Turkey reversed its plan to criminalize adultery Tuesday after pressure from the EU. Initially, Turkey's government wanted to penalize the practice in order to satisfy its conservative Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erogan and more devout Islamic citizens.

Turkey's government is currently revising its 78-year-old law code in an attempt to gain admittance into the EU, which heavily criticized the proposed prohibition, especially as it applied more severely to women. AP has more here. View the Turkish Office of the Prime Minister's program to gain admittance into the EU here. A summary of amendments to the Turkish Civil Code is online here.

US Ambassador John Danforth submitted a revised version of a UN Security Council draft resolution Tuesday that sustains sanction threats against Sudan's oil industry and requests an increase in monitoring by the African Union in the Dafur region. Ambassador Danforth's revisions were in response to China's threat to veto the initial resolution.

The new draft of the resolution allows the UN Security Council to "consider" punitive penalties, while the old draft stated that the Council "will take futher actions," if such atrocities in the Dafur region continued. Reuters has more here. View Ambassador Danforth's statements made to the press Tuesday regarding the Sudan issue here.

In Tuesday's environmental law news, US Department of the Interior Secretary Gale Norton signed documents creating America's 58th national park on Monday: the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. The new park is in southern Colorado's San Luis Valley near the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, and encompasses the former Great Sand Dunes National monument combined with an additional adjacent 70,000 acres of land. Read the press release.

In other environmental law news...

• Now online is a proposed rule from the National Park Service that would temporarily limit the use of snowmobiles in the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Comments are due by October 7, 2004 and can be submitted online from the rule site.
  
  
• DOI Secretary Norton has also signed an agreement with representatives fron Arizona, California and Nevada that plans to create a secure habitat for 31 endangered species along the lower Colorado river from Lake Mead to the US-Mexico border. The parties hope to be able to begin the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program in early January. The press release is here.

In Tuesday's corporations and securities law news, Charles Schwab Corp. has agreed to pay a fine of $350,000 to the SEC relating to the processing of mutual fund orders after the 4 PM ET market close. Schwab did not admit or deny any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. Read the SEC press release here. Read the Charles Schwab press release announcing the deal here. Read the SEC administrative proceeding release here. Reuters has more.

In other news...

• The SEC has also announced that securities fraud charges against food distributor Fleming Cos. Inc. and several suppliers have been settled. The charges stem from earnings overstatements made by Fleming. Reuters has more.
  
  
• The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission said it asked Japan's financial oversight body to discipline Citibank's Tokyo office and two senior executives for allegedly misleading investors about private bond sales. Read the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission press release relating to Citibank here. AP has more.
  
  
• In other Citibank news, the bank has been under pressure for executing a jumbo trade of European government bonds in August. The trade prompted investigations by financial regulators in Europe. Read the Citibank memo relating to the European transaction here. The Financial Times has more.
  
  
• Russia is set to merge its $45 billion state-controlled oil and gas interests into Gazprom. The government will still have a majority stake in the new company. However, the deal will eliminate restriction on foreign ownership of Gazprom stock. Read the Gazprom press release here. The Financial Times has more.
  
  
• Pilots at Alitalia agreed to a deal with the troubled airline which will double their annual flying hours and lower their pay. The deal is seen as a crucial step toward approval of a wider rescue plan needed to save the airline. AP has more.

In a break with most Republican lawmakers, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill banning .50-caliber BMG rifles (manufacturer's website here; see also this Brady Campaign factsheet). The high-powered rifle is used by the military and police to shoot long-range targets. Civilians typically use the guns at firing-ranges and for big-game hunting.

Gun rights advocates argue the ban is unnecessary as the weapon has not been used for one crime in California. However, critics maintain there are no reasonable civilian uses for the rifle. Review the full text of AB 50 as presented to the Governor. Read a California Senate analysis of the bill at its Third Reading here. The NRA campaign site against AB 50, urging Schwarzenegger to veto it, is here. Schwarzenegger also supported the 10-year federal ban on assault weapons which expired on Monday. Reuters has more.

The US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed a motion from the original plaintiff in Roe v. Wade to have the case that legalized abortion in all 50 states overturned. Norma McCorvey had asserted that abortions cause women long-term emotional harm and hoped this information would be enough to overturn the case.

