[JURIST] A plan devised by Egyptian mediators calls for Israel [JURIST news archive] to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the return of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas [CFR backgrounder; JURIST news archive], Reuters reported Tuesday, citing an anonymous source. Under the proposal, Israel would free as many as 600 Palestinians, including women and children, while Hamas would hand over Cpl. Gilad Shalit [Wikipedia backgrounder], whose abduction from Gaza in June led Israel to detain about 30 Palestinian lawmakers [JURIST report], including nearly a third of the Hamas-led Palestinian Cabinet. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) [official website] have suggested that they would agree to release terror suspects [JURIST report] that have not been involved in planning or implementing terror attacks, but not those "with blood on their hands." Reuters has more.

Meanwhile, military sources told AP that Israel is willing to release 13 members of Hezbollah and dozens of bodies in exchange for the two IDF soldiers whose capture set off an Israeli offensive in Lebanon [JURIST news archive]. Such a deal would be brokered by an intermediary. Earlier this week, Haaretz newspaper reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had told the soldiers' parents that Israel would negotiate with Hezbollah for their release [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) [official website; JURIST news archive] ruled Tuesday that US tariffs on softwood lumber from Canada [JURIST news archive] violate international trade rules. The appellate report [PDF text] reverses April's panel decision favoring the United States [JURIST report], which Canada appealed. The Appellate Body found that the US method of calculating the anti-dumping tariffs, known as zeroing, arrived at artificially high prices because it did not take into account transactions in which Canadian lumber sold at higher prices than US lumber.

The softwood lumber dispute [CBC backgrounder] between the two countries has festered for decades, raising doubt as to the sustainability of the North American Free Trade Agreement [text]. The US Court of International Trade last month ruled that the US must abide by a NAFTA panel ruling [JURIST report] that the US duties were improper. Earlier in the month Canada and the US initialed [Canada PM press release] a softwood lumber trade agreement [PDF text] that would reimburse $4 billion to Canada but would allow US lumber producers to keep $1 billion. The Canadian lumber industry has expressed strong opposition to the deal, however, prompting Canada's international trade minister to suggest the government may refuse to table legislation [Vancouver Sun report] approving the agreement. Reuters has more. Canadian Press has additional coverage.

[JURIST] A federal judge in Mississippi ruled Tuesday that Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company [corporate website] was not obligated to cover a policyholder's claims for water damage caused by Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive]. The trial was the first resulting from hundreds of lawsuits against insurance companies [JURIST report] that refused to pay for some Katrina-related damage. After an eight-day bench trial, Senior District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. [official profile] of the US Southern District of Mississippi [official website] awarded an additional $1,228 to homeowners Paul and Julie Leonard, of Pascagoula, who received $1,661 from Nationwide but estimated damage to their home at more than $130,000. In his opinion [PDF text; order and judgment, PDF], Senter wrote:

The provisions of the Nationwide policy that exclude coverage for damages caused by water are valid and enforceable terms of the insurance contract. Similar policy terms have been enforced with respect to damage caused by high water associated with hurricanes in many reported decisions.

[JURIST] British authorities on Tuesday arrested another suspect in connection with last week's foiled terror plot [JURIST report] to blow up jetliners headed for various airports in the United States, bringing the number of arrested suspects up to 25. London's Metropolitan Police Service [official website] only disclosed that they had made an arrest in the Thames Valley, and did not give any information on the identity of the suspect. UK police officials initially announced the arrests [Met press release] of 21 suspects Thursday, though it was later reported that 24 people have been detained [BBC report] under UK anti-terrorism laws [Home Office materials]. Metropolitan Police Service Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke said the initial "arrests were made on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of Acts of terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000." Authorities released one suspect [JURIST report] on Friday, and continued the detention [press release] of the others through Wednesday.

