[JURIST] The US Senate Finance Committee released a report Tuesday saying stricter laws may be necessary to prevent insider deals, regulate moneymaking ventures, and open more activities to public scrutiny in large nonprofit organizations. The recommendation follows a two-year investigation of the Nature Conservancy [non-profit website], a nonprofit land conservation organization, which revealed that the charity acted more like a large corporation by maximizing its tax advantages through aggressive planning. Committee Chairman Charles Grassley [official website] released a statement [PDF] saying that "current law has not kept up with the sophistication and complexity of many of today's charities," which are acting in ways that Congress did not intend when it approved tax-exempt laws for nonprofits. The Nature Conservancy, which cooperated with the committee's investigation, said that it has already implemented changes [statement] to address nearly every point of the committee's report. The committee will meet Wednesday [agenda] to review the report and concerns regarding land donations and the tax code in general. Read the Nature Conservancy's review of the Senate committee report [press release]. AP has more.

[JURIST] A criminal investigation has been launched against Florida A and M University for alleged misuse of taxpayer monies, and interim University president Castell Bryant announced Tuesday that A and M law school [official website] dean Percy Luney, Jr. had been placed on paid leave based on the findings of a payroll audit report. Details of the audit are likely to be released on June 30, according to a school spokesperson. Luney became founding dean of the law school in 2001; it received provisional ABA accreditation in 2004. AP has more. The university and the law school have recently been rocked by a series of financial scandals; several weeks ago administrators stepped in to remove Kentucky lawyer Shirley Cunningham Jr. from the university payroll after he made a $1-million donation for a law school chair which was filled by himself at an annual salary of $100,000plus benefits. The St. Petersburg Times has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate Intelligence Committee [official website] late Tuesday approved revisions to the Patriot Act [text] which would expand the FBI's power to subpoena records [JURIST report] in terrorism investigations without receiving the approval of a judge or grand jury. US Senator Dianne Feinstein [official website] voted against the bill since it contained no amendments preventing the power from being used in criminal investigations as opposed to solely the collection of intelligence. The bill will next be considered before the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] where Feinstein and other Democrats plan to propose their amendments again. The American Civil Liberties Union has released a statement [press release] condemning the bill and the "behind closed doors" manner in which it was written. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former US President Jimmy Carter [official biography] closed a two-day human rights conference at the Carter Center [official website] in Atlanta Tuesday by saying that the US should close the Guantanamo Bay military prison camp [press release] and two dozen other secret detention centers in order to show the country's commitment to protecting human rights. Carter's suggestion echoes US Senator Joseph Biden's call on Sunday to close the prison [JURIST report]. In his address Carter also highlighted human rights abuses taking place in other countries such as Indonesia, Chechnya, Colombia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uzbekistan. The conference was sponsored in conjunction with Human Rights First [official website] (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights). AP has more.

[JURIST] Republican Congressman Henry Hyde [official website], chair of the House International Relations Committee, introduced legislation in the US House of Representatives Tuesday calling for broad reforms to the UN. The UN Reform Act of 2005 [PDF text] alleges that the organization is rife with fraud and waste, citing the recent Oil-for-Food scandal [BBC timeline; JURIST news archive] as one example, and would permit the US to withold 50 percent of its UN dues based on what it perceives as poor performance in specific areas. Hyde denounced the current UN for its ""gratuitous anti-Americanism" and castigated the UN Commission on Human Rights [official website] for allowing Cuba and the Sudan to "act as arbiters of human rights" despite their own troubling records. The UN budget in 2005 was $1.828 billion, with the US contributing $438 million. Read the press release on the introduction of the bill. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The US military announced Tuesday [MNF-Iraq press release] that a riot broke out at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison over the weekend after an inmate made a failed attempt to escape from the prison. The "disturbance" took place late Sunday evening after a prisoner was caught trying to break out in the midst of a heavy sandstorm. Four guards and six detainees suffered minor injuries when detainees in several compounds threw rocks at light generators and guards. Military personnel ended the incident and no detainees escaped from the prison. Last week three detainees escaped [Reuters report] from Abu Ghraib through holes in a fence. The US military has not announced if any have been caught. Detainee protests and disturbances [JURIST report] have hit several US detention facilities in Iraq this year in the wake of massive security sweeps that have caused overcrowding. AP has more.

