[JURIST] In Tuesday's environmental law news, newly appointed US Department of Agriculture [official website] Secretary Mike Johanns[USDA biography] announced [transcript] at a news conference yesterday that his "top priority" will be working with Japan to resume trade in US beef. Trade was halted in December 2003 after a case of mad-cow disease (BSE) was found in a Washington State cattle. Officials from the US and Japan have been meeting regularly over the past year negotiating a resumption of trade. Last October, an agreement [press release] was reached that would allow the resumption of trade of some cattle and beef products following the completion of regulatory procedures.

In related stories, Senators Tim Johnson (D-SD) and Mike Enzi(R-WY) have introduced a bill (not yet online) that would prohibit the importation of live cattle from Canada until meat is labeled by country of origin, labeling currently required by September 2006. The move was prompted by two cases of BSE in Canadian cattle detected in the last two weeks. AP has more. It is also being reported (no link available) by the Minneapolis Star Tribune that Senator Mark Dayton (D-MN) is currently drafting legislation that would delay the lifting of a ban on the importation of Canadian beef. The ban, in effect since May 2003, is currently scheduled by the USDA to end on March 7.

In other news,

• The Clear Skies Act of 2005 (S.131 - not yet online) was introduced in the US Senate on Monday. The act would phase in tighter caps on emissions of sulfur dioxide, beginning in 2010, and on nitrogen oxides beginning in 2008. It would also put a cap on mercury emissions beginning in 2010. MarketWatch has more.
  
  
• Hoping to comply with federal air-quality standards, the Tennessee Department of Transportation [official website] will begin lowering the speed limit for heavy-duty trucks in counties that request it. Eighteen counties in the state are currently in violation of federal standards for ozone pollution, and reducing the speed of heavy-duty diesel engines in expected to make a dramatic change in the amount of pollution emitted. AP has more.

[JURIST] [JURIST] Trials in two high-profile corporate fraud cases are under way, with the trial of former HealthSouth Corp. [official website] CEO Richard Scrushy beginning Tuesday and jury selection in the retrial of former Tyco Inc. [official website; JURIST Hot Topic] officials being completed. Scrushy faces 58 criminal charges in connection with $2.64 billion accounting scandal that came to light in 2003. He will be the first executive tried under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act [text, PDF] passed in 2002 to address accounting fraud. More than a dozen former HealthSouth officials have pleaded guilty and are expected to testify against Scrushy. Reuters has more. In the retrial of two former Tyco officials facing larceny charges for taking over $600 million in company funds, jury selection was completed Tuesday, and opening statements were scheduled for Wednesday. The first trial ended with a mistrial last April after a juror received a threatening phone call and letter during deliberations. AP has more.

[JURIST] Trials in two high-profile corporate fraud cases are under way, with the trial of former HealthSouth Corp. [official website] CEO Richard Scrushy beginning Tuesday and jury selection in the retrial of former Tyco Inc. [official website; JURIST Hot Topic] officials being completed. Scrushy faces 58 criminal charges in connection with $2.64 billion accounting scandal that came to light in 2003. He will be the first executive tried under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act [text, PDF] passed in 2002 to address accounting fraud. More than a dozen former HealthSouth officials have pleaded guilty and are expected to testify against Scrushy. Reuters has more. In the retrial of two former Tyco officials facing larceny charges for taking over $600 million in company funds, jury selection was completed Tuesday, and opening statements were scheduled for Wednesday. The first trial ended with a mistrial last April after a juror received a threatening phone call and letter during deliberations. AP has more.

[JURIST] Jury selection in the trial of former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers was completed Tuesday, and opening statements began this afternoon. Ebbers faces charges of fraud, conspiracy and filing false regulatory reports in the $11 billion fraud scandal that forced WorldCom, now MCI [official website], into bankruptcy. Read the Ebbers indictment [text, PDF] and superseding indictment [text, PDF]. Ebbers, who pleaded not guilty, is expected to argue that he left accounting decisions to former CFO Andrew Sullivan, who agreed to a plea bargain with prosecutors and is expected to testify against Ebbers. AP has more.