Also on Friday, British banking officials froze the assets [notice, PDF; JURIST report] of 19 suspects believed to be involved in the plot, while also making those suspects' identities publicly available. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [official website] is now requiring passenger data to be sent to US authorities before flights leave Britain [JURIST news archive] for the United States in the wake of last week's arrests for an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic flights [JURIST report], notwithstanding obstacles posed by European privacy laws. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff [official profile] was quoted in Monday's New York Times as saying that he hopes the plot serves as a "wake-up call" convincing airline executives and European officials that the changes should become permanent. Until last Thursday, the passenger data was provided 15 minutes after UK-to-US flights took off, which allowed the flights to be turned around if a suspected terrorist was on board but could not prevent mid-air attacks like those that authorities believe were in the works.

In June, European Union diplomats said they would draft a new agreement [JURIST report] that compels European airlines to disclose information about passengers flying from Europe to the US, projecting that it would be finished by October 1. A similar 2004 agreement was struck down by the European Court of Justice [JURIST report] because the passenger name records deal did not have an appropriate legal basis. The new agreement is to be based on security and organized-crime laws. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi [official profile] on Tuesday visited the Yasukuni war shrine [shrine website] on the anniversary of the day when Emperor Hirohito [PBS profile] surrendered World War II in 1945. The shrine honors all Japanese war dead, including war criminals, and Koizumi's visits to the shrine on previous occasions have not only angered neighboring China and South Korea but have also been the subject of multiple lawsuits seeking to end the visits. In a statement [text] Tuesday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Koizumi of "challenging international justice and trampling human conscience" by "insisting on paying homage to the Yasukuni Shrine where these war criminals are remembered in disregard of the concern and opposition from the international community." Koizumi has defended his visits to the shrine [JURIST report], saying that other nations should not make diplomatic issues of spiritual matters.

Plaintiffs in several lawsuits have argued that Koizumi's visits to the war shrine violate the principle of separation of church and state contained in Japan's constitution [text], but Japanese courts have largely ruled in the prime minister's favor. Most recently, the Tokyo High Court rejected a lawsuit [JURIST report] in June seeking an order to compel Koizumi to stop visiting the shrine, ruling that the visits did not violate any of the plaintiffs' rights. That lawsuit was filed by 137 Japanese and South Korean plaintiffs and a South Korean advocacy group who also sought damages for each plaintiff that incurred mental anguish. Earlier in the month, the Japanese Supreme Court ruled in a similar fashion [JURIST report], rejecting a lawsuit by 338 plaintiff survivors of South Korean, Japanese, and Chinese soldiers killed during wars involving Japan, without ruling on the constitutionality of the visits. The plaintiffs in that case argued that Koizumi visited the shrine in 2001 in an official capacity, impermissibly violating Japan's constitutional barriers between religion and state. Last September, Japan's Osaka High Court ruled [JURIST report] that the Prime Minister's visits violate constitutional provisions for the separation of church and state, but an October decision from a different court upheld [JURIST report] a lower court ruling [JURIST report] to dismiss a lawsuit against Koizumi. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The ruling military junta in Myanmar [JURIST news archive] will resume negotiations for a new constitution [JURIST report] this fall, Myanmar Ambassador to the Philippines Thaung Tun said Tuesday. Tun told journalists that the constitution is 75 percent complete, and that the parties have "agreed on the basic principles of the new constitution," which include a person in a presidential role, and a bicameral system of parliament, giving the military junta a guaranteed percentage of parliamentary seats. Tun added that Myanmar would resume negotiations as early as October, when the rainy season winds down. The drafting assembly closed constitutional talks in January [JURIST report], with delegates postponing talks until the end of 2006.

Delegates have met intermittently to compose the new constitution since 1993, and the document is the first step on a seven-stage road map aimed at unification, democracy, and free elections for the country. Critics see the convention as a ploy to enable the junta to stay in power. The main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) [party website] is not participating in negotiations. VOA has more.

