[JURIST] Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker [official profile], whose country currently holds the EU Presidency [official website], said Thursday that EU leaders have decided to extend the ratification deadline [JURIST report] for the proposed European constitution until at least 2007. The announcement came after the first day of an EU "crisis summit" [press release regarding agenda] forced to address the treaty's future in the wake of "No" votes in France [JURIST report] and the Netherlands [JURIST report]. An original ratification deadline of November 2006 was deemed to be "no longer tenable" according to Juncker. Britain first cancelled its referendum [JURIST report] last week; Denmark has since followed suit and Irish officials say their government is likely to shelve its vote. Some of the 25 countries attending the summit called for a definite break in the ratification process, but Belgium, German and French leaders disagreed. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Leading Thursday's securities and corporations law news, "Big Four" accounting firm KPMG [corporate website] has apologized for creating illegal tax shelters. The firm vowed to clean up its practices and culture. The apology is part of an effort by KPMG to avoid the type of criminal prosecution that seriously damaged rival firm Arthur Andersen. Read the KMPG press release. Reuters has more.

In other corporations and securities law news...

• The SEC [official website] has subpoenaed Philadelphia Consolidated Holding Co. [corporate website] for information on its dealings with Berkshire Hathaway [corporate website]. The subpoena asks for information about reinsurance products, where one insurance company insures another. The subpoena is part of an ongoing government probe into the reinsurance industry. Philadelphia Consolidated has issued a press release. AP has more.
  
  
• BJ’s Wholesale [corporate website] has settled with the FTC [official website] over charges that the company negligently allowed thieves access to customers financial information. The thieves gained access to the credit and debit card numbers for thousands of BJ’s customers, spending millions of dollars. Read the FTC press release. Reuters has more.
  
  
• Yoshiaki Tsutsumi [Wikipedia profile], the Japanese railroad and resort tycoon who was once considered the world’s wealthiest man, pleaded guilty Thursday to corporate fraud in Tokyo District Court. Tsutsumi ran Seibu Railway [Japanese corporate website] for many years. AP has more.

[JURIST] A father and son were indicted [US DOJ press release, PDF] by a federal grand jury in California Thursday for allegedly lying to the FBI about the son attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan with connections to al-Qaida. Umer Hayat and his son Hamid Hayat were arrested and charged [JURIST report] last Wednesday after the father admitted he paid for his son to attend the camp, which was run by a friend of the Hayat family. The FBI alleges that Hamid attended the camp for six months in 2003 and 2004 with plans to execute attacks on the US upon his return. The Hayats are challenging the government [JURIST report] because two different affidavits outlining the charges against them were released - one version to the court and another version to the media. Both men are US citizens and have pleaded not guilty. They are expected to appear in court Tuesday. Read the full text of the indictment [PDF] and the complaint. AP has more.

[JURIST] Leading Thursday's states brief, the Supreme Court of Georgia has warned criminal trial judges to be careful in the way they instruct juries about weighing the value of eyewitness identification. In a decision [PDF text] today, the Court said "We can no longer endorse an instruction authorizing jurors to consider the witness's certainty in his/her identification as a factor to be used in deciding the reliability of that identification" and warned trial courts not to do so. The ruling overturned an armed robbery conviction in which the trial judge instructed the jury to consider the witness's certainty as a factor to decide the reliability of the identification. The only evidence against the defendant was two-eyewitness identifications. AP has more.

In other state legal news ...

• Vermont State Attorney General William H. Sorrell has asked the US Supreme Court to review [press release] whether the state's campaign finance reform law is constitutional. In a decision earlier this year, the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] ruled that Vermont can limit spending on all state races. The ruling was the first in the nation to hold spending limits as constitutional and not a violation of a candidate's First Amendment right to free speech. The law was supposed to become effective in 2000, but has been put on hold pending appeals. Rutland Herald has local coverage.
  
  
• A federal district court has ruled that Maryland can proceed with its plans to start killing mute swans, ending a two year challenge from some animal-rights groups. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources wants to kill the swans because of their negative impact on the environment [DNR Mute Swan Management Plan]. Two years ago when animal rights groups first challenged the DNR's right to kill the swans, US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan found in favor of the animal rights groups. Last year, however, a Maryland Representative placed language into a federal spending bill that essentially removed the swans from protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act [text]. In his opinion [PDF text], Judge Sullivan said, "The record in this case indicates that Congress did express clear intent to exclude non-native species, including mute swans, from the protections afforded to other migratory birds by the Conventions and the MBTA." The Humane Society has not ruled out further lawsuits to prevent Maryland from killing the mute swans. The Baltimore Sun has local coverage.
  