[JURIST] High-profile New York-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] has broken from its practice of not directly endorsing or opposing Cabinet nomineees to issue a formal statement opposing the nomination of White House counsel Alberto Gonzales [JURIST Newsmaker] for the post of US Attorney General. HRW said in a press release Monday that it had serious reservations about the nominee, suggesting that his testimony before the Senate earlier this month showed a "continuing willingness to bend the law in service of a desired policy outcome, rather than an unbending commitment to respecting the law." The Gonzales nomination is also opposed by the lawyers group Human Rights First [advocacy website], which recently publicized a letter [PDF] to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter from several Hispanic law professors opposing the nomination. Read an associated Human Rights First press release. AFP has more. In a statement prior to Gonzales Senate hearing Amnesty International said however that that organization "takes no position on the appointment of individual nominees, however the organization believes that as nominee for Attorney General, the role of Mr. Gonzales in developing US policy on torture deserves close and careful scrutiny." Real the full AI release.

[JURIST] Leading Tuesday's corporations and securities law news, SEC Chairman William Donaldson [SEC biography] stated in a speech today that the agency is considering changes to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act [text, PDF] to ease burden on foreign companies. Companies in both Europe and the US have complained of the costs to meet the act's requirements. European companies also contend that some of the regulations conflict with EU practices. Donaldson has asked the SEC staff to "consider whether to recommend that we delay the effective date of the internal control on financial reporting requirements for non-US companies" in wake of the complaints. Read the text of Donaldson's speech. AP has more.

In other news...

• The SEC [official website] announced an $80 million settlement with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. [firm website] and Morgan Stanley [firm website] over claims the two firms improperly induced investors to buy IPO shares. Each firm will pay $40 million. The settlement marks the end of a two-year-old SEC probe which targeted Wall Street firms accused of favoring their largest customers at the expense of individual investors during the technology boom of the 1990s. Read the SEC press release. Read the SEC litigation release and complaint [PDF] against Goldman Sachs. Read the SEC litigation release and complaint [PDF] against Morgan Stanley. Bloomberg has more.
  
  
• Portland General Electric [corporate website], the last remaining asset of bankrupt energy giant Enron Corp. [corporate website, JURIST Hot Topic], will be bought by the city of Portland, Oregon if state regulators reject a $2.35 billion bid by Texas Pacific Group. The Texas Pacific bid has faced increased scrutiny after the nearly unanimous opposition by the Oregon Public Utilities Commission. Read the mayor of Portland's press release. AP has more.
  
  
• As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, a group of seven federal judges will meet in Fort Myers, FL, Thursday to consider how to handle mounting lawsuits over the painkiller Vioxx [FDA overview; Merck information website], which was pulled from the market by manufacturer Merck & Co. [official website] after it was linked to increased risk of heart attack and stroke. The News-Press has more.
  
  
• The SEC announced former Netease.com wireless division executive Jun Singo Liang has agreed to a $1 million settlement related to alleged insider trading. Read the SEC litigation release. CBSMarketWatch has more.
  
  
• As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, the US government has joined the entertainment industry in arguing before the US Supreme Court that file-sharing services such as Kazaa and Grokster, accused of enabling widespread copyright infringement, should be shut down. The case is MGM Studios v. Grokster, 04-480. The Washington Post has more.
  
  
• The SEC charged Penthouse magazine's former publisher, one of its former executives, and a former investor with accounting fraud. The agency also settled with the magazine's founder Robert Guccione over accusations of poor financial disclosures. Read the SEC litigation release and complaint [PDF] in the matter. AP has more.
  
  
• Halliburton Co. [corporate website] announced its plan to pay about $2.8 billion to complete the funding of the asbestos and silica settlements for its DII Industries and Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiaries that had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Read the Halliburton press release. The Houston Business Journal has more.