McCorvey used the pseudonym of "Jane Roe" as the plaintiff in the landmark case but now has switched sides and is a vocal anti-abortion activist. Just last week, a federal judge in Nebraska ruled a ban on late-term abortions was unconstitutional because it failed to include an exception when a woman's health is in danger. Read the Nebraska opinion ruling late-term abortions unconstitutional here. Read the 5th Circuit opinion dismissing McCorvey's case here [PDF]. CNN has more.

Two sponsors of the nation's Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) have filed suit against the Federal Election Commission over its alleged failure to enforce the regulations by not blocking the spending of unlimited donations by so-called 527 groups in the presidential campaign. Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Martin Meehan, D-Mass., filed the suit in federal court Tuesday, and Senate sponsors John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., have announced that they will file briefs supporting the action.

Review the Shays-Meehan complaint [PDF]. AP has more. The FEC has campaign finance law resources available here, including the text of the BCRA. The Campaign Legal Center has posted a Campaign Finance Guide, as well as a release on the pending support of Sens. McCain and Feingold. Roll Call has more on the suit, while Rep. Shays has issued a press release.

A new witness will testify in the German retrial of the only person convicted in connection with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The witness, a restaurant owner identified only as Luetz, claims to have seen defendant Mounir el Motassadeq with three Hamburg-based suicide hijackers, including alleged mastermind Mohamed Atta, at his establishment just four months prior to the attacks.

The testimony contradicts el Motassadeq's claims that he had not seen Atta since May 2000. AP has more. Read a profile of el Motassadeq from CNN.com. Read an earlier Paper Chase report on el Motassadeq's conviction being overturned by the German Supreme Court.

International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohammed ElBaradei said Tuesday that he has seen no proof that Iran is developing a weapons program, but added that he was not certain that the country's intentions are entirely peaceful. As reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, the IAEA Board of Governors is currently considering a resolution that will impose a deadline on Iran to show that it does not have a nuclear weapons program.

The US is calling for tough language in the draft resolution, including a demand for "complete, immediate and unrestricted access" to all sites and information requested by the IAEA. The Guardian has more on ElBaradei's comments on Iran. AP has details of the draft resolution. The IAEA has background on its negotiations with Iran.

A French appeals court Tuesday upheld the acquittal of three photographers who took pictures of Princess Diana and Dodi al Fayed on the night of their fatal car crash, saying the three did not break French privacy laws.

Prosecutors and al Fayed's father had appealed a Paris court decision that it did not consider the inside of a car to be a private space. Reuters has more. From Paris, Le Figaro has local coverage (in French). BBC News has background on the lower court ruling.

Japan has responded to requests from Washington for increased security measures on airline flights by preparing armed plainclothes officers from the National Police Agency to serve as sky marshals on flights to the US. Officers have been sent to Germany for training in their sky marshal program and the NPA anticipates getting the program up by the end of the year. Yomiuri Shimbun has more.

In other international law news...

• The Turkish Parliament (official site in Turkish and English) meets today to begin discussing the hotly contested proposed penal code reforms. Most of the reforms have been met with relative praise in the international community, but that has been overshadowed by the inclusion of a provision criminalizing adultery. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has refused to back down from the provision, stating that it is necessary to protect the 'unity of the family'. BBC has more.
  
  
• Lt. General Kermabon of the NATO Kosovo Force has announced the introduction of an additional 2000 troops into Kosovo. The troops will be present during the elections scheduled in the area for the end of October to ensure the stability of the region. Reuters has more.
  
  
• The UN General Assembly concluded its 58th session Monday, finishing its work for 2004. The final resolution of the body concerned the official position of the UN on cooperation between UN organs and the International Criminal Court. The Resolution (not yet published, but soon to be available here) addressed the logistics of the Court, as well as the concerns of member-states about its application to non-signatories, most notably the US. The official UN press release is here.

Tuesday's New York Times highlights the Justice Department's opening of an internal investigation into the FBI's arrest of a Muslim lawyer in Oregon who was mistakenly linked to the Madrid train bombings, a federal court determination that accused 9/11 suspect Zacarias Moussaoui may submit written questions to "enemy combatants" held by the United States, and convicted investment banker Frank Quattrone's assertions that the judge who sentenced him acted improperly in disclosing information about his 15-year-old daughter's illness.

