The US House of Representatives late Thursday passed a sweeping corporate tax reform package intended to end a trade war with Europe and give over $136 billion in tax breaks to businesses, farmers and other groups in what has been described as the most ambitious rewrite of corporate tax laws in almost 20 years.

The vote in the House was 280-141; the package now goes to the Senate, which is likely to approve it by the end of the week. Review the text of HR 4520, billed as the American Jobs Creation Act.

A UK High Court judge ruled Thursday that doctors at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust should not revive eleven-month-old Charlotte Wyatt if she stops breathing because her serious heart and lung problems would adversely affect her quality of life. During a two-day hearing last week, doctors testified that because Charlotte’s lungs were severely damaged she would not survive beyond infancy.

Charlotte was born 11 months ago, only six months into her mother’s pregnancy. She has never left the hospital, has to be supplied constant oxygen, and be fed through a tube. The case has attracted considerable attention in England because it pitted Charlotte's doctors, who wanted to allow her to die, against her parents, who insisted that every step to taken to allow her to live. BBC News has more.

Martha Stewart's comments after her sentencing for obstruction of justice might plausibly have an effect on the nature or posture of any appellate ruling in her case, according to a survey of appellate judges, trial judges, and lawyers conducted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and Levick Strategic Communications and made available to JURIST Thursday. Although a majority of the 64 jurists surveyed were confident that appellate judges would be sufficiently insulated from outside influences like comments communicated through news reports, 13 conceded that if they were making the appellate ruling on Stewart they would be "mildly interested" in her comments to the media and one would be "definitely influenced in one direction or another."

Stewart spoke out on her case right after her July 16 sentencing (watch recorded video here) and again last month when she announced her decision to apply for an early prison term (see JURIST's Monitor legal video service for recorded video). During and after her trial she also maintained a defense website where she posted public letters to her supporters. The survey results suggest that such media statements that might reach judges are problematic and even risky, possibly leading to negative and unintended consequences. Stewart persisted in her appeal Thursday, a day before she was slated to report for prison in West Virginia, as her lawyers accused prosecutors of withholding evidence that a Secret Service lab sabotaged the authentication of an important document presented in her defense. Read their letter here [PDF]. Reuters has more. Appeal papers in her case must be filed by October 20.

Respondents to the Pitt Law-Levick survey included 31 appellate judges and five retired appellate judges; seven trial judges; three appellate lawyers; two appellate court law clerks; and 16 other jurists who did not specifically identify their status. Read the full press release on the survey, together with the questionnaire, here [PDF]. Previous coverage of the Martha Stewart case in JURIST's Paper Chase legal news service is available here.

In Thursday's corporations and securities law news, Parmalat's government-appointed administrator has filed a suit against Bank of America in a North Carolina federal court. This is the latest attempt by the company to recover money from financial institutions which contributed to the dairy giant's collapse. Read the Parmalat press release here [PDF]. AP has more.

In other news...

• As reported earlier on JURIST's Paper Chase, the EU has requested consultations with the US in the World Trade Organization following Wednesday's announcement by the US Trade Representative that it will file a complaint with the WTO over EU subsidies to Airbus. This is the first step in the WTO's dispute settlement process. Read the EU's press release here. BBC News has background on the dispute between the US and EU over the subsidies. USA Today has more.
  
  
• Savannah-based jewelry retailer Friedman's has received a supplemental Wells Notice from the SEC which will authorize public administrative proceedings to determine whether the registration of the company's shares should be revoked or suspended. The Atlanta Business Chronicle has more.
  
  
• The SEC ended its investigation into the financial restatements made at Houston-based correctional facility operator Cornell Companies Inc. and will not seek any action. The Houston Business Chronicle has more.
  
  
• A Pennsylvania judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought to stop the Philadelphia Stock Exchange's change to a for-profit corporation. The Philadelphia Business Journal has more.
  
  
• Oracle Corp. indicated that its current offer of $21 per share for PeopleSoft may not be the company's final offer. The claim comes after PeopleSoft said it would consider negotiating a deal with Oracle for a price above its current bid. AP has more.
  