[JURIST] The first parliamentary elections in Afghanistan [JURIST countries] under the newly established government of Hamid Karzai may be forced to be delayed due to slow progress on a census of the population. Already delayed once from this fall, the elections are scheduled to be held May 20. However, a deadline to present a finished national census to the country's electoral body three months before the elections cannot be met, according to some political party leaders in the country. Officials conducting the census have reported that work was completed in 30 of the country's 34 provinces, but there were numerous complaints about how the process was conducted in those provinces. A deadline for the establishment of electoral boundaries 120 days before the election has already lapsed [AFP report]. The Pajhwok Afghan News service has more.

[JURIST] The Taiwanese government [Government Information Office website] has urged the US to intensify its opposition to China's proposed anti-secession law [People's Daily report], which is aimed at Taiwan. Joseph Wu, Taiwan's top official for China-Taiwan affairs, admitted late on Monday that there may be no way to stop Beijing from enacting the law, which Taiwan and US officials believe will create further tension between Taiwan and the mainland. Read a statement by Wu. The proposed anti-secession law is being seen as an effort to deter the self-governing Taiwan from declaring independence. US officials have said that they want to see the text of the law before speaking out. Wu was in Washington this week to talk with President Bush and American scholars about the anti-secession law. Wu additionally stated he believed the Taiwan legislature would pass a budget measure next month calling for the purchase of $15 billion worth of weapons from the US, to defend against a Chinese arms buildup. Reuters has more. The preamble to the 1982 Chinese constitution [English translation at the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China official site] states that Taiwan is an indispensable part of China, and that the reunification of the motherland is the duty of all Chinese and Taiwanese people.

[JURIST] The National Telecommunications Commission [official site] in the Philippines has ordered cable operators to shut down all chat rooms, in response to complaints that some had become sex channels. The NTC commented that some chat room operators were not regulating the use of profane language or explicit messages in their facilities. The Philippine Daily Inquirer has more.

[JURIST] Jerzy Urban, editor-in-chief of the Polish weekly newspaper Nie [official site in Polish], was convicted by a court in Warsaw Tuesday for criticizing Pope John Paul II [BBC profile]. Jerzy was found guilty of insulting a head of state, and was fined $6,500. In his 2002 article, titled "Walking Sadomasochism", Urban referred to the Pope's as "the Brezhnev of the Vatican" and an "impotent old man". Urban insisted he was merely exercising freedom of expression, protected under Article 54 of the Polish Constitution [official government site, English translation]. The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders [official site] said the case would set a "dangerous precedent" for a European Union state. BBC has more.

[JURIST] Iran's highest official, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei [official website], told hard-line lawmakers in parliament Tuesday to stop the impeachment of cabinet members appointed by reformist President Mohammad Khatami [official website; BBC News profile]. Ali Khamenei's statement, a rare public political comment, was reported by the Iranian news agency. Conservative lawmakers who won election to parliament last year have already impeached one cabinet member and were expected to pursue the impeachment of two others. JURIST's Paper Chase has more coverage on Iran [JURIST Countries]. VOA News has more.

[JURIST] The US government has joined the entertainment industry in arguing before the US Supreme Court that file-sharing services such as Kazaa and Grokster, accused of enabling widespread copyright infringement, should be shut down. Acting Solicitor Paul D. Clement filed a brief in support of the entertainment industry late Monday. In MGM Studios v. Grokster, 04-480, the Court will review [question presented, PDF] a Ninth Circuit decision [text, PDF] that file-sharing software makers were not liable for copyright infringement by users. The Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on March 29. The Washington Post has more [registration required].