[JURIST] Leading Tuesday's international brief, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail has told reporters that the Sudan government is not planning to challenge the recently announced probe [JURIST report] into Darfur by the International Criminal Court [official website]. Ismail reiterated, however, Sudan's continued opposition to sending anyone charged with war crimes or crimes against humanity to a foreign jurisdiction for trial. Ismail said that Sudan's legal advisor had told them there was room in the ICC's Rome Statute [official PDF text] to allow for the ICC investigation and trial of the alleged abusers within Sudan. A recent UN report on human rights abuses [official PDF text] alleged that the Sudan courts are incapable of conducting fair and impartial trials. Ismail repeated the Sudan government's claim that the national war crimes tribunal [JURIST report] would be sufficient to deal with alleged abusers. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Sudan [JURIST news archive]. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage.

In other international legal news ...

• Kenya's two-year-old National Commission on Human Rights [government website] published its first annual report Tuesday, criticizing the Kenyan government [official website] for its widespread and pervasive failure to cooperate with the investigations of the Commission. KNCHR alleged that it was routinely denied access to police precincts, government offices and records, and that the Kenyan Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs [government website] has purposefully delayed the organization of its codes to prevent the KNCHR from issuing reports on the regulations' compliance with international law. The KNCHR also raised allegations of lack of impartiality, saying that since it received a portion of its funding through the Ministry of Justice budget, it was subject to political pressure to back off on its investigations; a fact that the KNCHR alleges led to it receiving barely one-third of its budget during the past fiscal year. Officials in the KNCHR submitted a request to the Kenyan Ministry of Finance [government website] to receive their funding independent from any other ministry. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Kenya [JURIST news archive]. Kenya's Daily Nation has local coverage.
  
  
• Nearly forty years after its initial conception, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo [official profile] has implemented the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which is intended to provide all Nigerians with basic medical care. Obasanjo has been pushing to activate the program for years, but had to withdraw it on the cusp of implementation several years ago following allegations of abuse by the former NHIS Executive Secretary Muhammad Sambo, who was accused of bribery and corruption during the contracting phase for companies bidding on the ID creation process. Obasanjo alluded to this in his speech, saying that no foreign contractors would be employed for ID creation in light of allegations of abuse. Obasanjo also hinted that Sambo would be brought before Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [government website], although he didn't specify what charges might apply. Obasanjo revealed that nearly $ million (USD) had been budgeted for the NHIS in the upcoming fiscal year. Read the implementing legislation [official text]. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Nigeria [JURIST news archive]. Nigeria's Daily Champion has local coverage.
  
  
• As expected [JURIST report], the Taiwanese National Assembly [government website in Chinese] approved the proposed constitutional reforms up for consideration Tuesday. The approved amendments cut the number of seats in the Legislative Yuan [government website in Chinese] nearly in half, create a single-constituency election process for representatives, and allow for non-territorial and sovereignty-related constitutional reforms to be adopted by public referendum. Unless any new constitutional reforms are brought before the National Assembly, the body will adopt a self-dissolution measure that will permanently disband the quasi-legislative body. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Taiwan [JURIST news archive]. Channel News Asia has local coverage.

[JURIST] Prosecutors for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website] said Tuesday that they will not appeal the provisional release [JURIST report] of former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. A trial chamber of the court granted Haradinaj provisional release [decision text] Monday pending his trial on charges of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws of war [official ICTY indictment], which will begin no sooner than 2007. Haradinaj may return to Kosovo where he will live under UN supervision until his trial. From Belgrade, B92 has more.

[JURIST] UN war crimes prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website] introduced evidence Tuesday that former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic [BBC profile] used his police forces to directly control a brutal Serbian paramilitary group called "Scorpions" said to be responsible for the killings of Bosnian youths documented in a graphic video shown in court [JURIST report] last week. The evidence contradicts previous statements and testimony from Milosevic that the group operated independently from his control. Prosecutors contend that the Scorpions, who ravaged Bosnian and Kosovo Albanian villages by torturing, raping, and murdering citizens, were a regular unit of Serbia's police force throughout the 1990s. The claim bolsters their case against Milosevic [JURIST news archive] by providing a direct link between the former president and wartime atrocities. AP has more.

