[JURIST] Military judge Col. Stephen Henley Thursday denied a motion by lawyers representing Pfc. Lynndie England to suppress two written statements made by England describing the physical abuse and sexual degradation of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Henley did throw out a third statement, however. CNN has more. JURIST's Paper Chase has ongoing coverage of the Lynndie England case.

[JURIST] US District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema Thursday denied a US government motion to set a trial date in its case against Zacarias Moussaoui. Brinkema stated in her decision [PDF] that her original order [PDF] entered on November 5, 2003 staying the case will remain in effect. Moussaoui, a French citizen, is charged with conspiring with al-Qaida terrorists to carry out the 9/11 attacks; his lawyers had opposed bringing the case to trial while they attempt to appeal pretrial issues to the US Supreme Court. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia provides materials on the Moussaoui proceedings online. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the Moussaoui case here.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that United States ambassador to the UN John Danforth has resigned after barely five months service since his swearing-in on July 1, 2004 following predecessor John Negroponte's move to Baghdad as head of the new US embassy there. The position of US UN ambassador is a Cabinet-level post.

8:45 PM ET - The US Mission to the UN has a scanned copy of Ambassador Danforth's resignation letter, dated November 22, online here [PDF].

[JURIST] NBC News reports that President Bush has nominated former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to replace Tom Ridge as Secretary of Homeland Security. MSNBC has more.

[JURIST] In a settlement that resolves the Eastern District of Missouri's largest-ever healthcare fraud case, Gambro Healthcare, the country's third-largest provider of kidney dialysis, has agreed to pay $350.5 million in civil and criminal penalties for overcharging the government, and its subsidiary Gambro Supply Corporation has agreed to permanent disqualification from the Medicare program. According to an announcement from the office of US Attorney James Martin, Gambro Healthcare acknowledged criminal and civil liability for overcharging for services and making kickbacks to physicians in violation of federal rules. The settlement includes a $310.5 million civil penalty, $15 million to resolve potential liabilities and a $25 million criminal fine. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has more.

[JURIST] Over the objections of real estate developers, California's Sacramento County Board of Supervisors has voted to adopt one of the nation's most far-reaching affordable-housing policies. As of next month, the policy will require developers to set aside 15% of all construction in unincorporated areas for low-income residents, with 3% to be reserved for families earning less than $17,300 a year and the rest split between families at other income levels up to $46,150. The policy is expected to provide about 300 affordable houses and apartments a year in the rapidly-growing region some two hours north of San Francisco. Although the county and other sources will provide $10 million in subsidies annually to cover the difference between the market price of the housing and what the families can afford to pay, the Building Industry Association of Superior California opposed the policy, complaining that one industry was being asked to bear the burden of caring for the poor. The Sacramento Bee has background, and the AP has more on the vote.

[JURIST] In the most thorough revision of Japan's penal and criminal procedure codes since their enactment in 1907, the House of Councillors on Wednesday lengthened prison terms for many felonies, increased the statute of limitations, enhanced victims' rights, and codified gang rape as a crime distinct from and more serious than rape. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun's summary of the changes and the public reaction to them, "the revisions may fall short of the expectations of crime victims and those working in the judiciary." Agence France Presse suggests that the revisions were made in response to public concern about increased crime--arrests were up nearly 10% in 2003--but notes that Japan still has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. The revisions will take effect within three months of their publication in official gazettes. An outline of Japan's criminal procedure system as it stood prior to yesterday's revisions is available from the Library of Congress's Country Studies Series.

[JURIST] A new custody hearing ordered by the Nebraska Supreme Court after a finding that the state violated the due process rights of Guatemalan refugee Mercedes Santiago-Felipe has reunited her with the two American-born children she had not seen in three years. Santiago-Felipe came to the United States and sought asylum more than a decade ago, after her father was killed in Guatemala's civil war. In 2001 her two children were placed in foster care and she was arrested for misdemeanor child abuse after smacking one of them. She was deported when it was discovered that immigration officials had a hold on her for having missed an asylum application hearing years before in Florida. According to Milo Mumgaard of the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest, the state's only effort to inform Santiago-Felipe that it was seeking termination of her parental rights consisted of one small ad in a newspaper, she was not provided with a lawyer while in jail, and she was never told that she could contest her deportation and remain in the US to seek reunification with her children. AP has background on the story.

