[JURIST] Former Walt Disney Company directors Roy Disney and Stanley Gold filed suit against current Disney directors [press release; SaveDisney.com advocacy website] including former Disney CEO Michael Eisner Monday for fraud and breach of duty in connection with the public disclosure of information concerning the election of a new CEO for the entertainment giant while searching for Eisner's replacement after his announced retirement [JURIST report]. Disney and Gold had previously announced that as shareholders they would withhold their votes on a new CEO [press release] until the "Disney Board adequately addressed the issues that resulted in the unprecedented vote of "No Confidence" [press release] at last year's annual meeting." The current suit alleges that the Disney Board disclosed false information about the CEO search to convince Disney shareholders to vote for the incumbent Board, while ignoring an alternate slate of directors introduced by Disney and Gold. The suit, filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery, asks that the 2005 Board elections [Disney press release] be declared null and void and that new elections be held. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue [official website] signed a bill Monday which effectively bans smoking in almost all public places in the tobacco-growing state. The Georgia Smokefree Air Act of 2005 [PDF text] would still allow smoking in bars that exclude children under 18, certain workspace areas with independent air systems, and designated smoking hotel/motel rooms. Violators of the new smoking ban face fines anywhere from $100 to $500 dollars. It was previously unclear whether the Republican governor would pass the contrioversial bill, as he initially said he had serious doubts about it [AP report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] In a statement issued Monday while visiting Europe for World War II commemorations, President Bush once again urged the Senate to put his judicial nominees to an up-or-down vote [White House press release]. Two of the nominees highlighted in the Monday statement, Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen [US DOJ OLP profile] and North Carolina US District Judge Terry Boyle [US DOJ OLP profile], were nominated by Bush four years ago to fill vacancies on the federal appeals bench and have twice been passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] only to be filibustered on the Senate floor by Democrats, prompting recent GOP efforts to ban filibusters on judicial nominations [JURIST report]. Both nominees have been rated as well-qualified by the American Bar Association. UPI has more.

[JURIST] Mississippi state Attorney General Jim Hood [official website] announced Monday that under the terms of a settlement agreement with the state telecommunications giant MCI [corporate website] will hand over $100M cash to cover back taxes owed by its predecessor, WorldCom, as well as turn over WorldCom's former headquarters in downtown Jackson. WorldCom was charged for accounting fraud in the amount of $11 billion in 2002 and ex-CEO Bernard Ebbers was found guilty in March 2005 [JURIST report] for his role in the debacle. Hood stated that the settlement agreement with MCI, which denies any wrongdoing, was filed Monday in US Bankruptcy Court in New York and that he expects the court's approval later this week. AP has more.

[JURIST] William Higgins, holder of a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) [corporate website], filed suit in New York state court Monday in a bid to block the NYSE merging with electronic stock market Archipelago Holdings. The merger announced last month would transform the NYSE into a public, for-profit organization [JURIST report]. Higgins alleges that NYSE Chief Executive John Thain [official profile] and the exchange's board of directors agreed to a merger that would be unfavorable to NYSE seat holders and in breach of their own fiduciary duties. Higgins filed a similar suit against adviser to the merger Goldman Sachs Corp [corporate website], where Thain was president, citing conflict of interest. AP has more.

[JURIST] Iran's Guardian Council [BBC backgrounder], the legislative watchdog panel composed of six lawyers and six Islamic clerics, Monday rejected a bill that would have allowed abortion during the first four months of pregnancy when the mother's life was endangered or a child would be born with a severe handicap which would financially burden the family. The bill had passed [AFP report] the conservative Majlis [official website], Iran's Parliament, in April. The legislation was expected to help the growing problem of underground abortions in Iran [backgrounder]. Both Iran's Parliament and Guardian Council have a history of rejecting bills extending women's rights. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Spanish government has announced that it is granting some 700,000 work permits to previously-illegal immigrants who could prove that they had lived and worked in Spain for at least six months. As of Saturday, the final day immigrants could apply for amnesty in the latest drive launched in February [BBC report], 672,347 workers in underground jobs had filed for the new permits. Another 400,000 permits are expected to be granted to clildren and close relatives of these immigrant workers. The predicted number of undocumented immigrants in Spain is somewhere between 1.4 million and 2 million, a number that continues to grow with Spain's booming economy. ISN has more.

[JURIST] An Israeli newspaper reported Monday that senior officers in the Israel Defense Forces [official website] want to pre-emptively detain a number of Israeli extremists before the planned Gaza Strip pullout [JURIST report] and evacuation of settlements this summer. On Sunday, authorities acting on orders of the Israeli Defense Minister arrested Jewish settler Neria Ofan, who will be held without charge or trial under administrative detention [Amnesty International backgrounder] on suspicion that he is connected to terror and will stage violent protests against Palestinians during the pullout. Administrative detention is frequently used to hold Palestinian militants, but is very rarely used against Jews. Ofan and other extremist Jews had threatened to storm the Temple Mount, a holy site revered by Jews and Muslims, this summer to pull police from Gaza to Jerusalem. A Jewish activist group, Revava [advocacy website], has similarly announced plans to storm the shrine on the first day of each Jewish calendar month. AP has more; Haaretz has local coverage.

