Iraq Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi Monday announced plans to extend a cash-for-weapons program for Shiite fighters to the entirety of Iraq in an attempt to disarm the country. The program started in Sadr City as part of a deal to end fighting by the Shiite forces, and has been temporally extended twice (read a Multi-National Force Iraq press release on the Sadr City - known in Arabic as al-Thawra - initiative from October 17). It is not currently known if the nationwide program will include a monetary exchange or just be a period to turn in illegal weapons with amnesty. Reuters has the full story.

In Monday's corporations and securities law news, the SEC is reportedly investigating pension records at six big companies, including Delphi Corp. The Commission is focusing on whether the companies manipulated earnings by using inaccurate estimates to calculate pension costs. The SEC is also examining "cookie jar" reserves, said to be created when a company makes changes in pension plans to set aside artificially large cash reserves which can be dipped into during less profitable times. Delphi announced that regulators have requested documents from the company on its accounting related to pensions and retiree health benefits. Read the Delphi SEC filing here. AP has more.

In other news, Thomson Financial has announced that the SEC is investigating a division in the company which collects information on stock ownership. The company, which is cooperating in the probe, received a subpoena from regulators for documents related to its Capital Markets Intelligence business. Read Thomson Financial's press release here. AP has more.... Kmart announced Aylwin Lewis, a fast-food industry veteran, as the company's new president and CEO. Read the Kmart press release here. AP has more.... Former Statoil executive, Richard Hubbard, will not contest the fine levied by the Norwegian economic crime police for his role in a business deal with an Iranian consulting company. Hubbard will pay a fine of 200,000 kroner or $30,300. AP has more.... MCI Inc. has announced it will record non-cash impairment charges of $3.5 billion for the third-quarter to show the declining value of its assets. Read the MCI press release announcing the charge here. Bloomberg has more.... Star Gas Partners LP, owner of the biggest US heating-oil distributor, has announced that the company may seek bankruptcy protection due to high fuel prices. Read the Star Gas press release here. Bloomberg has more.

The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that Florida voters who cast provisional ballots in the wrong precinct will have their vote disqualified, even if they are legally registered. The ruling is expected to affect residents who were displaced by the state's four hurricanes. The AFL-CIO labor union had appealed to the court to invalidate a state law that had limited voters to voting in their designated precincts. The US Congress created provisional ballots in the Help America Vote Act after the 2000 presidential election where some legally registered voters complained of being barred from voting. Florida and some 25 other states nonethless passed laws requiring provisional voters to cast ballots in their assigned precincts. The Florida ruling is seen as a victory for Governor Jeb Bush, who argued the law should be upheld because it reflected the intent of the legislature. Read Florida's law regarding the provisional ballot here. Read the Florida Supreme Court opinion here [PDF]. Reuters has more.

The United States and Saudi Arabia will hold negotiations to determine the fate of the 124 Saudi prisoners held as detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to Ahmed Mazhar, the chief Saudi lawyer for defending Guantanamo prisoners. Writing Monday in the daily at-Watan [in Arabic], Mazhar said that he has been told to suspend efforts in defending the detainees, and commented that official negotiations "are bound to lead to the settlement of that issue in a quicker way than judicial procedures which might take a long time." Pakistan has reportedly secured the release of many Pakistani prisoners in Guantanamo through similar negotiations. JURIST's Paper Chase has more on the Guantanamo detentions. Read Department of Defense press statements on the detainees here. UPI has more.

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson appeared with Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist Monday in Tampa to announce that HHS will join a Florida suit over price markups for flu vaccine that have reached as high as 1,000 percent of normal cost. Only about half of the country's usual vaccine supply is available this year due after a major supplier's inventory was found to be contaminated. Last week, as reported in JURIST's Paper Chase, Thompson urged states to respond aggressively to price gouging. AP has more. See AG Crist's press release. The HHS website has a wealth of resources on the vaccine shortage.

The United Nations and rights watchdog Human Rights Watch have accused Israel of violating international law by destroying Palestinian homes in Gaza. In a report issued Monday, HRW claims that Israel has overstated threats in order to justify the destruction of some 16,000 Palestinian homes in the past four years. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has similarly called Israel's actions a "gross violation" of international law, Israel claims that it is merely taking steps to thwart arms smuggling operations and rocket-fire attacks on the country. VOA News has more.

US trade officials Monday appealed a World Trade Organization ruling ordering the US to drop some subsidies to producers of cotton and other commodities. The WTO ruled last month that US payments to cotton producers were illegal export subsidies that should be removed "without delay." Brazil brought the complaint against the US, arguing that the US had only remained the second-largest cotton producer in the world through $12.5 billion in government subsidies between 1999 and 2003. The appeals body of the WTO must issue its decision within three months, and the outcome will be final. The Office of the US Trade Representative has a press release on last month’s WTO ruling. Documents in the case, including the trade group's ruling last month, are available here (scroll down to case number DS267). AP has more.

The Federal Election Commission has announced that it will decide the issue of fundraising for potential recount costs prior to the Nov. 2 election. The FEC said it will decide the issue at its Oct. 28 meeting, the last before the presidential election. Democratic candidate John Kerry originally requested an FEC opinion on whether the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 [PDF] had affected the unlimited contributions for recount costs. The FEC did not respond to that request, but announced that it would decide the issue based on a more recent request by two candidates in a Washington Senate campaign. In 2000, campaigns were able to accept unlimited contributions to cover recount costs in Florida. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on Kerry’s clarification request. AP has more.