[JURIST] In Thursday's corporations and securities law news, a federal judge ruling in the Qwest investor lawsuit threw out claims against former Qwest president Afshin Mohebbi, former sales executive Gregory Casey, and some claims against the company. The claims arose from a investor lawsuit accusing the company and its executives of misleading investors in the company's massive accounting and securities fraud. Qwest has already agreed to pay $250 million to investors to settle SEC accusations of a massive accounting fraud at the company. Read the SEC litigation release in the Qwest case here. AP has more.

In other news, the SEC suspended trading for 26 small companies because of a failure to file required financial reports. The suspension will last until December 15 if the companies file the required papers by that date. Read the SEC press release here. AP has more.... As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, the SEC filed civil fraud charges against three former Kmart Corp. executives and five current and former managers of big vendor companies in a $24 million accounting fraud by the company. Read the SEC litigation release and complaint [PDF]. AP has more.... As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, Bank of America has asked the US District Court for the Western District of North Carolina to dismiss a lawsuit filed against it by insolvent Italian dairy company Parmalat. Paper Chase has background on the suit. Dow Jones has more.... The SEC is investigating Jefferies Group Inc., a New York-based brokerage, to determine whether brokers gave gifts to mutual fund executives to win trading business. Bloomberg has more.... As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, Microsoft announced the filing of seven lawsuits against senders of bulk e-mail for violating the federal Can-Spam Act [PDF] by failing to label sexually explicit content. Read the Microsoft press release here. Newsfactor.com has more.... The SEC announced the United States District Court for the District of Columbia has entered final judgments against Discover Capital Holdings Corp., Indianapolis Securities, Inc., and Eli and Ari Dinov, over charges they participated in the fraudulent, unregistered offering of Discover Capital's preferred shares. The Dinovs also consented to a bar which prevents them from associating with any broker or dealer. Read the SEC administrative proceeding barring the Dinovs from further activity in the field here. Read the SEC litigation release here.

[JURIST] Updating an earlier report in JURIST's Paper Chase, the Ukrainian Supreme Court adjourned Thursday without ruling on the opposition's election fraud case, as had previously been anticipated. The court did, however, begin hearing final arguments in the appeal, and will continue to do so Friday. AP has more. Opposition leaders are hoping that the court will set aside the presidential run-off of November 21 as invalid, and will either name opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko president or at the very least open the way for some kind of revote. Indirect pressure on the court increased Thursday as prominent opposition politician Yulia Tymoshenko intimated ominously that the pro-opposition crowds now in the streets of Kyiv could yet take matters into their own hands:

Regarding what is to be done if the Supreme Court does not rule that the election was fraudulent, Tymoshenko stated, "It does not matter whether it suits the politicians or not. What is important is whether it suits the people."

"If the Court does not decide that the election was a fraud, I think that the people will take that very badly, and the actions of the people will be difficult to control."

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the FBI seeking information on why the agency task forces set up to combat terrorism also looked into animal rights, environmental, and anti-war groups. The ACLU is seeking FBI files on individuals and groups that have been interviewed, investigated or subjected to searches by the task forces and also want information on how these task forces are funded. The FBI has denied singling out individuals or groups for investigation based on activities protected by the Constitution's guarantees of free speech and say their agents adhere to the Justice Department guidelines. The ACLU can sue to recover the documents if the FBI declines to turn over the information. The ACLU has more information on its request here. AP has more.

[JURIST] The SEC said Thursday that it had filed charges against three former Kmart executives and various other executives of Kmart vendors alleging that these individuals helped Kmart in issuing materially false financial statements by improperly accounting for millions of dollars worth of vendor allowances. Kmart obtained these allowances for use in various promotional and marketing activities. As a result of the improprieties, Kmart overstated its earnings by some $24 million in 2001. Some of the accused executives have already settled with the SEC without admitting or denying any wrongdoing. Read the SEC litigation release and complaint [PDF]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo announced Thursday that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has upheld the conviction of Lori Berenson, an American woman who was imprisoned in Peru for terrorist collaboration with Marxist guerrillas. The court, which is affiliated with the Organization of American States, debated Berenson's appeal and 20-year sentence last week and was expected to notify her family and the Peruvian government on its decision Thursday. Berenson has spent nine years in Peruvian prisons whiled the case has been appealed twice through Peru's legal system. Berenson's attorneys claim her trial failed to meet international standards for fairness and faced hostile judges who relied upon coerced testimony and tainted evidence from her previous military trial. The appeal to the Inter-American court was her last resort after Peru's Supreme Court upheld a June 2001 conviction for terrorist collaboration in a civilian retrial. The Committee to Free Lori Berenson has more information on the case and related US actions. AP has more.