[JURIST] A US federal court judge has released the Chicago Public Schools [school district website] from federal budgetary reporting oversight in respect of its desegregation efforts [CPS reports] more than 25 years after a 1980 agreement [CPS backgrounder] that required the schools to spend almost $100 million annually on desegregation, including after-school programs, summer school and bilingual projects. US District Judge Charles Kocoras of the Northern District of Illinois [official website] wrote in a ruling released Monday that "The current demographic makeup of Chicago and its student population bears virtually no resemblance to that which gave rise to litigation between the parties in the first instance." In 1980, white students comprised 17 percent of the school population, with African Americans and Hispanics representing the rest. Today, less than 9 percent of Chicago Public School students are white, prompting school officials to argue that they cannot truly integrate the public schools. The school district, the third largest in the US by population, including 613 schools educating over 426,000 students [CPS factsheet], is still subject to some federal oversight of desegregation, but Kocoras said the district can file motions after the upcoming academic year ends to be released from the additional requirements. The latest decree eliminates the spending requirements for magnet schools that already promote integration.

Chicago Public Schools officials are happy with the order because it gives the local government more control of the school budget, but school activists criticized the measure as vague. Kocoras ruled in 2004 that the Chicago Board of Education had to make room for minority students [JURIST report] at the public schools comprised mainly of white students and the district had to reallocate funds to students in racially isolated schools. AP has more. The Chicago Tribune has local coverage.

[JURIST] Some 24,000 illegal immigrants with school-age children are waiting to learn whether they will be deported from France after the expiration of a Monday deadline set by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy [official profile, in French; BBC profile] for residency applications. Sarkozy has spearheaded a drive to return the immigrants to their home countries, and the French government has even offered to pay their way out. Initially the government set a target date of October 2006 for the deportations, but then in the face of public outcry gave families with school-age children until the end of the academic year to file residency applications that would exempt them from the process. The deadline was afterwards extended once more until last Monday. Sarkozy announced last month that the Interior Ministry would grant residency to thousands of immigrant families with children in French schools [JURIST report], favoring granting citizenship to children born in France or who arrived before age 13, have been in French schools for two years, and have no link with their parents' country. Of the 24,000 applications received, however, only some 6000 immigrants are likely to be granted residency. Immigration officials have already begun deporting families with inadequate applications by summoning them to government offices and immediately deporting them without notice.

The French parliament passed a conservative immigration bill [JURIST report] in June that tightens restrictions on unskilled, non-EU immigrants and requires immigrants to sign a pledge to learn French and to abide by French law. AP has more.

[JURIST] Three men were sentenced to death and five men to life in prison in Bangladesh [JURIST news archive] Tuesday for their involvement in a series of bombings on police, court and government buildings [JURIST report; BBC report] last year. All eight men are members of the Islamist militant group Jamaat-ul Mujahideen [SATP backgrounder], which wants to turn Bangladesh into an Islamic state governed by Sharia law [CFR backgrounder]. The August bombing campaign last year saw more than 430 homemade bombs explode within 30 minutes across the country, killing at least two and injuring more than 125 people.

A Bangladesh court in January also sentenced a Jamaat-ul Mujahideen member to life in prison for his role in the August bombings. Courts and judges have been targeted in subsequent bombings, which have killed two judges [JURIST report]. In May, a court sentenced seven Islamists to death for the judges deaths [JURIST report]. Aljazeera has more.

[JURIST] Ching Cheong [advocacy website; Wikipedia profile], chief China correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times [media website], went on trial Tuesday in China on charges of selling state secrets and spying for Taiwan [BBC report]. Though media in Hong Kong reported that the trial began at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, court officials denied knowledge of the trial. Chinese espionage trials are usually conducted through secret proceedings.