  
• KPMG International's US and Belgian subsidiaries announced they will pay $115 million to settle a class action lawsuit by shareholders of Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products NV but continued to deny any wrongdoing. Bloomberg has more.
  
  
• Regional police in Siberia opened a criminal case against a subsidiary of oil company Yukos, Tomskneft. The investigation focuses on the production unit's failure to pay $34 million in taxes. AP has more.
  
  
• The director of Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. indicated before a House committee that the solvency of the US fund that insures traditional pensions is at risk. Read the testimony here. Reuters has more.

French officials Thursday denied taking oil voucher bribes from Saddam Hussein in return for help in lifting UN sanctions on Thursday, and Russian officials offered no direct comment in response to similar allegations against them made in Wednesday's Iraq Survey Group (ISG) report. Russian officials said that the UN created an investigative commission on corruption in the oil-for-food program for this purpose and found they considered it imprudent to comment until a public report was issued.

The same report issued by the ISG that found there to have been no stockpiles of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons in Iraq before last year's invasion, listed officials and influential citizens related to 40 different countries who allegedly were targeted for bribes by Saddam Hussein, seeking to profit from illegal sales of Iraqi oil. Specifically targeted, according to the report, were persons whose governments - like France, Russia, and China - opposed the war in Iraq and had veto power in the UN Security Council. Individuals listed include the head of the oil-for-food program, Benon Sevon, former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, radical Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri. The report also noteed that the names of American citizens and corporations were omitted from the released ISG report due to the US Privacy Act. BBC has more on the French denials here, and AFP has more on Russian reaction here. Read the ISG report here.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is scheduled to meet Thursday with Libya leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi over the possibility of creating permanent refugee camps in Libya. The plan would create a processing center in Libya for separating illegal immigrants, which Italy may legally deport, from valid asylum seekers, protected by obligations Italy owes under the European Convention on Human Rights and the Geneva Convention on Refugees. Italy is hoping to stop the migrants before they set out for the island of Lampedusa, the closest access point between Africa and Europe which lately has become such a magnet for illegal arrivals that Italy started deporting migrants as soon as they arrived. Human rights groups and NGOs have expressed concern that any Libyan camps would violate the human rights of those seeking asylum and will be difficult to monitor to ensure that actual refugees are receiving the protections owed them by European countries. JURIST's Paper Chase has more on Lampedusa migration here. BBC has more.

In other international legal news...

• Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed pleasure Wednesday at the conditional "yes" given by the European Commission to Turkey's bid for membership in the European Union. The report praised improvements already made by Turkey in order to bring its political, legal, and human rights norms in line with EU standards. The report cautioned that more improvements were needed, however, and that the "yes" only cleared the way for negotiations. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the build-up to the report. Zaman has more.
  
  
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent the signed Kyoto treaty to the lower house of the Duma (official government site in Russian) for ratification Thursday. The treaty was approved by the Russian executive after heated debate about the possible benefits and detriments that would result from its implementation. Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of the lower Duma house, believes that the majority of the parliament are in favor of the treaty. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the approval of the Kyoto treaty. Itar-Tass has more.
  
  
• Chilean politicians have agreed to sweeping changes to the country's constitution (document in Spanish). The changes would mainly be focused on removing additions orignially inserted by former General Augusto Pinochet. The changes would allow the president of the country to remove the head of any of the military branches, as well as returning the Senate to complete direct election. Former presidents would also no longer receive an automatic lifetime status of senator. The reforms are expected to be applied within the next few days. Uraguay's Merco Press has more.
  
  
• The EU announced Thursday its intent to impose tighter sanctions on Myanmar in response to its failure to meet demands that the military junta currently in control loosen its grip on the population, as well as release Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's leading proponent of democratic processes. The new sanctions will be proposed Monday and will include an expansion of the current visa blacklist, ban EU financing of state owned Myanmar companies, and oppose funding for the country by the World Bank. EU Business has more.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan named a five-member panel on Thursday that was created to investigate possible war crimes occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan. The panel was created through the Security Council as per a US-drafted resolution approved last month. The panel is led by Italian judge Antonio Cassese and includes: Egyptian Mohammed Fayek, secretary-general of the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR); Diego Garcia-Sayan, former Peruvian foreign minister and justice minister; Pakistani Hani Jilani, Annan's special representative on human rights defenders; and Ghanaian Therese Striggner Scott, chairwoman of the Ghana Law Reform Commission.