[JURIST] Microsoft announced Thursday that it has filed seven lawsuits against senders of bulk e-mail for violating the federal Can-Spam Act [PDF]. Microsoft alleges that the defendants violated the law's "brown paper wrapper" requirement by failing to label sexually explicit content. According to Microsoft's press release:

The seven lawsuits allege violations of the CAN-SPAM federal law and Washington state's Commercial Electronic Mail Act, including using compromised computers around the world to route spam e-mail messages, using misleading subject lines, and failing to include an unsubscribe option and physical address. Collectively, defendants in these cases allegedly sent hundreds of thousands of e-mail messages to Internet users.

[JURIST] A Chilean court Thursday stripped former military ruler Augusto Pinochet (profile from BBC News) of his immunity, allowing an investigation into Pinochet's role in the killing of Gen. Carlos Prats to proceed. Thursday's decision is the second case where Pinochet has lost his immunity. As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, a Chilean court ruled in May that Pinochet could be investigated in connection with Operation Condor, an effort by six South American regimes to hunt down and kill their opponents. That decision was later upheld by the Chilean Supreme Court. Pinochet can appeal Thursday's decision to the Supreme Court. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Defense lawyer Joseph Bevilacqua Jr. has acknowledged that he leaked an FBI videotape to Providence, Rhode Island TV reporter Jim Taricani. Taricani was found guilty for criminal contempt for refusing to reveal the source of the tape and was scheduled to be sentenced next week to up to six months jail time. Bevilacqua has said that he did not request that his name be kept confidential, but Taricani said Wednesday that "I would never have jeopardized my health and reputation and put my family and my company through this ordeal if my source had not required a promise of confidentiality." AP has more.

Previously on JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Providence reporter sentenced to prison for failure to reveal source
• Media law brief ~ Reporter held in contempt of court for refusing to give source

[JURIST] The High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan filed a report Wednesday containing over 100 suggestions for improving the role of the UN in preventing and managing global conflicts. Significantly, the report affirmed the right of nations to practice self-defence, including pre-emptive self-defense when an attack is imminent. The Panel also said that the UN Security Council will have to take steps to become involved earlier and more intensively than normal when dealing with situations involving terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction. The report also suggests the creation of a Peacebuilding commission that would identify areas at risk of developing conflicts and stepping in to prevent that result. The text of the Panel report and accompanying materials are available here. The UN News Centre has more.... The UN Security Council is poised to hold emergency meetings Thursday or Friday on the introduction of military troops by Rwanda into neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rwanda has announced that it has sent troops across the DRC's border to track down Hutu rebels inciting conflict inside Rwanda. The Congolese government has asked the UN to condemn the introduction of troops across its border and to impose sanctions on Rwandan President Paul Kagame. The African Union, the European Union, and the United States have all called on both nations to settle the dispute peaceably, and senior US diplomat Donald Yamamoto has been sent to the area to attempt to find a peaceful solution. The alert follows a report yesterday that officials of the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) arrested over 100 individuals suspected of being Rwandan troops. AllAfrica has more on the MONUC arrests. BBC News has more on the Security Council's concerns.... Acting Attorney-General of Zimbabwe Bharat Patel Thursday applied to the Zimbabwe Supreme Court to have the acquittal of opposition MDC party leader Morgan Tsvangirai on charges of treason overturned. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa had originally indicated following the acquittal that the Zimbabwe government would respect the court's decision. Tsvangirai was acquitted of plotting the assissination of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai still faces another treason trial in January for calling for street protests to eject Mugabe from office. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the decision in Tsvangirai's trial. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Bank of America announced Thursday that it has asked the US District Court for the Western District of North Carolina to dismiss a lawsuit filed against it by insolvent Italian dairy company Parmalat. Enrico Bondi, who was appointed by the Italian government to administer the company under bankruptcy protection, filed the suit in October seeking $10 billion in damages for the bank's role in the fraud that led to Parmalat's collapse. In its statement, Bank of America said that "It is widely recognized under U.S. law that a company which has participated in a fraud cannot sue other parties to recover damages from that fraud. Because Bondi filed the suit on behalf of Parmalat and because he admits in his own legal papers the vast fraud carried out by Parmalat management, he is barred from bringing the suit. Only creditors and shareholders of the company would have the right to do so." JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the suit. AP has more.

