The Israeli cabinet Sunday approved a bill that will allow the government to compensate Jewish settlers who lose their homes under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposed Gaza withdrawal plan. The bill allows the Israeli government to issue evacuation orders to Jewish settlers living in the Gaza Strip, and includes provisions that will jail resistors for up to five years. Some 1,500 families (9,000 settlers) are expected to be affected by the plan, and under the bill will be eligible for up to $300,000 in compensation. BBC News has more. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the Gaza withdrawal plan.

The US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Sunday issued a stay of a District Court order requiring some provisional ballots in Michigan to be counted even if they are cast in the wrong precinct. The court overturned a similar ruling out of Ohio on Saturday. Opponents of the court's decision claim the stricter rules disproportionately hurt poor people, and violate the Help America Vote Act. The court has promised to hear an expedited appeal of the case, but it is unclear if that appeal will occur before the Nov. 2 election. A copy of the District Court's ruling may be read here [PDF]; it was reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. AP has more.

A day after it pledged $100 million to the African Union's peacekeeping efforts in Sudan, as reported Saturday on JURIST's Paper Chase, the EU Sunday expressed its concern over repeated breaches of the cease-fire agreement in Darfur and urged the Sudanese government to unilaterally sign protocols to allow access for aid. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said "everybody" is violating the cease-fire, but did note displeasure over the movement of government helicopters. Peace talks are to resume on Monday, the first talks since they collapsed when rebels refused to sign humanitarian protocols agreed on by all sides. Reuters has more. For more on the crisis in Darfur from JURIST's Paper Chase, click here.

Following up on a story previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon has charged 17 people for their roles in attempting to blow up the Spanish National Court in Madrid, a center of the country's investigations into Islamic terrorism. The group, comprised of Moroccans, Algerians, and one Spaniard, is believed to be part of a cell named the "Martyrs for Morocco," created by Mohamed Achraf, who had already made preparations to acquire the explosives. Eight of the suspects were arrested this past week, while 10 were already imprisoned for other offenses. The charges, filed late Saturday, are not considered a formal indictment and await further investigation. AP has more.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that in response to a request by the CIA, the US Justice Department drafted a memo in March 2004 that authorized the transfer of detainees out of Iraq for interrogation. International law experts say this is an unconventional and disturbing circumvention and reinterpretation of the Geneva Convention, Article 49 of which prohibits "[i]ndividual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory . . . regardless of their motive." The memo of March 19, written by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, acknowledged that both Iraqi citizens and foreigners in Iraq are protected by the Convention, but permits the CIA to take Iraqis out of the country for interrogation for a "brief but not indefinite period." It also permitted the CIA to permanently remove persons deemed to be "illegal aliens" under "local immigration law." One intelligence official said that the CIA has used the memo as legal support to transfer nearly a dozen detainees out of Iraq in the last six months, concealing them from the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Washington Post has more.

Preliminary results show interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai has won a majority of the votes cast in Afghanistan's October 9th presidential elections. The results are still being reviewed to eliminate allegations of voter fraud, but early results show Karzai winning 4,105,122 votes, more than half of the estimated 8,114,071 votes cast. The official announcement may be made next week. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan provides the very latest preliminary results here, broken down by candidate, region, and other crieteria. AP has more.

Sunday's London Telegraph reports that British leaders have set March 2006 as the date for a UK referendum on the proposed European Constitution. EU leaders, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, will sign a draft of the document on Friday in Brussels. A recent poll found 59% of Britons are against the Constitution, most believing that it shifts too much authority to the EU, and the UK Green Party has already pledged to campaign against it. The Telegraph has more.

Voters in Florida are raising questions about the reliability of new touchscreen voting machines deployed in 15 counties to end the problems with paper ballots and "hanging chads" that plagued the 2000 election. Some critics of the new system fear that thousands of votes could be inadvertently deleted, misrecorded, or lost. US Representative Robert Wexler (D-FL) is already suing to force all Florida counties to produce paper results, saying that the new electronic system violates equal protection requirements. AP has more.... The Iowa state Attorney General has ruled that votes cast by provisional ballot in the wrong precinct will still be counted so long as voters are registered to vote in the state. VoteLaw has the AG's opinion here [PDF]. From Iowa, the Quad-City Times has more.... Voters in Arkansas will decide on November 2 if an amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman should be made to the Arkansas Constitution. Eleven other states have similar provisions on their ballots this year. Arkansas News Bureau has more.... Sproul & Associates, a consulting firm employed by the Republican National Committee, has been accused of destroying Democratic voter registration cards in Oregon, Nevada, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It is illegal to tamper with voter registration cards and is a felony in some states. AP has more. On Friday, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported that workers using a project name associated with Sproul may have changed the registrations of PA and Oregon students from Democrat to Republican. The PG has more.

Sunday's New York Times highlights the way US military law has been secretly rewritten since September 11, 2001. The Times also covers the US Supreme Court's denial of Presidential candidate Ralph Nader's plea to be placed on Pennsylvania ballot, the contentious nature of judicial elections in the US, and how California is rethinking its "3-strikes" sentencing law.

Today's Washington Post reports on a US Army Captain's lawsuit designed to block his pending deployment. The Post also covers a federal appeals court holding that will prevent some provisional ballots in Ohio from being counted.