A soldier acquitted of killing a mother and two of her young daughters in North Carolina about 25 years ago is now going on trial in military court after prosecutors say new DNA tests link him to the crimes.

Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis, 51, is charged with premeditated murder in the May 1985 stabbing deaths of Kathryn Eastburn and two of her daughters — 5-year-old Kara Sue and 3-year-old Erin Nicole. Opening statements in the court-martial are set for Wednesday and the death penalty trial could last up to two months, featuring 100 or more witnesses.

Hennis couldn't be tried again in civilian court so he was charged by the military, which can pursue the case because its court system is a different jurisdiction. Hennis retired from the Army in 2004 but was recalled to active duty to face charges.

Hennis, who had adopted the Eastburns' dog several days before the killings, was arrested four days after the bodies were found when a witness who reported seeing someone in the Eastburns' driveway late at night picked him out of a photo lineup.

The Supreme Court is getting involved in the legal fight over the anti-gay protesters who show up at military funerals with inflammatory messages like "Thank God for dead soldiers."

The court agreed Monday to consider whether the protesters' message, no matter how provocative and upsetting, is protected by the First Amendment. Members of a Kansas-based church have picketed military funerals to spread their belief that U.S. deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

The justices will hear an appeal from the father of a Marine killed in Iraq to reinstate a $5 million verdict against the protesters, after they picketed outside his son's funeral in Maryland.

A jury in Baltimore awarded Albert Snyder damages for emotional distress and invasion of privacy, but a federal appeals court threw out the verdict. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the signs contained "imaginative and hyperbolic rhetoric" protected by the First Amendment.

The U.S. military's highest court says it will review the conviction of an Army reservist who prosecutors said was the ringleader of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Former Cpl. Charles Graner Jr. was sentenced in 2005 to 10 years in prison for his role in the scandal.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington said Tuesday it will consider whether the trial judge erred by refusing to let jurors see memos approving "enhanced interrogation tactics" for detainees.

Graner, of Uniontown, Pa., was accused of stacking naked prisoners in a human pyramid and ordering them to masturbate while other soldiers took photographs. He also allegedly knocked out a prisoner with a punch to the head.

Five Americans facing charges for allegedly plotting attacks against Pakistan and its allies alleged they were tortured in custody, as a Pakistani court on Monday extended their detention.

The five young men were arrested in December on suspicion of trying to contact Al-Qaeda-linked groups, with police officials accusing them of trying to travel to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban against US and NATO troops.

"We are being tortured, we are being tortured," several of the men shouted in English from a prison van as it left a court in Sargodha town in eastern Pakistan after their hearing, which took place under tight security.

Jehangir Sarwar, a senior lawyer present in the courtroom, quoted one of the five men as complaining of "police excesses".

Sarwar, who was in the court as an observer and was not representing anyone, did not say which of the five men made the remark, while police officials denied that mistreatment was raised during the brief hearing.

"None of the five men said anything of the sort in the court. As far as I know, one of these men had a stomach problem," said Aamir Abbas, a local police official who worked on the case.

He said that the court extended judicial remand of the five men until February 2 when they will be produced again before the court.

A U.S. general in Iraq who listed pregnancy as a reason for court-martialing soldiers said Tuesday that he would never actually seek to jail someone over the offense, but wanted to underline the seriousness of the issue.

Last month, Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo issued a policy that would allow soldiers who become pregnant and their sexual partners to be court-martialed. But he appeared to back away from the policy in a conference call with reporters, saying the policy was intended to emphasize the problems created when pregnant soldiers go home and leave behind a weaker unit.

"I have never considered court-martial for this, I do not ever see myself putting a soldier in jail for this," said Cucolo, who oversees U.S. forces in northern Iraq. But since pregnant women automatically go home, their units are left short-staffed, he said.

"I need every soldier I've got," Cucolo said. "I need them for the entire duration of this deployment."

Cucolo commands a task force of 22,000 soldiers, which oversees northern Iraq, including cities such as Tikrit, Kirkuk and Mosul. He said he has 1,682 female soldiers.

As soon as the military knows a soldier is pregnant, she is immediately sent home.

A U.S. Army general in northern Iraq has added pregnancy to the list of reasons a soldier under his command could be court-martialed.

The new policy, outlined last month by Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo and released Friday by the Army, would apply to both female soldiers who become pregnant on the battlefield and the male soldiers who impregnate them.

Civilians reporting to Cucolo also could face criminal prosecution under the new guidelines.

Army spokesman George Wright said the service typically sends home from the battlefield soldiers who become pregnant. But it is not an Army-wide policy to punish them under the military's legal code, he said.

However, division commanders like Cucolo have the authority to impose these type of restrictions to personnel operating under their command, Wright said.

Cucolo oversees forces in northern Iraq, an area that includes the cities of Kirkuk, Tikrit and Mosul. His Nov. 4 order was first reported by the military newspaper Stars and Stripes.

Cucolo's order outlines some 20 barred activities. Most of them are aimed at keeping order and preventing criminal activity, such as selling a weapon or taking drugs.

But other restrictions seemed aimed at preventing soldiers from leaving their unit short-handed, including becoming pregnant or undergoing elective surgery that would prevent their deployment.

Under Cucolo's order, troops also are prohibited from "sexual contact of any kind" with Iraqi nationals. And, they cannot spend the night with a member of the opposite sex, unless married or expressly permitted to do so.

Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began earlier this decade, soldier-on-soldier violence has been relatively rare. Before Thursday's shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, fewer than a dozen soldiers are believed to have fallen victim to such attacks since 9/11.

But prominent incidents in the past six years have illustrated that motivations for such violence can fall into several categories. One includes a soldier whose mental health was called into question after repeated deployments to war zones, and another a convert to Islam whose motives for attacking fellow soldiers were political.

U.S. military officials said Thursday that they are still investigating the motives of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army officer identified by authorities as the man who killed 12 in a shooting spree at Fort Hood. One official said he had expressed concern about a coming deployment to the Middle East.

Just six months ago, a 44-year-old Army sergeant, a veteran of tours in Serbia, Bosnia and Iraq, was charged with the murder of five fellow soldiers at a military counseling center in Baghdad, where he had been sent after others in his unit had expressed concerns about his mental health.

According to military officials familiar with the case, the soldier, Sgt. John M. Russell, had surrendered his weapon to military authorities after members of his unit warned superiors that Sgt. Russell was behaving dangerously. Despite being disarmed, officials said Sgt. Russell managed to grab the gun of another soldier who was escorting him out of the building.