In Wednesday's environmental law news, the British government has announced that 95% of Britain's rivers, 82% of lakes and other water bodies, and 53% of ground water is at risk of failing new water standards established by the European Union. The standards will not become effective until 2015, giving the government some time to come into compliance. It is unknown what fines the UK could face if improvements are not made. The London Telegraph has the full story.

In other environmental news...

• The CITGO petroleum company has reached a settlement [PDF] with the EPA and the US Justice Department for violations of the Clean Air Act at six CITGO oil refineries. The settlement, which is still subject to public comment and court approval, requires installation of new emission controls at the refineries, a reduction in pollution levels, and more than $8.6 million in penalties and other fees. The new controls alone are expected to cost the company over $320 million, but should reduce harmful air emissions by more than 30,000 tons per year. The EPA press release is here.
  
  
• Thousands of Coasta Rican banana pickers have filed a lawsuit against the Dole, Chiquita, and Fresh Del Monte food companies and the Dow and Shell chemical companies alleging that the pickers were exposed to dibromochloropropane [PDF] (DCBP), a pesticide, on bananas in Central America after it was banned in the US in 1979. DCBP is known to cause a range of reproductive and other disorders. Reuters has the full story.
  
  
• The South African government will consider a comprehensive response strategy to global warming this week, SA Environmental Affairs minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk has announced. The plan is expected to affect all government departments. The Cape Town Cape Argus has more.

The Senate late Wednesday approved an intelligence reform bill based on recommendations from the 9/11 Commission by a vote of 96-2. The National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004 (S 2845), introduced by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), would create a national counterterrorism center and the position of national intelligence director to oversee nonmilitary intelligence agencies.

The only Senators voting against the legislation were Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) and Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina). Before the bill goes to the President, however, it must be reconciled with related legislation currently in the House. AP has more.

Following up on a story reported earlier on JURIST's Paper Chase, Italy has reversed its stance on the Libyan migrants in Lampedusa, an Italian island between Tunisia and Sicily, expelling two more planeloads of asylum-seekers Wednesday. The UN and human rights groups have criticized Italy for the expulsions, saying that they are preventing migrants from seeking refugee status. Amnesty International today issued this statement.

Italy has sent nearly a dozen planeloads of migrants back to Libya since Friday after more than 1000 people arrived by boat in previous days. The Italian government has defended its policy as a strict stand that will prevent people from setting off for the country. BBC News has more.

In Wednesday's corporations and securities law news, the Justice Department announced today that a federal grand jury has indicted eight former Peregrine Systems, Inc. executives. The eight executives allegedly took part in a conspiracy to inflate company earnings which ultimately resulted in losses amounting to billions of dollars. Six of these executives will face related civil fraud charges filed by the SEC. Read the DOJ press release here. Read the SEC press release here. Read the SEC complaint here [PDF]. AP has more.

In other news...

• As reported earlier today on JURIST's Paper Chase, the United States will file a complaint with the World Trade Organization over allegedly unfair subsidies provided to Airbus by European governments. Read the European Union press release responding to the action here. The Office of the US Trade Representative has a press release. AFP has more.
  
  
• RS Investment Management, a San Francisco-based investment adviser to ten mutual funds, agreed to pay a $25 million fine and undertake compliance reforms after the SEC charged the firm, its current CEO, and its former CFO for engaging in market timing. Read the SEC press release here. Read the SEC administrative proceeding release here [PDF]. CBS MarketWatch has more. The firm also settled with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and will pay a $30 million fine to settle allegations of "excessive" market timing in its mutual funds. Read the RS Investment press release with details about the settlement here. Read the Spitzer press release here. AP has more.
  
  
• US House and Senate negotiators agreed today to replace the $50 billion tax break for US exporters which the WTO had ruled to be illegal with a $76.5 billion tax cut for manufacturers along with new incentives for US companies to expand abroad. Read the House Committee on Ways and Means press release announcing the deal here. Read more information about the competing bills here. Bloomberg has more.
  
  
• Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines provided testimony before a Congressional hearing defending the mortgage company's accounting practices. Read the prepared testimony here. The Financial Times has more.
  
  
• Alitalia announced they have agreed on payoffs for 3,700 employees set to lose their jobs which should open the way to save the airline from bankruptcy. BBC has more.

Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), criticized the UN Security Council Wednesday for its inaction on North Korea's violation of international nuclear agreements. Addressing the Pugwash anti-nuclear weapons conference in Seoul, ElBaradei said that the Council's lack of response had sent a message to rogue nations that they can acquire nuclear capability without consequence.

ElBaradei also called on North Korea itself to return to the Non-Proliferation Treaty it abandoned last year and said that an investigation into South Korea's alleged secret nuclear experiments is ongoing. North Korea refuses to return to the NPT until those investigations are complete. VOA has more.