The US Army is investigating 18 reservists in Iraq and could file charges after the soldiers allegedly refused to complete a supply mission last week, claiming their safety was jeopardized by vehicles without armor or adequate repairs. Brig. Gen. James Chambers said the incident was isolated and was not affecting resupply efforts. The Army is considering whether the soldiers' actions could be a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The troops were supposed to help in a 150-mile convoy trip from Tallil Air Base to Taji, north of Baghdad. The troops were detained and then released following their refusal to participate in the mission, AP reported. USA Today has more.

Inspectors for the UN International Atomic Energy Agency are visiting Brazil (official site in Portuguese) Monday to examine the country's efforts to enrich uranium. The Brazilian government has a nuclear plant in Resende, near Rio de Janeiro, that it claims is being used solely to produce energy. The IAEA mandate requires that any country producing nuclear materials that might be used for nuclear weapons submit to inspections by the Agency to ensure that none of the material is being used for that purpose. Brazil had been stonewalling the Agency, claiming that trade secrets would be violated if it allowed inspectors onto the property. An agreement was apparently reached last month that would keep the inner workings of the plant secret, while allowing the inspectors access to the areas where nuclear material might be appropriated for use in nuclear weapons. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the tension between the IAEA and Brazil. BBC News has more on the IAEA visit to Brazil here.... Reversing an earlier position, Zimbabwe's Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa, has now said that the Zimbabwe government will accept a court finding that Morgan Tsvangirai (BBC News profile here), leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was not guilty of attempting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe prior to the 2002 elections. Chinamasa had stated Friday that the government was considering an appeal of the court's ruling as an unlawful conviction. Tsvangirai's spokesman has said that Tsvangirai is considering a civil suit against the Zimbabwean government for wrongful detention that occurred prior to the trial. Tsvangirai still faces another trial for treason on charges of calling for street riots in 2003 to oust Mugabe. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the acquittal here. The Zim Observer has more on the civil suit here. News24 has more on the acceptance of the ruling here.... The UN Human Rights Committee began its eighty-second session Monday in Geneva by reviewing the periodic reports of the governments of Finland, Albania, Benin, Morocco and Poland. The Human Rights Committee is responsible for overseeing countries' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Committee will meet until 5 November and has the power to consider individual complaints of human rights abuses in nations party to the ICCPR. Read the offical press release from the Office of the UN High Commission on Human Rights here.... On Monday the African Union began its First Conference on African Human Rights Institutions in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The conference is designed to facilitate cooperation between human rights groups currently working in the African continent and to allow nations considering the creation of a governmental human rights monitoring body to gain access to helpful information. The conference will run until 21 October and is being organized by the Commission of the African Union, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Secretariat of the Coordinating Committee of the African National Human Rights Institutions. More information on the conference is available on the AU homepage here.

The US Supreme Court granted certiorari Monday in Deck v. Missouri, where the court will decide whether it is unconstitutional to conduct the penalty phase of a murder trial if the defendant is shackled and handcuffed in full view of the jury. Read the Missouri Supreme Court decision appealed from here. AP has more

Among the cases the Court declined to hear was an appeal by former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker of his 1998 conviction on tax conspiracy charges. AP has more. The Court also declined to hear a challenge to an Ohio ruling that attorney-client privilege may be waived by the client's widower. Again, AP has more. Read the Court's full Order List [PDF].

Also Monday, and as previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, the Supreme Court ordered a lower court to reconsider Texas' congressional map.

AP is reporting that the US Supreme Court has ordered a lower court to reconsider a Texas congressional map that could give Republicans six additional seats in Congress.

UPDATE: The Supreme Court ordered the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to reconsider whether state legislatures can force the redrawing of congressional district boundaries more often than once a decade. The Supreme Court said that Texas' congressional map should be reconsidered in light of the Court's decision last term in Vieth v. Jubelirer [PDF]. AP has more.

UPDATE 2: The Court's Order List is now available here [PDF]

Registered voters can begin casting their ballots Monday in Florida and other states using early voting systems. Early voting is one of the changes made by elections officials in Florida after the 2000 ballot recount dispute. The state's Division of Elections has background on Florida's early voting process. Reuters has more. Several other states also begin early balloting Monday. The Denver Post has more on early voting in Colorado, the Houston Chronicle covers early voting in Texas, and AP has more on early voting in Arkansas.

The Central Elections Commission in Belarus announced Monday that 77 percent of registered voters approved of a constitutional amendment that will allow President Alexander Lukashenko to run for a third term. However, elections observers say that the referendum "fell significantly short" of international standards. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe faulted Belarusian authorities for failing "to ensure the fundamental conditions necessary for the will of the people to serve as a basis for authority of government." OSCE has this press release. The International Election Observation Mission has released a statement of preliminary findings and conclusions [PDF]. BBC News has more on international reaction to the vote and CTV has more on the referendum results. JURIST's Paper Chase has additional background.

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Monday, October 18.

Early voting begins today in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, North Dakota and Texas. AP has more on early voting in Florida.... Today is the deadline for voter registration in California, Kansas and South Dakota.... In Washington DC, the National Press Club is hosting a forum on issues surrounding election technology. Presentations will be made on the status of election technology upgrades mandated by the Help Americans Vote Act and the prospects of litigation over election technology following the general election in November. The NPC has more.

The US House and Senate are in recess until Tuesday, November 16.

The UN Security Council will hold closed consultations at 3 PM ET on the situation in the Middle East.

The trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic resumes at 9 AM local time today at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague. Watch a webcast beginning at 9:30 AM local time (3:30 AM ET); for witness protection, the webcast is on a 30-minute tape delay. The ICTY has background on the case. BBC News has more.... Also today at the ICTY, the defense case will start in the trial of Enver Hadzihasanovic and Amir Kubara. Watch a webcast beginning at 2:45 PM local time (8:45 PM ET); for witness protection, the webcast is on a 30-minute tape delay. The ICTY has case information.