[JURIST] African Union leaders meeting in Nigeria Sunday called for an immediate UN arms embargo against the warring government and rebels in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). The current UN Security Council embargo proposal, scheduled for a vote on Monday, imposes sanctions on the parties beginning on December 10. But summit leaders have requested prompt action to dissuade further violence between the two sides, and a potential all-out war in West Africa. Summit members have also instructed the African Union Peace and Security Council to hold a summit on Cote d'Ivoire within three weeks. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Iran announced Sunday that it has submitted a letter to the UN stating that it would suspend uranium enrichment activities as part of a deal with the European Union to avoid UN Security Council sanctions. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rohani, said the suspension will remain as long as talks with the EU over Iran's nuclear case continued. The agreement keeps in place the preliminary agreement reached a week ago in Paris, previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The White House has ordered new CIA director Porter Goss to eliminate officers from the CIA who are believed to have been disloyal to President Bush or to have leaked to the media damaging information about the conduct of operations in the Middle East, according to former CIA officials quoted in press reports Sunday. One of the first out appears to have been deputy director of clandestine services, Stephen R. Kappes, who the Washington Post reported tendered his resignation Saturday. Former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit, Michael Scheuer, who anonymously authored a book criticizing the administration's handling of the hunt for bin Laden and the war on terror, announced his resignation Thursday. One former senior CIA official said that the White House views the CIA as a "hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda." Newsday has more.

[JURIST] A California group that wants to amend the US Constitution to allow foreign born citizens to run for president is sponsering a series of television ads designed to rally public support. The ads will run in California starting Monday, and will urge residents to give Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other foreign-born citizens the right to run for the nation's highest office. Polls show public support for the amendment is low and constitutional amendments require ratification by 38 states and congressional approval. AP has more.

[JURIST] Palestinians will vote on January 9, 2005, to elect a successor to Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat, who died Thursday. Under the Palestinan Basic Law, elections must be held within 60 days of Arafat's death. Several candidates have announced their intention to run, including PLO leader and former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, current Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, and the leader of Fatah faction Farouk Kaddoumi. Former Fatah activist Marwan Barghouthi, who is serving a life sentence in an Israeli jail, has vowed to run from his cell. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Sunday's New York Times highlights the effect President Bush may have on the US Supreme Court and a trade dispute between the US and Canada over beef exports.

Today's Washington Post covers the scandal surrounding the UN's oil-for-food program and the role the program's head may have played in the controversy. The Post also reports on a US teen charged with attempting to aid a Somalian terrorist group and the way California's successful stem cell ballot initiative could actually slow such research nationwide.