[JURIST] Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon [official profile] announced Sunday that he will postpone the release of 400 Palestinian prisoners, alleging that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is not upholding his promise to pressure Palestinian militants into a ceasefire. Abbas responded that Sharon was acting in bad faith and was harming the agreements made at February 8 summit [JURIST report]. Sharon released 500 prisoners [JURIST report] after the meeting. Since then a suicide bomber has killed five Israelis, and the Gaza Strip has remained under rocket and mortar fire, although the incidence of violence has decreased sharply since the ceasefire. Abbas fears that violence may again escalate if more prisoners are not released. Some 8000 Palestinians [Palestinian Prisoners Society advocacy website] are held is Israeli jails. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] New legal documents filed by convicted spy Jonathan Pollard [defense website] include allegations that Pollard has been tortured during his US imprisonment. Pollard was arrested in 1985 and was convicted of spying for Israel while he was a civilian intelligence analyst for the Navy. In a petition [Hebrew text; DOC] to the Israeli Supreme Court, Pollard alleges that he was kept naked for more than a year in solitary confinement in subzero temperatures, that he has been soaked with ice water and that he was forced to sleep on a bare concrete slab. Pollard also alleges that his US jailers have lied to him about arrangements made by the Israeli government for his release. Pollard's petition to the Israeli Supreme Court asks the court to force the government to declare him a Prisoner of Zion, a status which would require Israel to do all it can to secure Pollard's release. AP has more.

[JURIST] The trial of two Rwandan men accused of war crimes during the 1994 Rwandan genocide [BBC backgrounder] begins Monday in Brussels. Half-brothers Etienne Nzabonimana and Samuel Ndashyikirwa are accused of helping the Hutu militia and are charged under Belgium's universal jurisdiction law, which allows the prosecution of war crimes suspects even if the suspects are not Belgian and the crimes were committed outside Belgium. Belgian courts were flooded with war crimes lawsuits after four Rwandans, including two nuns, were convicted in 2001 of participating in the genocide. Belgium's law has since been amended to require suspects to live in Belgium, as was the case when Nzabonimana and Ndashyikirwa were arrested in 2002. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A week after Nepal's King Gyanendra [official website; BBC profile] lifted a state of emergency [JURIST report], the country's seven political parties have joined together to present a common agenda that demands a return to democracy and constitutional reforms to limit the monarchy's power. Speaking on behalf of all the parties, Mahesh Acharya of the Nepali Congress Party [official website] said that reinstating parliament is the top priority of the common agenda. The parties are also calling on Gyanendra to release all political detainees, restore press freedom and scrap a royal anti-corruption body known for targeting political opponents of the king. Gyanendra has faced great international criticism since sacking the government and declaring a state of emergency [JURIST report] in February. The political parties hope that their common agenda will increase pressure on Gyanendra and Nepali Congress President Girija Presad Koirala has called on the US, Britain and India not to resume military assistance [BBC report] to the country unless civil liberties are restored. AP has more. Kantipur Online has local coverage in English.

[JURIST] Egypt's upper house of parliament Sunday approved an amendment to the Egyptian Constitution [text] setting regulations for Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential election despite fear in some quarters that the guidelines would exclude serious contenders from running. Egyptians have typically cast a confidence vote to approve a presidential candidate selected by Parliament, but Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak [official profile] called for multi-candidate elections [JURIST report] earlier this year. The regulations, which specify that a presidential candidate must either be a member of an official political party or, if independent, get a minimum of 65 recommendations from elected members of the lower house, 25 from the Shura council and 10 from local councils from at least 14 governorates, are expected to pass the lower house Tuesday. Opposition groups contend that the guidelines make it nearly impossible for any serious candidates to get approved by the elected bodies, which are dominated by Mubarak's party members. An Egypt-based Islamic opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood [backgrounder], has already protested the new regulations, which it believes will restrict candidates like jailed Islamic militant Essam el-Erian [Al Ahram profile/interview] from running in the election [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The families of ten British soldiers killed in Iraq announced Sunday that they are filing suit against Prime Minister Tony Blair's government in the International Criminal Court [official website] for war crimes. Their group, Military Families Against the War, had previously demanded a full public inquiry into the soldiers' deaths [JURIST report]. The alleged war crimes include the unlawful UK use of faulty cluster bombs [FAS backgrounder] and the destruction of essential power supplies which could affect hospitals and water. Blair's government has been harshly criticized over recently leaked documents [JURIST report] indicating that UK Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, had reservations about going to war in Iraq which were never passed on to lawmakers or senior British military personnel. In the same documents Goldsmith had expressed concern about possible UK liability for Iraq war activities in the ICC. The Independent has local coverage.