A panel meeting is slated for later this week to draft a timetable for their work. Reuters has more. See continuing coverage of the Darfur crisis on JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The European Union Thursday threatened a new set of sanctions against Burma - now officially called Myanmar - relating to the state of human rights in the country. The announcement came ahead of Friday's Asia-Europe summit (ASEM) which brings together 38 Asian and European nations.

The new sanctions will reportedly ban senior Burmese officials from gaining visas to visit Europe and prohibit European companies from providing financing to state-owned interests inside Burma. Some EU states wanted to completely exclude Burma from the meeting until the country released pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest. Read the European Union press release on the ASEM meeting here. BBC has more.

The US House of Representatives Thursday unanimously passed its second bill in three days that targets computer "spyware." Today the House voted unanimously to pass the "Internet Spyware Prevention Act" which will stiffen jail sentences and provide the Justice Department with an extra $10 million annually to enforce the measure.

On Tuesday, the House passed a bill that established multimillion dollar fines for spyware users. The sponsors of the bills expect to combine them with a pending bill in the Senate. The Information Technology Association of America has expressed reservations about the new bills. The House bill approved Tuesday is HR 2929; the bill passed today is HR 4661. AP has more.

Politicians in Chile have announced their agreement to remove provisions in the constitution which were widely seen as undemocratic. The scrapped provisions were introduced by former dictator General Augusto Pinochet. Under the new provisions Chile's president's will once again have the to remove the head of the country's army, navy, and airforce.

Additionally, the Senate will now be elected in a democratic manner and the children of Chilean immigrants willl be able to obtain citizenship more easily. The reforms are expected to be voted through Congress in the next few days. BBC News has more.

The House Ethics Committee has rebuked House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for the second time in a week. The committee, in publicly issued findings, rebuked Delay for creating the appearance that donors were given special access to pending legislation and also for using the FAA to intervene in a Texas political dispute. Just last week, the same committee admonished Delay for offering to give an endorsement to a House member's son in his run for office in exchange for a favorable vote on a Medicare prescription drug bill. DeLay accepted the rebuke but called the findings another political attack by the Democrats.

The committee must still rule on an allegation that Delay violated Texas campaign finance laws. The allegations have led to a Texas grand jury investigation and indictments of three DeLay associates and eight corporations. Read the House Ethics Manual here. Read the Ethics Committee press release announcing the disposition here. Read Tom Delay's reaction to the House decision here. AP has more.

British soldier Stuart MacKenzie will face court-martial Monday for orchestrating a hoax that resulted in the Daily Mirror publishing fake photos that seemed to show British troops abusing Iraqi prisoners.

The photos, originally published in May, caused an international outcry before they were revealed to be fakes. MacKenzie is a part-time soldier, but according to a Ministry of Defense spokesman, will face the same military laws as the rest of the army. The Guardian has more.

Previously on JURIST's Paper Chase...

• British soldier arrested in connection with fake Iraqi abuse photos
• BREAKING NEWS ~ Faked Iraq abuse photos force resignation of UK newspaper editor
• UK military under legal gun for Iraq conduct, but abuse photos may have been faked
• British soldier says he witnessed abuse of Iraqi prisoners by UK troopsUK launches probe into allegations of Iraqi prisoner abuse by British troops

Sgt. Charles Robert Jenkins, accused of abandoning his South Korean post in 1965 and defecting to North Korea, will face court-martial on November 3, the US Army said Thursday.

Jenkins faces charges of desertion, soliciting other service members to desert, aiding the enemy and encouraging disloyalty. It is speculated that Jenkins will admit guilt to at least one of the charges against him in exchange for a light sentence. AP has more.

Previously on JURIST's Paper Chase...