[JURIST] Sweden's Supreme Court Thursday reinstated the life sentence of the man convicted of murdering Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in a Stockholm department store last year. Mijailo Mijailovic received the life sentence in March, but an appeals court later overturned the sentence, saying that Mijailovic should be transferred to a psychiatric facility instead. The Supreme Court, whose decision is final, said Thursday that although Mijailovic seems to suffer from a "personality disorder," he cannot be characterized as "psychotic" and therefore there is "no requirement to send Mijailo Mijailovic to psychiatric care and there is no reason not to sentence him to prison." AFP has more.

Previously on JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Appeals filed in case of Swedish Foreign Minister murder
• Court overturns life sentence for killer of Swedish foreign minister
• BREAKING NEWS ~ Swedish court sentences Foreign Minister's attacker to life in prison for murder

[JURIST] US District Judge Joyce Hens Green heard arguments Wednesday on whether Guantanamo Bay detainees have the right to challenge their detention in federal court. Lawyers for the government told Judge Green that prisoners deemed "enemy combatants" have no constitutional right to be heard in court. Lawyers for the detainees argued that Judge Green should declare the military tribunal process at Guantanamo invalid because it fails to provide due process of law. Reuters has more. Paper Chase also has ongoing coverage of the situation in Guantanamo Bay.

Previously on JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Gitmo detainee court access stymied by government, lawyers say
• First hearings held in habeas corpus challenges to Gitmo detentions
• Federal judge orders DOD to justify Guantanamo detentions

[JURIST] Legal maneuvers in the Ukraine electoral crisis multiplied late Wednesday and Thursday as the country awaited the Supreme Court's ruling over the opposition's appeal on electoral fraud in the recent Presidential poll, which opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has said he expects later today. Wednesday's parliamentary vote of no-confidence in the government first appeared to put outgoing President Leonid Kuchma in the position of having to dismiss Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the declared winner in the November 21 run-off vote, but so far Kuchma has not done so. Instead he told non-commitally reporters, according to an official statement, that "Such a decision taken by the Parliament has been a response to the aggravation of the political situation in the country. However, the President of the Ukraine will act exclusively in accordance with the Constitution." BBC News now says that the government plans to challenge the parliamentary action in Ukraine's Constitutional Court. Kuchma meanwhile flew to Moscow Thursday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Radio Free Europe has more.

From Kyiv, American lawyer Scott Clark observes this morning on his Foreign Notes weblog that the pending Ukranian Supreme Court ruling represents a moment of truth for the institution:

Some might think this heresy, especially being a lawyer, but I think the Supreme Court could carve out a niche for itself, a niche that would be appropriate in this system of government, by ruling in favor of the people. And this even if they have to do it in the face of what is legal here under the Constitution or the laws of the Ukraine. I keep saying this because it is true: We are not in legal territory right now. Things are not being defined by law but by the interplay of power centers, one of which now is the people on the street. These masses represent the people or at least some substantial portion of them. And they have been competing with other power centers for about 11 days now. They have won some things and other things are not so clear. But there is still power there.

[JURIST] Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Thursday, December 2.

The US House and Senate are in recess. The US House will reconvene on Monday, December 6 at 2 PM. The US Senate will reconvene on Tuesday, December 7 at 9:30 AM.

The trial of Slobodan Milosevic continues Thursday at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Watch a webcast of the trial beginning at 9:30 AM local time (3:30 AM ET); the webcast is on a 30-minute tape delay. The ICTY has background on the case.... Also Thursday, the trial of Fatmir Limaj and his co-defendants continues at the ICTY. Watch a webcast beginning at 2:45 PM local time (8:45 AM ET); the webcast is on a 30-minute tape delay. The ICTY has case information.

At the United Nations, the Security Council will hold 10 AM ET closed consultations on the Democratic Republic of Congo.... Abdallah Baali, Algeria's Ambassador to the UN and President of the Security Council for December, will hold a 12:30 PM ET press conference to brief on the Council's agenda for the month. Watch a live webcast.... At the General Assembly's afternoon session, the Sixth (Legal) Committee will deliver reports on the responsibility of states for internationally wrongful acts, the status of Protocols Additional the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and relating to the protection of victims of armed conflicts, and several other topics. A full list is available here. Watch a live webcast beginning at 3 PM ET.

European Union Justice and Home Affairs Ministers begin a two-day meeting in Brussels Thursday. Watch a live webcast of a Council press conference beginning at 1 PM local time (7 AM ET).