Meanwhile in Belgrade, all political parties that make up the Serbian parliament have agreed to a declaration condemning all war crimes. The decision is said to be due in large part to publicity of the Scorpions Srebrenica killings video presented at the Hague tribunal. The declaration is meant to assure all those within Serbian borders that they are entitled to justice for wartime atrocities. From Belgrade, B92 has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate voted 65-32 [Senate roll call] Tuesday to limit debate on the nomination of California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown [court profile] to the federal appeals bench, against some opposition from Democrats, some of whom have been blocking her appointment for two years. After a recent bipartisan truce [JURIST report; NRO text] helped the Senate avoid a showdown over judicial nominees, Democrats agreed to pass through Bush's nominations unless there are "extraordinary circumstances" involved. Senator Patrick Leahy, ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that Brown's nomination may be too beneficial to business interests [press release]. Other nominees included in last month's compromise are former Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen [court profile], confirmed by the Senate in May [JURIST report] and just sworn in as a US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judge Monday [AP report], and former Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor Jr., [official profile] who is still awaiting confirmation. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] A Spanish court official said Tuesday that a Spanish judge wants to question three US soldiers in connection with the 2003 killing of Spanish cameraman Jose Couso in Iraq when a US tank fired on a Baghdad hotel housing foreign journalists. High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz began requesting information [JURIST report] about the death of Couso in 2004, although the Pentagon had previously cleared the soldiers [Reporters Without Borders report] of any responsibility. If questioned in Spanish court, the soldiers would be treated as suspects for murder facing a sentence of 15 to 20 years in jail, and for allegedly committing crimes against the international community which carries a sentence of 10 to 15 years in jail. An anonymous US State Department source told Reuters it would be "a very, very cold day in hell before that would ever happen", and legal sources for the US Army also say that it is unlikely that the soldiers would be questioned. If warrants were issued for the soldiers' arrest, they would only be valid for arrest in Spain. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] British Prime Minister Tony Blair [official website] said in an interview [FT report] Tuesday with the Financial Times that Britain will attempt to salvage some key components from the nearly-defunct EU Constitution. UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Jack Straw [official profile] stated meanwhile that provisions on the voting power of member nations and role of national parliaments could be implemented without a formal constitutional agreement. The European Constitution was to have been subject to a British referendum, but this was indefinitely postponed Monday [JURIST report] after the document's rejection by both France [JURIST report] and the Netherlands [JURIST report]. The Constitution's fate will be decided on June 16 and 17 when EU leaders are expected to meet in Brussels to discuss the charter in crisis. Britain is the next country to take over the rotating presidency of the EU this upcoming July. AFP has more.

[JURIST] A Libyan court announced Tuesday that nine police officers and one doctor have been acquitted of torturing five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who were allegedly forced to confess to deliberately infecting Libyan children with HIV. The six medical workers were convicted of infecting 426 children [JURIST report] last year and then sentenced to death by firing sqaud, although they maintain that they were forced to confess [JURIST report] because Libya was unwilling to admit that unhygenic conditions were to blame for the infections. Libya's Supreme Court is expected to rule on their appeal on November 15 2005. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Santiago Appeals Court, the intermediate appellate jurisdiction in Chile, stripped former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet [JURIST news archive] of immunity Tuesday so he can face charges of tax fraud in connection with as much as $17 million he held in secret bank accounts, some in the US [JURIST report]. Riggs Bank eventually settled cases with the US Justice Department [JURIST report] and with families of victims [JURIST report] for their role in maintaining the accounts. Pinochet's defense team is expected to appeal to the country's Supreme Court. Twice before his immunity was revoked in response to charges of human rights abuses during his rule. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A Jordanian appeals court has overturned the conviction of a Jordanian man for financing al Qaeda-linked terrorist Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi [BBC profile] in an opinion obtained by the Associated Press Tuesday. According to the Court of Cassation [Jordian Judicial Branch backgrounder], the original decision of the military State Security Court convicting Bilal Mansur al-Hiyari "fell short of adequate justifications and causes." A US Treasury Department report [press release] earlier this year said al-Hiyari became acquainted with al-Zarqawi in Afghanistan in 1989, then traveled to Iraq in 2003 to deliver funds to al-Zarqawi's insurgent network. Al-Hiyari is still designated by the US as a terror financier. AP has more.