  
• Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell [official website] has signed into law [press release] a bill that provides immunity from civil liability for employers who disclose the work histories of current or former employees. The work history information must be requested by the employee or a prospective new employer. The bill [text] allows employees or former employees to sue if they can show that the employer or former employee did not act in good faith. AP has more.

[JURIST] Chechen rebel leader Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev ordered the murder of American journalist Paul Klebnikov [Wikipedia profile] according to a report released Thursday by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office. Klebnikov, editor of the Russian edition of Forbes, was shot to death in Moscow last July [JURIST report]. He had written a book in which he referred to Nukhayev as a criminal, a remark that caused Nukhayev to order the hit in retaliation. Nukhayev and two others involved in the murder are currently being sought by law enforcement officials. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Canada [official website] ruled [opinion] Thursday that police at roadside DUI checkpoints do not have to inform suspects of their right to legal counsel before asking them whether or not they had been drinking or requesting them to perform sobriety tests. In accordance with Canadian criminal procedure, the court ordered new trials for two men who had been acquitted for driving under the influence after their lawyers argued that they must be informed of their right to legal counsel under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [text]. CBC News has more.

[JURIST] Leading Thursday's international brief, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights [Zim Human Rights Forum backgrounder] have filed an official appeal with the African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights [official website], the regional human rights body in Africa, to intervene in the continuing mass evictions authorized by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe [Wikipedia profile] and prevent further evictions and the destruction of informal traders' places of business. ZLHR had previously filed suit [JURIST report] against the Zimbawean government for allegedly violating the Zimbabwean Constitution to carry out the mass evictions. The evictions program, defended by Mugabe as 'necessary to clean up the streets and cities of Zimbabwe,' has been severely criticized by the European Union, the United Nations, Amnesty International, the UK, and the US, as well as numerous international and local human rights and religious groups. The ACHPR has the power only to make recommendations to member governments and cannot enforce its decisions concerning government actions. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Zimbabwe [JURIST news archive]. ZimOnline has local coverage.

In a related development in Zimbabwe, the Bulawayo Upcoming Traders Association has succeded in getting a local High Court to schedule a hearing for an injunctive relief case against Bulawayo Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri in order to force him to cease the destruction of the places of business of informal traders in the Zimbabwean city. Counsel for the Traders Association, Robert Ndlovu, is arguing that the evictions are illegal as the traders had been properly licensed under Bulawayo [official website] municipal bylaws, and that the police carrying out the evictions failed to follow proper procedure in enforcing the eviction notices, thereby invalidating the process. The hearing is scheduled for early next week. ZimOnline has local coverage.

In other international legal news ...

• The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia [government website] has announced that it will be investigating the circumstances surrounding voting in around 200 of the nation's 524 parliamentary seats that were open for election in light of complaints filed by both ruling and opposition party officials. Ethiopia has been rocked by increasing violence [JURIST report] during protests against alleged fraud [JURIST report] during the 15 May national elections, the first of four elections designed to reintroduce a democratic government in the nation for the first time in decades. The electoral board annonced that over 20 teams would be set up to investigate the allegations, which range from simple voter fraud to violent intimidation of voters by soldiers carrying automatic weapons. The NEB has invited observers from African Union, the European Union, and the Carter Center to oversee the process. A breakdown of the exact number of contested seats and their locations is scheduled to be released Friday. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage.
  
  
• Chairman Samuel Kivuitu of the Electoral Commission of Kenya [government website] warned Wednesday that the current structure of the Constitution of Kenya Review (Amendment) Act 2004 [official text] is insufficently detailed to allow for a smooth review and eventual adoption of a new constitution for Kenya. Chief among his complaints was the lack of a Referendum Act in the CKRA that clearly defined the process for conducting the national referendum required by the CKRA to implement a new constitution. Kivuitu warned that the CKRA was silent on who was allowed to participate in the referendum (the act only refers to the 'people of Kenya'), what procedures would be implemented for monitoring and observing the process to ensure fair and impartial voting, and what role the judicial branch would have in deciding any legal challenges to the referendum. The Constitution of Kenya Review Commission [government website] has yet to set a timeline for the likely introduction of a detailed information concerning the proposed changes to the current constitution [official text]. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Kenya [JURIST news archive]. Kenya's Daily Nation has local coverage.