[JURIST] A group of seven federal judges will meet in Fort Myers, FL, Thursday to consider how to handle mounting lawsuits over the painkiller Vioxx [FDA overview; Merck information website], which was pulled from the market by manufacturer Merck & Co. [official website] after it was linked to increased risk of heart attack and stroke. The company is already the subject of a federal investigation [JURIST report] over the painkiller. Documents filed at the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida [official website] show that lawsuits have been filed in 24 federal districts by 378 plaintiffs, and thousands of other plaintiffs may join a class action. Many of the plaintiffs are being represented by a Fort Myers firm, Viles & Beckman [official website]. Merck filed a motion last month to consolidate the cases because of common factual and legal issues. A decision is not expected Thursday and could take several weeks, while the first trial over Vioxx's alleged connection to heart attacks and strokes could come as early as May [AP report]. From Fort Myers, the News-Press has more.

2 PM ET - As many as 140,000 heart attacks in the US may have been caused by Vioxx before it was taken off the market, according to a study published today by Food and Drug Administration safety reviewer David Graham. The study [text, registration required], which could add to the momentum of litigation over the drug, appears in the British medical journal Lancet. Graham used the records of 1.4 million members of Kaiser Permanente, a non-profit insurer, to compare heart-attack rates for those taking Vioxx and other pain killers. From the results, Graham said he estimated that between 88,000 and 140,000 heart attacks had been caused by Vioxx. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] Voter registration by Iraqi nationals in other countries will likely tally 25 percent of the estimated 1.2 million eligible when it closes Tuesday, according to officials organizing the foreign voting program. The Iraq Out-of-Country Voting Program [official website] allows Iraqi nationals living abroad to register and vote [program overview] in Sunday's elections in 14 designated countries, including the US, the UK, Germany and France. Registration was extended two days after initially low turnout for the program, which is being run by the International Organization of Migration [official website]. At the end of Sunday, about 237,704 had registered to vote in the elections for Iraq's interim national assembly. AFP has more. Meanwhile, in Iraq Tuesday, insurgent groups in Baghdad were distributing fliers that threatened potential voters and promised violence at polling stations on Sunday. Iraqi police clashed with those handing out the fliers, leaving 11 policemen dead. Militant groups have pledged to disrupt the first elections, and tensions have mounted as the country prepares to select a 275-seat assembly responsible for drafting a constitution. AP has more.

[JURIST] Four British men held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST Hot Topic] for three years as enemy combatants were returned to the UK Tuesday, after a deal was reached between the US and UK. The four men, Moazzam Begg, Martin Mubanga, Richard Belmar and Feroz Abbasi [BBC News profile], were the only remaining Britons being held at the prison and had previously made allegations of torture [JURIST report]. UK officials said the men, who were being accompanied by police and observers on the return trip, would likely be arrested and questioned upon landing. The Defense Department reported that UK officials had promised the men would not be a security threat after being released. The US alleged that all four trained at al-Qaeda camps. After the transfer, 545 detainees remain at Guantanamo. Read a Defense Department press release. BBC News has more.

12:10 PM ET - BBC News is reporting that the four released Britons have now landed in the UK under police escort.

[JURIST] More complaints of abuse of Iraqi detainees by the US military have surfaced, including reports of electric shocks and sodomy, according to newly obtained military documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union [official website; JURIST Hot Topic]. While it is unclear how many of the reports detail new instances of abuse, the ACLU charged the military Monday with not adequately investigating the complaints, an allegation the military denied. Abuses reported in the documents took place at several locations, although many were at Adhamiya Palace, a former Saddam Hussein villa in Baghdad. The ACLU obtained the new documents, which detail complaints from the time of the abuses at Abu Ghraib up to as recent as this July, through a Freedom of Information Act request. Read the ACLU press release and the newly obtained military documents. The ACLU has a compilation of government documents detailing abuse reports. The Defense Department has more on its detainee investigations in Iraq. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] In the latest of a string of attacks on Iraqi officials in Baghdad, an Iraqi judge was killed outside his home Tuesday morning, according to police. Sources said the judge, Qais Hashim Shameri, and his son were killed in a roadside ambush. Violence against Iraqis has increased in the past several weeks, as insurgent forces attempt to disrupt elections scheduled to be held Sunday. Other officials killed by insurgents include Baghdad's provincial governor and the city's deputy police chief. JURIST's Paper Chase has ongoing coverage [JURIST Countries] of events in Iraq. Reuters has more.

