[JURIST] The city government of Washington, DC [official website] on Monday asked [petition, text] the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] for an en banc rehearing of a case that led to a controversial ruling last month invalidating the city's handgun ban [JURIST report]. City lawyers warn that the current ruling "severely limits" the ability of local and federal legislatures to regulate firearms to protect citizens and law-enforcement officers.

By a 2-1 panel vote in March, the judges deciding Parker v. District of Columbia relied on the Second Amendment [FindLaw text] to overturn a 31-year old ban on handguns in the District of Columbia. Mayor Adrian Fenty [official website] and the city argued that the panel's interpretation of the Second Amendment is "contrary to [the precedents] of nearly every other federal court of appeals, as well as the highest local court in this jurisdiction." The case is widely expected to end up before the US Supreme Court, regardless of who ultimately wins in the DC Circuit Court. AP has more. SCOTUSblog has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Judge Amy St. Eve [official profile] of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois [official website] denied a motion Monday for a mistrial in the prosecution of Canadian-born former media mogul Conrad Black [CBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] on fraud charges. John Boultbee, a former associate of Black and his current co-defendant, requested a separate trial from Black in addition to the motion for a mistrial in Black's case. Both pleas were rejected.

Boultbee, the former CFO of Hollinger International [official website], stands accused of illegally diverting more than $80 million from Hollinger and its shareholders during Hollinger's $2.1 billion sale of several hundred Canadian newspapers. Two years ago, Boultbee joined [JURIST report] Black, former legal executive Mark Kipnis, and former VP Peter Atkinson in pleading not guilty to fraud charges [JURIST report]. A fifth defendant, former Hollinger President David Radler [Wikipedia profile], pleaded guilty to the charges and agreed to testify [JURIST report] for the government. AP has more.

[JURIST] An Ethiopian court on Monday dropped genocide and treason charges [BBC report] against more than 100 people charged involved in 2005 political protests, and released from prison 25 detainees, including several journalists, after acquitting them on all charges. Finding that the prosecution had failed to prove charges against them, Judge Adil Ahmed ruled against the government and ordered the journalists be immediately released. The detainees were arrested following political protests [JURIST report] in 2005 over allegedly rigged elections, and subsequently charged with attempted genocide, treason and inciting violence. The detainees who remain in prison still face charges of attempting to overthrow the government and crimes against the constitution, and could face the death penalty.

Over 100 journalists, lawmakers and human rights activists were initially charged [JURIST report] following the mass protests, though some were later granted amnesty [JURIST report] by Ethiopian President Girma Woldegiorgis [official profile] in a surprise move in September. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US Trade Representative Susan Schwab [official profile] said Monday that the United States is filing a case against China [JURIST news archive] at the World Trade Organization (WTO) [official website; JURIST news archive] for lax enforcement of copyright violations and trademarks. Schwab said that the US will also file a second challenge to China's existing trade barriers, which has hurt the sale of US-produced movies, music and books. The two cases will enter a 60-day consultation [WTO backgrounder] period during which the US and China will attempt to resolve their differences through negotiation. If the bilateral negotiations reach an impasse, WTO hearing panels will decide the case.

In February, Schwab announced that the the US was bringing a case against Chinese subsidies [WTO backgrounder] at the WTO. The Bush administration has come under increasing pressure to address Sino-US trade relations after the Democrats took control of Congress. In 2006, the total US trade deficit amounted to $765.3 billion dollars, with China accounting for $232.5 billion. AP has more.

[JURIST] Nearly two-thirds of Canadians support having judges elected to the bench, the Globe and Mail reported Monday. According to a poll conducted by Globe and CTV, 63 percent of the respondents favored electing judges, with 24 percent strongly endorsing the idea. Support for the idea was strongest in the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec. The poll result comes as a surprise to most Canadian legal scholars, as many view American-style judicial election processes negatively. Ontario Chief Justice Roy McMurty [official profile] told the Globe that he questions the ability of judges to remain impartial under an elected system, saying judges could be pressured into imposing popular but unjust sentences.

The same poll found that a majority of Canadians - some 53 percent - think that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [text] with its enumerated and judicially-enforced US-style guarantees of personal freedoms - has had a positive effect on the country since its adoption in 1982. US-style legal structures and procedures have gained increasingly popularity in Canada in the last 50 years, a trend that has arguably accelerated in the late 25, partly under the impetus of the Charter itself. CTV News has more.