[JURIST] The commander of Dutch UN troops in Srebrenica in 1995 told a preliminary hearing at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website] Thursday that he did not know Serbian forces had begun killing Muslim men and boys until it was too late. Ton Karremans said that initally his orders had been to protect refugees but when it later became clear that Dutch troops could not intervene they began "observing" Srebrenica's evacuation. An independent Dutch report [text] later showed that Muslims set to be evacuated were mistakenly advised by Dutch troops to exit the military camp, leading to their deaths at the hands of Bosnian Serb troops. The hearing was held to determine if there is sufficient evidence for family members of those massacred at Srebrenica [Wikipedia entry] to take legal action against the Netherlands. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Chief lawyer to Saddam Hussein Ziad Khasawneh [Atlantic Monthly profile] Thursday accused the Iraqi Special Tribunal [official website] and the US government of purposely ignoring repeated requests for legal documents and effectively keeping defense counsel unaware of the trial timetable. Khasawneh, a Jordanian and head of the Committee for the Defense of Saddam Hussein, said in an interview that he received no advance warning that Saddam was to be questioned about the 1982 massacre in Dujail [JURIST report]. Khasawneh said that although Saddam claimed innocence with regard to the nearly 160 villagers killed, "it is normal that any president in the world who comes under an assasination attempt. . . punishes those involved." Tribunal officials maintain that the trial will not be rushed [IST press release] to please Iraq's current government. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] British millionaire Friedhelm Eronat has been awarded oil rights for the Darfur region of Sudan [backgrounder], an area where the Sudanese government has been accused of war crimes and mass murders. Human rights groups like Global Witness [advocacy website] are outraged that anyone is doing business with Sudan's government before a peace settlement has been reached. Eronat, rumored to be worth over $100 million, acquired his fortune through oil transactions, especially those dealing with his offshore company, the Cliveden Group. Sudan's rebel Justice and Equality Movement [official website] believes that the purchase of Darfur's oil rights will further inflame the conflict. The Guardian has more.

[JURIST] Venezuela has officially requested the extradition of alleged terrorist and Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles [Wikipedia profile]. Carriles, a naturalized Venezuelan and former CIA collaborator, is wanted for allegedly blowing up a Cuban airline in 1976 and later escaping from a Venezuelan prison in 1985. The US had previously refused [JURIST report] Venezuela's call for Carriles' extradition for lack of evidence linking him to the bombing; he has been charged in the US [JURIST report] for entering the country illegally. Already strained relations between the US and Venezuela may be further harmed if the US fails to turn over Carriles under a 1922 extradition treaty between the two countries. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz [official website] visited a Rwandan genocide memorial Thursday and apologized on behalf of the international community [World Bank press review] for its failure to prevent the 1994 mass genocide [BBC backgrounder]. Wolfowitz is on his first visit to Africa since his March approval as World Bank president [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Notes from a series of Pentagon meetings in 2003 show that General Counsel of the Department of the Navy Alberto Mora [Navy profile] warned high-level officials that Guantanamo interrogation techniques could expose them to criminal prosecution, according to ABC News. Mora's reluctance to completely support the interrogations at Guantanamo was known earlier, but his warning to some officials that they could face prosecution and possibly prison had been previously undisclosed. The White House has insisted [press briefing] that the tactics employed for detainee interrogation have always been legal and continue to be legal. ABC News has more.

In related news, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe [official website] - essentially the conference of European foreign ministers - Thursday urged the the United States government [statement text] to "ensure that the rights of all detainees are secured and that the principle of the rule of law is fully respected." The statement followed a Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly resolution [text; JURIST report] in April strongly condemning US detention policies.