Upon Ching's arrest [JURIST report] in April 2005, the Chinese Foreign Ministry [official website, English version], said "Ching admitted that in recent years he engaged in intelligence-gathering activities on the mainland on instructions from foreign intelligence agencies and accepted huge amounts of spying fees." Ching's wife, however, says her husband has been accused of stealing state secrets because he obtained unpublished interviews with late Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang [Wikipedia profile]. A source close to Zhao's family said the authorities were determined to prevent the publication of the interviews of the former leader, purged for opposing the 1989 Tiananmen massacre [BBC backgrounder], because it would undermine the legitimacy of the current leadership. Reuters has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] President Bush on Monday signed a bill [HR 5863 summary; PDF text] into law that transfers ownership of a 29-foot cross on Mount Soledad [backgrounder] in San Diego to the federal government. The cross, which was erected as a Korean War veterans memorial, has been the center of a religious dispute for 17 years [Paulson commentary] because Philip Paulson, a Vietnam veteran and atheist, challenged the cross as a government endorsement of religion prohibited under the First Amendment [text]. Paulson's attorney has already filed a lawsuit in federal court to void the transfer and have it declared unconstitutional.

The US House of Representatives approved the bill in July and the Senate approved the bill [JURIST reports] earlier this month. The legislation was designed to transfer the land from the city of San Diego to the Defense Department before an expected appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] this fall, thus permitting the First Amendment, rather than the California constitution [text], to control the issue of whether the monument is an impermissible government endorsement of religion. Federal law interpreting the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment has been more permissive toward religious displays on public property than the California constitution. Last month, US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy ordered the continuation of a temporary stay [JURIST reports] against the removal of the monument pending the Ninth Circuit appeal. Kennedy issued the original stay after a district court ordered [Union-Tribune report] in May that the cross be removed by Aug. 2 and that the city be fined $5,000 a day if it was not based on the district court's finding that the cross constitutes a state endorsement of religion. AP has more. The San Diego Union-Tribune has local coverage.

[JURIST] An Egyptian appeals court ruled Monday that 11 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood [party website; FAS backgrounder] jailed since May after participating in pro-judicial independence protests [JURIST report] earlier this year should be released from detention [MB News report]. Detainees [JURIST report] ordered released include top Brotherhood members Issam al-Arian and Mohamed Morsi. Over 500 protesters were arrested during demonstrations in May and 80 Muslim Brotherhood members remain in custody.

The protesters were most immediately demonstrating against disciplinary hearings [JURIST report] held by Egypt's highest court for two judges over their criticism of parliamentary elections [JURIST report] last year, which they and eight other judges claimed were marred by fraud. In May, a panel reprimanded one of the judges and cleared the other [JURIST report]. The protestors also objected to Egypt's emergency laws [EOHR backgrounder], which in April were extended for two years [JURIST report] after the protests began. The Daily Star has more.

ALSO ON JURIST  Topic: Egypt | Op-ed: Unlikely Reformers: Egyptian Judges Challenge the Regime

[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official website] on Monday directed the US Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy and Office of Legal Counsel to conduct a comparative review of American and British anti-terrorism laws [Home Office materials]. Gonzales' order comes just one day after US Department of Homeland Security [official website] Secretary Michael Chertoff [official profile] suggested that US lawmakers consider revising US counterterrorism laws to make them more wide-ranging [JURIST report], referring to last week's thwarted terror plot in Britain [JURIST report] as a successful example of more comprehensive surveillance powers. Chertoff said that broad UK counterterrorism laws allowed British authorities to detect and quickly act on the threat in a move that would have likely come under criticism under US counterterrorism law that constitutionally restricts electronic surveillance [JURIST news archive] of suspects.

Britain's newest anti-terror law, the controversial Terrorism Act 2006 [PDF text; backgrounder] passed earlier this year, allows authorities to detain a terror suspect for up to 28 days without charge [JURIST report], whereas American authorities must charge or release a suspect within 48 hours under the civilian court system, although detention of so-called "enemy combatants" under the jurisdiction of the Defense Department may be much longer. Gonzales, speaking [prepared remarks] at the national Disabled American Veterans [advocacy website] convention in Chicago, suggested that a longer civil detention policy may be a possibility, but added that lawmakers will need to examine its constitutionality. The New York Times has more. The Chicago Sun-Times has additional coverage.