2:15 PM ET - The terrorist group Army of Ansar al-Sunna [Wikipedia article], one of the most active in Iraq, has claimed the killing of Shameri, which comes in the midst of increasing violence in the buildup to Sunday's elections.

[JURIST] Attorney General John Ashcroft [White House biography] has prepared to step down from his post and said goodbye to members of the Department of Justice, whom he has led for the past four years. A crowd of several hundred gathered Monday to hear Ashcroft speak, and he praised the department members' record during his tenure. Ashcroft has been seen as a divisive figure in Washington, drawing praise from administration members and conservative lawmakers while being targeted by many Democrats. DOJ has a summary of accomplishments [text] over the past four years, as well as other annual performance reports. Ashcroft, a former Missouri governor and senator, has not announced his plans following his departure. He will step down when Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales [JURIST Newsmaker] is confirmed. AP has more.

[JURIST] In Tuesday's international brief, Southern Sudan officials Monday ratified the proposed peace treaty between the now-autonomous South and the Khartoum government [official website] of the north. The 224-seat National Liberation Council, the legislative branch of the now-ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement [official website], met over the last two days and voted Monday to ratify the treaty. The document now must be approved by the Sudanese parliament sitting in Khartoum; it is scheduled to begin discussions on Saturday. Once ratified by the Sudanese parliament, the deal is legally binding and opens the door for constitutional reforms that will grant Southern Sudan a minimum of 30% representation in Parliament. It will also create a referendum to be held in six years by the Southern states, in which they will vote on whether or not to remain as part of Sudan, or to break off and form an independent nation. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage [JURIST country archive] of Sudan. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage.

In other international legal news...

• The Countryside Alliance [advocacy website], a pro-hunting group in Britain, has begun its legal challenge to the ban against fox hunting set to take effect February 18. The case before the High Court seeks to have the use of the 1949 Parliament Act [official FAQ] overturned as unconstitutional. The Parliament Act grants the House of Commons [official website] the power to forcefully pass any legislation that would be blocked by approval from the House of Lords [official website]. Pro-hunting groups are challenging the validity of the law, as it never received ratification from the House of Lords. If nullified, the other acts passed using the Parliament Act would become questionable law. JURIST's Paper Chase has background [JURIST report] on the initial dispute over the hunting ban. BBC News has local coverage.
  
  
• Guinea [official website in French] has arrested over 100 individuals allegedly involved in last weeks assassination attempt on President Lansana Conte [official profile in French] during a celebration of his election to a third term of office one year ago. Gunmen reportedly fired at the Conte's motorcade as it wound through the streets of the capital city. The gunmen then apparently discarded their weapons and fled the area, leaving the crowd in shock, and a member of Conte's retinue critically wounded. The Guinean Organisation of Human Rights announced Tuesday that it knew of over a hundred arrests, and suspected double that number, in the investigation, and warned that the conditions the prisoners were being kept in were reprehensible. 53 individuals that had been arrested at a mosque in the nearby area were released Monday, after an elderly imam died while in police custody. It appears that the imam suffered a natural heart attack and died at the hospital while receiving treatment. Individuals released Monday claimed that they had not been questioned or ill-treated. AllAfrica.com has more.
  
  
• A Japanese government panel began debate on the inclusion of female succession to the throne on Tuesday and will report to the Prime Minister [official website] in the fall. The proposal is part of a draft of several possible reforms to the Japanese constitution [official text], but is by far the one attracting the most public interest. The panel will discuss the procedures for allowing a female monarch, as well as questions of preference if a male child were to be born later. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party [party website in Japanese] has proposed a change making the throne a simple hereditary title, regardless of gender, with the crown going to the first child born. The current royal family [official website] has only a daughter, and many Japanese fear the end of the royal line if female rulers are not constitutionally permitted. The proposed change would require approval from the Japanese parliament. JURIST's Paper Chase has background [JURIST report] on the proposed changes to the constitution. The Japan Times has local coverage.