[JURIST] The US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] Thursday approved North Carolina judge Terrence Boyle [US DOJ profile] for the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, effectively sending him to the full Senate for confirmation. Boyle survived a close party line vote in the GOP-controlled Committee, an approval that Senate Democrats have warned leaves judicial candidates susceptible to filibuster [text filibuster deal]. Though it is unclear if the Democrats plan to block Boyle, some senators and rights groups [NOW report] have been consistently outspoken in their opposition to the candidate whose record on civil, employee, and women's rights they find poor. An earlier Boyle nomination in 1991 was blocked by Democrats. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US government Thursday publicly expressed support for expanding the UN Security Council [offcial website] by "two or so" permanent members, saying that a larger expansion could hinder the effectiveness of the group. Review the State Department briefing [transcript] by US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed expansion in his March Larger Freedom [text] report to the UN, and the so-called G-4 group - Japan, Brazil, India and Germany - presented a draft resolution for Council expansion last month, although the US has not specifically endorsed that proposal or the candidacy of all of those states. There are currently five permanent members of the Security Council - the US, Britain, France, China, and Russia - all of which have veto power. The US does not support veto power for new permanent members. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [official website] has expressed US support for Japan, the second largest financial contributor to the UN behind the US, as a permanent Council member. AP has more.

[JURIST] Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica [Wikipedia profile] denied earlier reports Thursday that his government was negotiating a surrender with war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic [BBC profile]. Two Serbian newspapers and a rights activist claimed [JURIST report] that the government was contacting Mladic, who is wanted [JURIST report] by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] in connection with the Srebrenica massacre [Wikipedia profile]. Kostunica said the media was hampering efforts to locate Mladic. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Veteran civil servant Donald Tsang [Wikipedia profile] was declared the new leader of Hong Kong [HK government press release] Thursday after his nomination was supported by roughly 85 percent of the election committee, a 796-member group largely loyal to Beijing. A vote was originally planned for July 10, but the amount of support for Tsang made it unnecessary [VOA report]; two other candidates for the post of Chief Executive pulled out when they could not get enough support [Channel NewsAsia report] to qualify. Tsang's campaign began in the midst of a constitutional dispute [JURIST report] over the length of the next Chief Executive's term, with China eventually ruling that the successor to former leader Tung Chee-hwa would only serve the remaining two years [JURIST report] of his alloted term, rather than a new five-year term, an alternative which some legal experts in Hong Kong itself had favored. Tung abruptly resigned [JURIST report] in March. Xinhua has more.

[JURIST] A new poll released by the Pew Research Center [public interest website] shows a reduction in favorable views of the the US Supreme Court on both sides of the political spectrum. According to the poll [full report] released Wednesday, 57 percent of Americans now have a favorable opinion of the Court; in January 2001, shortly after the ruling in Bush v. Gore, that number was 68 percent. Although support from Democrats declined in the wake of that ruling from 78 percent in May 1997 to 61 percent in January 2001 to 51 percent now, support from Republicans has also sharply dropped since. GOPers as a whole dropped their support from 80 percent to 64 percent, with those identifying themselves as conservative Republicans (as opposed to moderate or liberal) dropping from 78 percent to 59 percent. AP has more.

[JURIST] Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney Thursday announced his support of a drive to put before state voters a proposed constitutional amendment to ban both same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] and civil unions. Massachusetts is the only US state where same-sex marriages are legal; Vermont, Hawaii, and California have granted same-sex couples limited legal rights. The Massachusetts legislature is already considering an amendment to ban same-sex marriages but allow for civil unions that could appear on the ballot in November 2006 [JURIST report]; the initiative Romney supports would appear in November 2008 at the earliest. AP has more.

[JURIST] The New York State Court of Appeals upheld on Thursday a lower court ruling [text] that the state's ban on cameras in trial courtrooms is constitutional. The appeals court ruled [PDF text] that the legislature has the final say on allowing cameras or not, and that banning them does not violate the constitutional guarantee of access to trials. New York state temporarily allowed trial courtroom cameras in 1987, but that grant expired and was not renewed [JURIST report] in 1997. AP has more. All states now allow cameras in some courts, but which courts are open to cameras varies greatly [state-by-state chart]. Federal courts are almost completely closed to cameras; the District of Columbia bans cameras from all courts.