• US Army sergeant surrenders to US military after 39 years in North Korea
• Suspected deserter meets with US military lawyer
• US to send lawyer to meet with suspected deserter
• US to seek custody of former soldier in Japan

The Supreme Court of Canada hears a second day of arguments Thursday on whether the federal government's proposed same-sex marriage legislation falls within Parliamentary authority and whether the legislation is consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The government has asked the Supreme Court to issue an expedited decision in the case and says it will present the bill to Parliament "with all deliberate speed" once the Court issues its opinion. CTV.ca has more (see links on right for recorded video excerpts of the first day of arguments). CBC News has extended coverage of the case. Canada's Department of Justice has a discussion paper on marriage and the legal recognition of same-sex unions.

The EU has requested consultations with US in the World Trade Organization, the first step in the WTO's dispute settlement process, over US subsidies granted to Boeing. The EU's action follows Wednesday's announcement by the US Trade Representative that it will file a complaint with the WTO over EU subsidies to Airbus (see this previous report on JURIST's Paper Chase). According to EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy:

The US move in the WTO concerning European support to Airbus is obviously an attempt to divert attention from Boeing’s self-inflicted decline. It also shows that the US were never seriously interested in seeking to renegotiate the existing 92 EU-US Bilateral Agreement. If this is the path the US has chosen, we accept the challenge, not least because it is high time to put an end to massive illegal US subsidies to Boeing which damage Airbus, in particular those for Boeing’s new 7E7 programme. Nonetheless, it is a pity that the US has chosen to go to litigation which could destabilize trade and investment, including in Boeing’s 7E7 project. Aerospace workers can rely on the European Commission to defend their interests.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) announced Thursday that 459 legal actions against music uploaders will be filed in Europe as part of its campaign against illegal file-sharing. The actions will focus on the UK and France, Europe's largest music markets, but are also being brought in Italy, Denmark, Germany and Austria.

In conjunction with the IFPI press conference, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said it will sue 28 "major uploaders" who are illegally swapping music online, saying they are "effectively stealing the livelihoods of thousands of artists and the people who invest in them." As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, BPI issued a warning in March that it would take legal action against users of peer-to-peer music services. BPI Chairman Peter Jamieson said Thursday that "we have done everything we can to raise awareness of this problem. But we believe we would be derelict in our duty to protect and promote British music were we not to take action." Watch recorded video of Jamieson's press conference. BPI has this press release and background on illegal file-sharing. IFPI offers FAQ on its campaign against illegal file-sharing and has additional background on the lawsuits. BBC News has more.

Addressing the UN Security Council, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that the UN is developing "important new tools" to strengthen its support for the rule of law and transitional justice in countries that are facing or emerging from conflict, including a justice sector mapping guide, support for the setting up of model transitional criminal codes, and policy guidance for prosecutions in both domestic and hybrid legal systems.

Annan also said that peace-building activities in post-conflict countries must reflect international norms and standards and must be tailored to meet national needs. Read Annan's remarks from Wednesday and watch recorded video (morning and afternoon sessions) of the Security Council debate on "Justice and the Rule of Law: The United Nations Role". The UN News Service has more.

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Thursday, October 7.

On Capitol Hill, the US Senate will meet at 9:30 AM and will resume consideration of the Senate Intelligence Reform resolution (S Res 445). Watch a live webcast (via C-SPAN).... The US House will convene at 10 AM ET and will discuss the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act (HR 10). Watch a live webcast (via C-SPAN).... The US House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security will hold a 9 AM ET hearing on federal offender reentry and protecting children from criminal recidivists. Watch a live webcast.

The Canadian Supreme Court continues hearing arguments today on whether the federal government's plan to legally recognize same-sex marriage conforms with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. CTV.ca has more, including recorded video from the first day of arguments.... In the UK, a High Court judge is expected to rule today on whether a seriously ill baby should be resuscitated if her condition deteriorates. BBC News has more.

At the United Nations, the Security Council will meet at 10 AM ET for closed consultations. The agenda includes a sanctions review of Liberia and threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts (with a view to a possible subsequent vote). The Security Council will reconvene at 3 PM ET to discuss the situation in the Middle East.