[JURIST] A three-judge panel of the US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously upheld [opinion, PDF] two Florida laws that require sex offenders to register with the state and submit a DNA sample after release from prison. A group of offenders challenged the laws anonymously as violations of constitutional rights, but in its decision Monday the court upheld them as "rationally related to a legitimate government interest". AP has more.

[JURIST] Closing arguments began Tuesday in a US government lawsuit filed against tobacco companies over five years ago. The suit went to trial eight months ago and is expected to wrap up this week. Federal prosecutors filed suit [AP report] under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) [text], claiming the tobacco companies conspired to mislead the public about the dangers of smoking. During the case, a federal appeals court ruled that the government could not seek a $280 billion penalty [JURIST report] against the companies for past profits, instead limiting relief to prevention of future violations. This means that even if the judge rules in favor of the government, a highly-damaging penalty is unlikely. Although the trial wraps up this week, there is little indication how US District Judge Gladys Kessler [official profile] will rule or when a ruling is expected. The massive proceeding encompasses 44,000 pages of testimony, 83 live witnesses, and about 6,700 exhibits at a cost to the government of $130 million. The US Department of Justice provides documents and background materials on the tobacco litigation. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Washington state GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi [campaign website] announced late Monday that he would not appeal the ruling of a Washington state judge [JURIST report] upholding the heavily disputed 2004 gubernatorial election of Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire [official website]. Without expanding upon his comment, Rossi stated that the "political makeup" of the state's Supreme Court would make it almost impossible to overturn the ruling. The Seattle Times has local coverage.

[JURIST] Speaking at a UN press conference [RealPlayer audio] Monday Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said that the US Senate would confirm John Bolton [JURIST news archive] as the new US ambassador to the UN by the "tiniest" of margins. Bolton, a vocal critic of the United Nations, has had a vote on his appointment delayed twice amidst accusations from Senate Democrats [JURIST report] that he is unfit for a diplomatic position. Bolton's nomination arrived in the Senate without a full committee endorsement [JURIST report], and Leahy said the Senate approval margin would be the smallest ever for the position. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Bolivian President Carlos Mesa [Wikipedia profile, official website in Spanish] tendered his resignation late Monday for the second time in four months following weeks of protests [BBC report] throughout the country. The Bolivian Congress rejected his first attempt to resign under similar circumstances in March. In an attempt to end the confrontations Mesa last week initiated a process to change the nation's constitution [JURIST report]. ISN has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate is expected next week to approve a resolution [text] apologizing for its historical failure to pass anti-lynching legislation. Senate filibusters blocked over 200 such bills in the first half of the 20th century. The resolution expresses the "most solemn regrets of the Senate to the descendants of victims of lynching". Doria Dee Johnson [personal website], whose great-great grandfather was a victim of lynching, and a cousin of Emmett Till [JURIST news archive], who was murdered in 1955 for reportedly whistling at a white woman, are both expected to be on hand for the Senate vote on Monday along with other descendants of victims. AP has more.

[JURIST] The FBI Monday issued [press release] a preliminary report [PDF] showing that the nation's murder rate dropped 3.6 percent in 2004, while violent crimes were down 1.7 percent. Property crimes also fell 1.8 percent. The murder rate had previously risen for the past three years. Large cities and small towns showed the biggest improvement; murders in cities of 1 million or more dropped 7.1 percent, and in towns under 10,000, 12.2 percent . USA Today has more.

[JURIST] A treaty designed to encourage regional cooperation among Balkan states in war crimes trials appeared unlikely to materialize after Croatia on Tuesday ruled out allowing extraditions of suspects. The treaty, drafted by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe [official website], will be reviewed at a conference on Wednesday by representatives from Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Croatia said it was willing to co-operate with the other states in other ways aside from extraditing defendants. B92 has more.