Magistrate Judge Frank Maas of Federal District Court in Manhattan denied bail Tuesday for John A. "Junior" Gotti. Gotti stands accused of trying to murder radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa in 1992. Judge Maas refused Gotti's offer of $10 million bail, and was unconvinced by defense attorneys' claims that Gotti has renounced his mob ties. "I don't think I'm able to say that Mr. Gotti has renounced a role" as an active captain of the Gambino clan, ruled Judge Maas.

Sliwa was shot several times in June 1992 by gunmen posing as cabdrivers. The prosecution claims that Gotti ordered the attack. Gotti's bail hearing on Tuesday came just as he finished serving a six-year jail sentence for racketeering. The New York Times has more. Read the DOJ's description of the indictment.[PDF]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Wednesday denied North Carolina's request to proceed with the execution of Sammy Crystal Perkins. His execution had been scheduled for this Friday.

Last week, US District Judge Terrence Boyle issued his second stay of execution for Perkins, who was convicted of raping and killing a 7-year old girl in 1992. His execution had initially been scheduled for May 21, 2004, but was stayed by Judge Boyle on May 10. AP has more.

Two organizations which represent UN staff members have sent a joint letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, calling for the full withdrawal of UN staff from Iraq because of high risks to safety and security. The September 30 letter, released Wednesday, states that "just one staff member is one staff member too many in Iraq." The presidents of the Federation of International Civil Servants' Associations and the Coordinating Committee for International Staff Unions wrote, "We do not wish to contemplate the thought of U.N. staff being subject to hostage taking and threatened with execution at the mercy of those who know no mercy."

Last year, the UN pulled the international staff out of Iraq after 22 were killed in a bombing attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad. In August, the UN allowed a small contingent to return to Iraq. AP has more.

Italy (official governmental site in Italian) bowed Tuesday to international pressure from various NGOs, human rights groups, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and stopped its indiscriminate return of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants from the island of Lampedusa (official governmental site in Italian), where thousands of Africans from various nations have gathered, seeking entrance to the EU through Italy. Italy has been criticized for failing to abide by the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Geneva Convention on Refugees, both of which require the host nation to make a good-faith effort to distinguish between illegal immigrants, who may be legitimately expelled, and actual asylum seekers, who have certain rights. Italy has also been criticized for shipping individuals back to Libya, which is not a signatory to the Geneva Convention on Refugees, and which many NGOs say has a worrying human rights record. ISN has more.

In other international legal news...

• Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Russian State Duma (official site in Russian) Committee for Foreign Affairs, has called for European countries to work together to create a pan-European piece of anti-terrorism legislation. Kasachev has stated that the countries should utilize the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to create a document that filled in the gaps of international law on terrorism and created a common legal definition of terrorism. Kosachev also called for the implementation of the 2003 European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism as soon as possible. Itar-Tass has more.
  
  
• Colonel Alamba Mungako, a former military prosecutor in the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo was sentenced to death Tuesday by the country's highest military court. Mungako was the former prosecutor for the Court of Military Order and was involved in prosecuting over thirty individuals charged with the 2001 assassination of former DRC President Laurent Kabila. NGOs and Human Rights groups criticized the trials, which handed down death sentences to all accused, claiming that the facts rarely supported the charges leveled against the suspects. Mungako was convicted of masterminding the beating, torture and murder of tax official Steven Nyembo, along with 10 others also convicted and given the death sentence and two others who received jail time. News24 has more.
  
  
• Uganda Defense Minister Amama Mbabazi stated Wednesday at an International Criminal Court meeting that he fully expected a peace treaty to be signed among Sudan, Rwanda, and the DRC. The non-aggression treaty will also prohibit the goverment support of rebel groups in the neighboring countries, a current source of tension, especially in light of the current crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. Mbabazi also stated that the country will be passing an ICC bill that will incorporate the provisions of the Rome Statute of the ICC into Ugandan domestic law. AllAfrica has more.

A Virginia judge has refused to reconsider his dismissal of the second capital case against convicted DC sniper John Allen Muhammad, ending the case for good. Circuit Judge M. Langhorne Keith issued the brief ruling late Tuesday, after the commonwealth's attorney office appealed his earlier dismissal of the case due to the violation of Muhammad's right to a speedy trial.

The ruling does not affect prosecutions planned in Alabama and Louisiana. View the ruling here [PDF]. More information on the case is available here. AP has more.

Previously on JURIST's Paper Chase....

• Virginia seeks review of Muhammad dismissal
• Judge dismisses second trial charges against DC sniper Muhammad
• Judge in sniper trial recuses himself over speedy trial probe

A coalition including the ACLU appealed Wednesday to the Georgia Supreme Court a lower-court ruling allowing a same-sex marriage constitutional ban to appear on ballots in the Nov. 2 elections. According to the group, the referendum should not be used since it will not allow voters to read the full text of what would be altered in the state constitution. The group is seeking a decision by the court before the elections.