[JURIST] Iraqi prisoners are routinely subject to torture by Iraqi authorities, according to a Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] report released Tuesday. Iraqi prisoners told HRW investigators that they had been tortured or mistreated by kicking, slapping and punching; prolonged suspension from the wrists with the hands tied behind the back; electric shocks to sensitive parts of the body, including the earlobes and genitals; and being kept blindfolded and/or handcuffed continuously for several days. The HRW report, The New Iraq? Torture and Ill-treatment of Detainees in Iraqi Custody [text], also includes allegations that Iraq's intelligence service has violated the rights of members of political parties deemed to pose a threat to state security. HRW has called on the Iraqi government to investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment, saying:

Human rights law recognizes that respect for rights and the rule of law cannot be built on fresh abuses. A new Iraqi government requires more than a change of leadership; it requires a change of attitude about basic human dignity. The new authorities must state unequivocally and publicly that the torture and ill-treatment of detainees will not be tolerated. Equally, it must be made clear to law-enforcement personnel, many of whom held the same jobs under the previous government at a time when torture was the norm, that such abuses are no longer acceptable and will not go unpunished. The current Iraqi authorities have failed to deliver this message, as have their international advisers in assisting them to assume that responsibility. In allowing such abuses to go unchecked while continuing to give absolute priority to bringing the security situation under control, it may prove very difficult further down the line to deliver a police force that the Iraqi people can have confidence in, threatening the ultimate aim of lasting security where basic human rights are respected.

[JURIST] Twenty-three terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay tried to kill or harm themselves as part of a "coordinated effort to disrupt camp operations" in August 2003, US Southern Command [official website] officials confirmed Monday. Only two of the incidents were classified as suicide attempts, where the detainee could have died had a guard not intervened. The remaining cases were deemed self-injury attempts meant to attract attention. Several rights groups have alleged that Gitmo detainees have been mistreated [JURIST report] and released detainees say they were tortured and humiliated [JURIST report] while being held at Guantanamo Bay. CNN has more on the suicide attempts. JURIST's Paper Chase has ongoing coverage of the situation in Guantanamo Bay.

[JURIST] US District Judge K. Michael Moore began hearing a case [Judicial Watch (plaintiff's counsel) press release] Monday against the US government brought by supporters of Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez [Wikipedia article]. The plaintiffs in the case, who were protesting outside the Miami home of Gonzalez's relatives when FBI agents seized the boy in 2000, say the agents used excessive force and are suing for negligence, assault and battery and infliction of emotional distress. During the first day of trial, Judge Moore heard testimony that residents of the Miami neighborhood were tear-gassed for no reason. AFP has more. The Miami Herald has local coverage. Read the original complaint in the case; Judge Moore has since reduced the number of plaintiffs to those who were not on the Gonzalez property or inside the house but were behind police barricades or on their own property.

[JURIST] Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Tuesday, Jan. 25.

On Capitol Hill, the US Senate [official website] will open its session at 9:45 AM ET, and it is scheduled to consider the nomination of Condoleezza Rice for Secretary of State. AP has more on the Rice nomination. C-SPAN has a live webcast. The US House [official website] is scheduled to convene for business at 2 PM ET. Watch a live webcast of the proceedings via C-SPAN.

Two governors will give state of the state addresses today. DE Gov. Ruth Ann Minner [official website] will give her address at 2 PM ET, and a live webcast is available. ME Gov. John Baldacci [official website] is scheduled to give his address at 7 PM ET.

At the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, trials continue today for Slobodan Milosevic [ICTY case backgrounder] and Fatmir Limaj and others [ICTY case backgrounder]. A webcast of the Milosevic trial will begin at 9:30 AM local time [3:30 AM ET], and a webcast of the Limaj trial is scheduled for 2:45 PM local time [8:45 AM ET].