[JURIST] Following the UK's lead [JURIST report], Poland announced Tuesday that it may delay a scheduled October vote on the embattled European Constitution [JURIST news archives]. Although France and the Netherlands had already voted agains ratifying the document, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chanceller Gerhard Schroeder have lobbied to keep the process alive [JURIST report]. Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski [official website] said he will decide how to proceed after the June 16-17 summit in Brussels that will discuss the future of the constitution. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Majority Shiite members of the special parlimentary committee mandated to draft the charter for Iraq's constitution [JURIST report] have balked at Sunni calls for greater representation in the constitutional process, with some urging that the body simply get on with its job without even waiting for the Sunnis to name experts [JURIST report] who would be willing to play a supporting role. Sunni Arabs, who boycotted the December elections [JURIST news archive] and now have only 2 of the 55 seats on the committee, have demanded are as many as 25 seats on the committee, with voting rights equal to lawmakers. Bahaa al-Araji, the committee's coordinator and a Shiite deputy, has rejected the latter proposal, claiming exclusive lawmaking rights for those who participated in the electoral process, but has said that allowing 13 Sunnis to join would be ideal as it would even out participation between Kurds and Sunni Arabs, who make up a similar share of the overall population. In the meantime the committee has set its own conditions for new members: former members of the Baath party will not be admitted, while Sunni candidates must publicly announce a "positive" attitude about the political process and have support from their communities. Iraq's National Assembly [Wikipedia profile] has until August 15 to write a constitutional draft, which would go to a nationwide vote two months later. If adopted, the constitution would provide the guidelines for a general election in December. AP has more.

[JURIST] A former top executive in Berkshire Hathaway's [corporate website] Gen Re [corporate website] insurance group, will plead guilty later this week to one count of conspiracy, according to his lawyer. John Houldsworth is charged with conspiring to misstate the financial statements of AIG [company site], the biggest insurance company in the US. Houldsworth would be the first to plead guilty in a series of probes into charges [JURIST report] that AIG manipulated the appearance of its financial health. A separate civil complaint was also filed against Houldsworth and other Gen Re executives alleging that they aided and abetted AIG's securities fraud. Read the SEC press release. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST) [official website, English version; JURIST news archive] has denied recent reports [press statement] that the trial of Saddam Hussein is imminent, perhaps getting underway in the next two months [JURIST report] with the first of 12 specific cases against him [JURIST report]. The Tribunal stressed its independence from any political timetable possibly relating to the country's constitution-drafting process, stating "Any appointment to start the trials belongs to the decision of the judges who will take a look at the claims against the accused after finishing the investigation procedures." It is expected that the former Iraqi president captured in December 2003 will be tried for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide relating to gassing Kurds in Halabja in 1988 [BBC backgrounder], suppression of Shi'ite and Kurd uprisings [BBC backgrounder] and the prosecution of the 1990-91 war against Kuwait. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A New York state housing group claimed in a report [advocacy report, PDF] released Monday that nearly half of the real estate agencies in New York City's northern suburbs treated blacks and Hispanics unfairly, according to recent tests. The federal Fair Housing Act [official site] passed in 1968 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and handicap or disability. The Westchester Residential Opportunities [advocacy site] says that prospective minority renters were shown systematically different apartments than white prospective renters or even not shown apartments at all, a practice known as "steering". The group is filing complaints about seven agencies with the New York Attorney General and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. AP has more.

[JURIST] New York-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch Tuesday accused the Uzbekistan government of attempting to cover up May a "massacre" in the city of Andijan by blocking an inquiry into the killing of protestors last month by government troops [JURIST report]. The group released a report that said many questions about the killings remain unanswered, including the death toll, which some witnesses place as high as over 500 unarmed demonstrators. The government says the number is 173 and that most of those were armed terrorists. HRW provides a backgrounder on the Uzbekistan incident; the Tuesday report is not yet available online. Reuters has more.

5:30 PM ET - HRW has now posted its report and an accompanying press release.