The proposed text of the referendum and the actual amendment are available here (scroll down). The ACLU of Georgia has this press release on its challenge, as well as documents in the case. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the referendum. AP has more.

Spanish authorities arrested five suspected ETA operatives Wednesday, just days after apprehending 21 suspected members, including the two top leaders.

Police said the suspects were ready to carry out an attack in northern Spain at the time of the arrest. Police said they also seized weapons caches after searching several hideouts of the Basque separatist group. The Spanish Interior Ministry has this report on ETA. CNN has more.

The trial of ten radical Islamists charged with plotting to bomb the Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, nearly four years ago has begun. Each of the men faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted in the trial, which is expected to last about three months.

The defendants, either Algerian or French-Algerian, are known as the "Frankfurt group." One of the defendants, Rabah Kadri, is being tried in absentia because he is currently in custody in the UK after his arrest there in 2002. Four others linked to the plot were convicted last year by a German court. BBC News has more.

AP is reporting that the US trade representative has announced that US will file a complaint with the World Trade Organization over allegedly unfair subsidies provided to Airbus by European governments. The Office of the US Trade Representative has a press release.

UPDATE: An AP story is now available online.

The Florida Supreme Court has agreed to hear a lawsuit next week challenging limitations on the use of provisional ballots, which are part of election law alterations made in the wake of the 2000 presidential election. The hearing, which is scheduled to be held Oct. 13 could result in changes to voting procedures prior to the November election. Provisional ballots may be cast by those not on the state's voting rolls, and if the voter's status is later determined to be wrong, the ballot will be counted. However, a restriction in the law limits those casting provisional ballots to voting in their home precinct, rather than anywhere in their home county as for normal ballots.

Several unions joined in arguing that the limitation violates the state constitution. The court's ruling on the hearing is available here [PDF]. More information on the case, AFL-CIO v. Glenda Hood, is available here. AFL-CIO has this press release on its lawsuit. The state Division of Elections has more on voting in Florida. AP has more.

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Wednesday, October 6.

On Capitol Hill, the US Senate will meet at 9:30 AM ET and will resume consideration of the Intelligence Reform Bill (S 2845). Watch a live webcast (via C-SPAN). A vote on the bill could come today. VOA News has more.... The US House will meet at 10 AM ET for legislative business and will discuss several bills, including the Justice for All Act of 2004 (HR 5107). A complete list is available here. Watch a live webcast (via C-SPAN).... The US House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution will hold a 9:30 AM et hearing on the Presidential Succession Act (HR 2749). Watch a live webcast.... The US House Budget Committee will hold a 10 AM ET hearing on revising the US tax code. Watch a live webcast or listen to live audio.... The US House Financial Services Committee Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises will hold a 10 AM ET hearing on allegations of accounting and management failure at Fannie Mae. Watch a live webcast.

Charles Duelfer, chief US weapons inspector in Iraq, is expected to release his final report today, which is said to conclude that Saddam Hussein posed a diminishing threat at the time the United States invaded and did not possess, or have concrete plans to develop, nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. The Washington Post has more.

Canada's Supreme Court will begin three days of hearings today on whether the federal government's plan to legally recognize same-sex marriage conforms with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. CBC News has in-depth coverage of the issue.... The trial of former Bosnian Muslim militia leader Naser Oric begins today at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Oric is charged with "violations of the laws and customs of war," including murder, wanton destruction and plunder. Read Oric's amended indictment.

At the United Nations, the Security Council will convene at 10 AM ET and will hold an open debate on justice and the rule of law: the United Nations role. The Secretary-General will deliver a report on the rule of law and transitional justice in conflict and post-conflict societies. Watch a live webcast.

Also abroad today, the European Commission is scheduled to deliver its report on whether Turkey has met EU criteria for membership talks. BBC News has more.... In Montreal, the 2nd World Congress Against the Death Penalty begins. Read the Conference's schedule of events.... In Paris, the criminal trial of 10 suspected Islamist militants (the so-called Frankfurt group) begins today. The militants are charged in connection with a failed plot to bomb a Strasbourg market in 2000. BBC News has more.

AP is reporting that the European Commission has recommended that the European Union hold membership talks with Turkey, but has set conditions. As previously reported in JURIST's Paper Chase, Turkey's legislature recently approved changes to the country's penal code in a last-minute bid to enhance its chances of EU admission.

UPDATE: Remarks of European Commission President Romano Prodi communicating the Commission's recommendation to the EU are now available here. The Commission also has a press release on the report and more on Turkey and its bid for EU membership. Radio Free Europe has more.