The Washington Post notes that World Trade Center leaseholders are being sued for for allegedly failing to protect clean up workers from harmful dust, asbestos, and toxins in the air at Ground Zero, that a judge has dismissed a claim by Paula Jones that New York real estate tycoon Abe Hirschfeld owes her $1 million he had promised if she dropped her lawsuit against President Bill Clinton, and that the Riggs Bank probe continues.

USA Today features articles on a privacy advocate who challenged the rule that requires people to show ID before boarding an airplane and the appeals court that says the federal government must argue its case, on a bankruptcy judge who gave US Airways Group (UAIR) temporary permission Monday to use a government loan to pay for daily operations, and on Enron's announcement it will pay $321 million from the proceeds of its sale of its pipeline arm to finance pension plans for thousands of former employees.

British lawyers appointed to defend Slobodan Milosevic have asked the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to suspend his trial while the court rules on their appeal against their appointment. As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, the court decided last week to allow the appeal made by the British lawyers, who say that Milosevic has refused to cooperate with them. Milosevic's team has also said that appointing a defense team for

Milosevic could lead to an unfair trial. The war crimes tribunal is likely to consider the request to suspend proceedings on Wednesday. BBC News has more. The ICTY has background information on the Milosevic case.

The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General has opened an investigation into the mistaken arrest of Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield in connection with March's terrorist attack in Madrid, saying the USA Patriot Act [PDF] may have been improperly used. Mayfield's arrest was based on what turned out to be faulty FBI analysis of a fingerprint.

Details of the investigation are included in the DOJ's semi-annual report to Congress on potential civil rights and civil liberties abuses by Justice Department officials, posted online Tuesday. AP has more. As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, Mayfield has filed suit against the FBI; the specific charges in the suit have not yet been disclosed.

British lawyer Phil Shiner said Tuesday that he has evidence that US forces mistreated detainees in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which would mean that abuse of detainees in Iraq spread beyond Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. Shiner released statements by two Iraqi men who said they had been hooded, stripped naked, beaten and doused with cold water during lengthy torture sessions.

One of the men, Yasir Rubaii Saeed al-Qutaji, is an Iraqi lawyer who was investigating reports of abuse at the Mosul prison when he was detained. Reuters has more. From the UK, the Guardian has local coverage of the allegations.

Germany's National Ethics Council, charged with offering the federal government advice on ethical issues in the life sciences, has announced that it will continue to oppose cloning of human embryos for research.

The debate on therapeutic cloning was reopened in Germany following Britain's decisions this summer to loosen its rules on human cloning and to grant its first license for cloning for stem cell research. Deutsche Welle has more on Germany's policy. Local coverage is available here from the Frankfurter Allgemeine and here from Sueddeutsche (both in German).

Israel's security cabinet Tuesday approved a policy to provide cash advances to Jewish settlers who evacuate the Gaza Strip voluntarily. According to a draft bill, each settler family would receive between $200,000 and $500,000 as part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Palestinian territory.

Zevulun Orlev, the only security cabinet member to vote against the payments, said that he doubted whether there is a "legal basis for paying compensation before a ruling on the law of evacuation." Reuters has more. The Jerusalem Post has local coverage. BBC News has background on Sharon's plan for disengagement from Gaza.

In Tuesday's US law and business press, The Recorder is reporting that as the presidential election nears, Republicans are expected to push for a vote on controversial judicial nominations.... The Recorder also reports that a San Francisco Superior Court judge has slashed attorney fees in a CA consumer class action suit against Microsoft Corp., stating that the $270 million requested was unwarranted because of the relatively low risk of pursuing the case.... Law.com carries an AP report that the DOJ's watchdog office is investigating whether the USA PATRIOT Act was used improperly to arrest an OR lawyer in connection with the March 2004 Madrid bombings.... The Dallas Business Journal reports that TX has won $585,000 in a George Foreman Grill settlement.... The ABA Journal reports on two recent court opinions imposing harsh sanctions for deleting e-mails and resultant e-discovery violations.... FindLaw's Writ features attorney/author Julie Hilden's commentary on the federal government's request to close court proceedings relating to airline anti-terror list criteria, as well as attorney Jared Leland's guest commentary on awarding punitive damages against religious institutions.

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