[JURIST] Burundi on Wednesday approved a United Nations plan to establish a truth and reconciliation commission with a special war crimes chamber to investigate decades of bloody conflict between local Hutus and Tutsis going back to the country's independence in 1962. Under the plan, Burundi and the UN would work together to establish a five-member commission [BBC report], with two Burundis, to establish facts and assign responsibilty. A special chamber would be set up within Burundi's court system to prosecute and try war crimes based on commission evidence. The establishment of the proposed commission must now be approved by the UN Security Council. Reuters has more. Earlier this week, UN officials censured Burundi for deporting [JURIST report] several thousand Hutu refugees from neighboring Rwanda.

[JURIST] A senior Chinese government official said Thursday that China is drafting a new anti-terrorism law [CRI report]. Zhao Yongchen, deputy director of the counterterrorism bureau of the Ministry of Public Security [official website in Chinese], said the top terrorist threat facing China was from the East Turkistan Islamic Movement [Wikipedia backgrounder], a separatist group considered terroristic by both China and the US. The US government has previously expressed concern about China's anti-terrorism policies, fearing that they may be used as justification for oppression [CNN report]. Xinhua has more.

[JURIST] AFP is reporting that Sunni leaders have announced a compromise with their Shiite and Krd colleagues on Sunni representation on the parliamentary committee charged with drafting Iraq's new permanent constitution. Under the compromise, the Sunnis will get 15 new seats on the committee with full voting rights, and 10 new seats as consultants. They originally had only two of 55 seats, and had threatened to boycott the constitutional process and ask for UN arbitration [JURIST report] if they were not given more representation. The Shiite majority objected to their demands [JURIST report], and the groups haggled over numbers [JURIST report]. The drafting committee now faces an August 15 deadline for crafting the new national charter, although the interim Transitional Administrative Law does provide for a six-month postponement if necessary. AFP has more.

10:27 AM ET - Technically, the 15 new Sunni voting members will combine with the 55 existing voting members to form a 70-member body operating by consensus, decisions of which will then be passed back to the 55-member body of elected parliamentarians for ratification. AP has more.

[JURIST] The NAACP [advocacy site], the largest civil rights organization in the United States, has picked Bruce Gordon, formerly an executive with Verizon [retirement press release], to succeed Kweisi Mfume [Wikipedia profile] as its leader. An official announcement is expected after he is confirmed on June 25. Gordon will become the first NAACP president since 1975 who is not a politician or minister.

[JURIST] Judge Salem Mahmud Haj Ali was shot to death on Thursday in Mosul along with his driver. He was in charge of a court division in the northern Iraqi city, and is the third judge to be killed [Reuters report] in Mosul since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Nationwide, more than a dozen Iraqi judges have been reported killed [CBC report] since the end of 2003; the most notable assassination was in March, when an investigatory judge on the Iraqi Special Tribunal set up to try Saddam Hussein and members of his regime was gunned down together with his son [JURIST report], a lawyer also working for the Tribunal. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The Task Force on the United Nations [official site], a bipartisan group created by the US Congress in December 2004, released a report [text] Wednesday calling for significant changes in the UN, a number of which echo proposals advanced by the world body itself [JURIST report]. The recommendations include restructuring leadership positions and powers, creating an oversight board to fight corruption, and abolishing the UN Human Rights Commission [official website] while replacing it with a Human Rights Council "whose members are democracies dedicated to protecting human rights". In a statement, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he welcomed the report [press release]. Rep. Henry Hyde [official website], (R-IL), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, introduced a UN reform bill on June 7 that would allow the US to withhold UN dues if changes were not made [JURIST report]. But the Bush administration has now told Congress it opposes that legislation, saying that it would undermine American credibility and effectiveness [Washington Post report]. The Boston Globe has more.

[JURIST] Executive Michael R. Wilson joined UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday in denying that the two had met and discussed an oil contract as suggested in company memo [JURIST report] made public earlier this week. The memo said "We had brief discussions with the SG and his entourage. Their collective advice was that we should respond as best we could to the Q&A session of the 1-12-98 and that we could count on their support". Wilson formerly worked with Annan's son Kojo at Cotecna [corporate website, press release PDF about oil-for-food]. Annan has denied recent claims [RTE News report] that he was aware that his son's company was in line for a contract, and he was was cleared of any wrongdoing in March [UN press release] in the scandal surrounding the now-defunct UN Oil-for-Food program. Annan said he has "no recollection" of a meeting with Wilson and in his statement Wednesday Wilson said he "never met or had any discussion with" Annan. AP has more.