[JURIST] Jury selection was completed Monday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana [official website] for the second federal lawsuit to go to trial involving Louisiana homeowners affected by the Hurricane Katrina disaster [JURIST news archive]. Homeowners Robert and Merryl Weiss are suing Allstate [corporate website] insurance company for bad faith, alleging that the insurance carrier did not correctly adjust their claim and underpaid them for the structural damage to their home. Allstate contends that they properly paid the couple $29,483 for the damage to the home, because most of the damage was caused by the hurricane's storm surge and does not fall under the Weiss' Hurricane policy. The Weiss argue the damage was caused by wind, which was covered under the policy. Allstate also alleges that the Weiss have misrepresented their claim by attempting to claim at least $34,000 in damages for a boathouse that Allstate maintains wasn't located on the insured property during the hurricane.

In February, homeowners in the first federal insurance trial brought by Louisiana homeowners [JURIST report] abruptly dropped their suit after Allstate alleged they misrepresented their claims. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US soldier responsible for the death of Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] in Iraq in March 2005 told the New York Post [report] Monday that he fired on Calipari's vehicle in self-defense. Calipari was shot to death [JURIST report] by Spc. Mario Lozano [Wikipedia profile] while driving to the Baghdad airport after securing the release of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena [Wikipedia profile] from Iraqi kidnappers. A second Italian agent, Andrea Carpani, was also wounded. Lozano is being tried in absentia in Italy [JURIST report] next week for involuntary homicide and attempted homicide.

The event has strained relations between the United States and Italy, which has criticized the US [JURIST report] for not bringing Lozano to trial. While a US investigation [JURIST report] into the incident cleared US soldiers of any wrongdoing, an initial Italian probe [JURIST report] found that miscommunications among US officials, combined with stress and lack of experience, resulted in Calipari's death. AFP has more. RAI News has local coverage [in Italian].

[JURIST] The International Court of Justice (ICJ) [official website] did not consider the full archives from the war crimes tribunal at The Hague in making its finding that Serbia did not commit genocide [JURIST report] during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war [Wikipedia backgrounder] and was not liable for damages, instead relying on material in the court's public record that had been censored by agreement with Serbian representatives, the New York Times reported Monday. Passages in the ICTY documents used by the ICJ were blacked out as a matter of national security upon the request of the Serbian government and the ICJ did not itself request the complete original archive from Serbia. As a result, lawyers, judges, and legal scholars have raised questions as to the legitimacy of the decision.

The case against Serbia [JURIST news archive] marked the first time that a UN member state has been tried for genocide. The separate International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive] has been hearing individual cases of alleged war crimes since 1993. Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] was on trial at the ICTY on genocide charges before his death [JURIST report] last year. The ICTY is scheduled to finish all trials by 2008 and all appeals by 2010, but the US has urged the tribunal's continuation [JURIST report] until police arrest two of the ICTY's most wanted fugitives - Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounder; BBC profile] and his military commander Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Israel is reviewing the names of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners that Palestinian militants have demanded freed in exchange for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit [Times backgrounder; JURIST news archive], Israeli officials said Sunday. Shalit was captured in Gaza [JURIST report] on June 25, and his detention helped spark the latest round of violence [JURIST news archive] in the region over the summer. Palestinian militants have demanded the large scale release of Palestinian prisoners from the beginning but negotiations have not been successful to date. In November 2006, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert [official website; BBC profile] said that Israel was willing to release many Palestinian prisoners [speech transcript; JURIST report], even long-term detainees, in exchange for Shalit's freedom. Israel says Shalit's release is a precondition to any serious peace negotiations. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas [BBC profile] said last week that he believed Shalit would be freed soon.

The Israel Defense Forces said in July 2006 it would support a deal to release some Palestinian prisoners [JURIST report] in exchange for Shalit, and Egyptian negotiators have also been involved [JURIST report] in prisoner trade talks. The Boston Globe has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] only prosecuted about two percent of the individuals arrested on suspicion of illegally entering the country along the US-Mexico border during a five-year period, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal figures on arrests and prosecutions released Monday. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University [official website] collected the relevant data and provided it to AP. The analysis further specified that about 98 percent of suspected illegal immigrants [JURIST news archive] who entered the United States between Oct. 1, 2000 and Sept. 30, 2005 never faced criminal charges, though the number of immigrants prosecuted annually reportedly tripled during that time. AP has more.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [official website] maintains a number of initiatives [fact sheet] to combat illegal immigration [JURIST news archive].

