shifted as he watched the court over the past year. He used to expect the retirement of three justices — Stevens, Ginsburg and Justice David Souter. Though only 68, Souter has made no secret that he prefers New Hampshire to Washington and intends to return there someday.

But justices find it hard to leave the court unless they're in poor health, Goldstein said.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist didn't retire even after he was diagnosed with cancer. His death in 2005 created the second vacancy for Bush.

The FEC convened for the first time in more than six months, a period of inactivity caused by a confirmation standoff in the Senate.

With four of six commissioners new to their jobs, the FEC faces a backlog of work that has accumulated during an election year marked by a hard-fought and financially record-breaking presidential campaign.

Among the top issues the FEC must sort through are a Supreme Court decision invalidating a campaign finance law that governs congressional contests involving wealthy candidates who spend large sums of their own money. It also is behind schedule in writing rules addressing candidate air travel as well as new rules on lobbyist fundraisers.

McGahn, general counsel to the National Republican Congressional Committee since 1999, also represented former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, on a number of federal campaign finance related matters. DeLay is awaiting trial in Texas on unrelated state campaign finance charges.

Watchdog groups such as Common Cause opposed McGahn's nomination, citing his association with DeLay.

But McGahn also had support from Democrats, including campaign election lawyer Robert Bauer, who is counseling Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected condemned inmate Christopher Scott Emmett's argument that Virginia's procedure was unconstitutional.

Emmett's lawyers claimed the procedure risks substantial harm because it does not allow for a second dose of anesthesia to make sure an inmate is unconscious before paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs are injected.

The appeals court said there is no evidence that the first dose of anesthesia has ever failed to render an inmate unconscious.

The ruling came on the day another Virginia inmate — Kent Jermaine Jackson — was executed by lethal injection for killing his 79-year-old neighbor. The 26-year-old Jackson, sentenced to death for the 2000 killing of Beulah Mae Kaiser, was pronounced dead at 9:18 p.m.

Emmett is scheduled to be executed July 24 for the 2001 bludgeoning death of a co-worker in Danville.

The appeals court said Virginia's protocol for administering the three-drug concoction is "largely identical" to that of Kentucky, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in April.

The three-member panel of judges threw out the government's appeal in the case in which a watchdog group is trying to find out how often prominent religious conservatives visited the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's residence.

Despite the ruling against the White House, the decision does not necessarily mean that visitor logs will be subject to public disclosure.

The White House can still raise a variety of legal arguments in an attempt to keep the identities of White House visitors secret.

But appeals court Judge David Tatel said the document request from the private group is narrowly drawn and can be processed.

The document request from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington would not require the president, Cheney or their staffs to sort through mountains of files, said Tatel.

Investment firms didn't draw such loans for the week ending July 9. They borrowed just $1.7 billion in the previous week ending July 2, down from $6.1 billion in the week before that. Such borrowing rose as high as $38.1 billion in early April.

The Fed opened its emergency program to investment firms on March 17.

At that time, the investment houses were given similar loan privileges as commercial banks after a run on Bear Stearns pushed the nation's fifth-largest investment bank to the brink of bankruptcy. The situation raised fears that other Wall Street firms might be in jeopardy. Bear Stearns was eventually taken over by JPMorgan Chase in a deal that involved the Fed's financial backing.

Banks, meanwhile, averaged $12.9 billion in daily borrowing over the past week. That compared with $14.9 billion in the previous week.

The identities of commercial banks and investment houses are not released.

In the broadest use of the central bank's lending power since the 1930s, the Fed in March scrambled to avert a market meltdown by giving investment houses a place to go for emergency overnight loans. The program will continue for at least six months. Commercial banks and investment companies now pay 2.25 percent in interest for the loans.

Separately, as part of efforts to relieve credit strains, the Fed auctioned $21.3 billion in Treasury securities to investment companies Thursday.

The auction drew bids for less than the $25 billion the Fed was making available, which was viewed as possible sign of some improvements in credit conditions.

In exchange for the 28-day loans of Treasury securities, bidding companies can put up as collateral more risky investments. These include certain mortgage-backed securities and bonds secured by federally guaranteed student loans.

The auction program, which began March 27, is intended to make investment companies more inclined to lend to each other. A second goal is providing relief to the distressed market for mortgage-linked securities and for student loans.