[JURIST] Nearly 1,000 protesters continued demonstrations Monday outside the parliament building in central Kiev as the Constitutional Court of Ukraine [official website; Wikipedia backgrounder] prepared to hear a lawsuit [JURIST report] filed earlier this month by Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych [BBC profile] and leaders of the Ukrainian Parliament challenging the April 2 decree [statement] by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko [official website; BBC profile] calling for the dissolution of parliament and ordering new elections to be held in May. The constitutional court is expected to begin hearing the case later this week. The demonstrations were relatively calm Monday as compared to occasionally violent protests last week.

Yushchenko has insisted that his dissolution decree was proper under the Ukrainian constitution [text, DOC]. Late last week, Yushchenko added that officials who refuse to comply with his decree could face criminal prosecution [press release; JURIST report]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The government of Thailand [JURIST news archive] said Monday it will continue to block access to the popular video-sharing website YouTube [corporate website] until Google [corporate website], YouTube's owner, agrees to remove video clips deemed offensive to the country's monarch. Thailand originally banned access [JURIST report] to YouTube and several other websites April 4. The YouTube ban resulted from a video depicting King Bhumibol Adulyadej [Wikipedia profile] as a clown with feet pasted over his head, an insulting image in Thai culture that can amount to a criminal offense. The user who produced the original video clip has reportedly removed it, though a number of similar videos have since been uploaded to YouTube.

Thailand claims it is being treated unfairly because YouTube agreed with the government of China [JURIST news archive] to launch "Google.cn" [Wikipedia backgrounder], a censored version of its website, in January 2006 in accordance with the country's Internet censorship policy [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Thai Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudoom said his country will attempt to negotiate with Google. AFP has more.

[JURIST] More than a dozen prisoners at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] are being subjected to daily force-feedings as a result of a long-term hunger strike, the New York Times reported Monday, the largest such number since the beginning of 2006. Lawyers for the 13 detainees on hunger strike blame the harsh conditions of a new maximum security complex which houses 160 of the roughly 385 detainees at Guantanamo. The new Camp 6 complex, according to the lawyers, is comparable to "supermax" prisons with detainees confined to 8 by 10 foot cells at least 22 hours a day. Only 10 of the suspects transferred to the new complex have been charged. Detainees have complained that they face greater isolation in Camp 6 [JURIST report] as the prisoners can only see one another when one of them is being moved. Military spokesman Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand called the complaints voiced by detainees "propaganda" and defended the new maximum security complex as more comfortable than previous conditions.

Hunger strikes at Guantanamo Bay are an ongoing concern. In December 2005, US military authorities said that the number of participants in the ongoing hunger strike at the prison had surged [statement, PDF; JURIST report], reaching an acknowledged total of 84. After drastic force feeding measures drove the number down, a revived effort [JURIST report] in May 2006 found 75 detainees participating in a hunger strike. In January 2007, the number of detainees on hunger strike increased [JURIST report] to 11 from five during the detention center's fifth anniversary. On Thursday, Amnesty International [advocacy website] decried the worsening conditions at Guantanamo Bay in a report [text; press release], claiming detainees have "suffered harsh treatment throughout their detention, confined to mesh cages or maximum security cells" and that the new facility opened late last year subjects detainees to "even harsher and apparently more permanent conditions of extreme isolation and sensory deprivation." The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Newt Gingrich said Sunday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile; JURIST news archive] should consider resigning [Fox News Sunday transcript] in the wake of his role in the firings of eight US Attorneys [JURIST news archive]. With his criticism of Gonzales' judgment, Gingrich joins a growing group of Republicans who have voiced displeasure with how the attorney general handled the firings. Several other Republican legislators, including administration allies, either support the call for Gonzales' resignation or are demanding an explanation. Gonzales is scheduled to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] on April 17. Last week, committee chair Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official website] rejected attempts [JURIST report] by the Bush administration to move up the date that Gonzales is scheduled to testify. The Senate Judiciary Committee has authorized subpoenas [JURIST report] for former White House Counsel Harriet Miers [official profile], Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove [official profile], and several DOJ aides to testify and provide documents regarding the scandal. Monica M. Goodling [JURIST news archive], one of the key aides who took part in planning the US Attorney firings, submitted her resignation [JURIST report] without cause Friday. Goodling's resignation, effective Saturday, is the third by a Department of Justice official involved in the controversy.

Kyle Sampson [official profile], Gonzales' former chief of staff who has since resigned [DOJ press release], told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that the prosecutors were fired for political reasons [JURIST report] rather than for poor performance as the Justice Department has claimed [JURIST report]. Gonzales has defended [JURIST report] his role in the firings, admitting that there has been some confusion but saying that his involvement in the matter was limited to signing off on recommendations made by Sampson. AP has more.