[JURIST] Following up on JURIST report from earlier today, US Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Mitchell has now approved a deal between US Airways [corporate website] and the federal Air Transportation Stabilization Board [official website], extending the government's financing of the troubled airline until June 30. The previous deal between the parties was set to expire Saturday. Executives for the airline stated that the six-month extension will allow time to find a new investors, accumulate the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to emerge from bankruptcy, and begin to transform the airline into a low-cost carrier. Read the US Airways press release on the deal. AP has more.

[JURIST] Israel's High Court of Justice [official website] issued a temporary injunction Thursday instructing state workers "to refrain from all uprooting of trees or orchards and digging, paving, leveling, construction or other preparations" for the erecting of the security fence [Israeli Defence Ministry official website] between Israel and Palestinian areas of the West Bank between Jerusalem and Maccabim. The halt on construction was ordered after residents of the Palestinian village of Beit Sourik northwest of Jerusalem, who petitioned the court that the route of the fence did not conform with a June 2004 High Court ruling [text] requiring route adjustments and a similarly-critical advisory ruling [official text] by the International Court of Justice [official website]. Israeli officials, however, have rejected [Haaretz report] the ICJ's ruling on the separation fence as a violation of human rights. The high court has given the state seven days to respond to the petitions. From Israel, Haaretz has more.

[JURIST] Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein [FCC profile] of the Federal Communications Commission [official website] said Thursday that in response to numerous complaints, the agency should investigate the legality of commentator Armstrong Williams' [official website] failure to disclose $240,000 received from the Bush administration to plug the No Child Left Behind Act [official website]. The deal required the production and airing of one-minute advertisements by Education Secretary Rod Paige [official profile] and allowed department officials to appear as studio guests with Williams. Adelstein, a Democrat, stated at the FCC's monthly meeting which was carried live this morning on JURIST, "I certainly hope the FCC will take action and fully investigate whether any laws have been broken...." Williams, a conservative commentator, has defended that the ads, which aired during his syndicated program, specifically stated that they were paid for by the Education Department. Williams has further stated that he "was not engaged in any public relations in the campaign." Conservative FCC Chairman Michael Powell declined to comment on the likelihood of a agency probe. Williams has posted an apology for "bad judgment" on his website. AP has more.

[JURIST] The defense for US Army Spc. Charles Graner [Wikipedia profile] rested its case Thursday afternoon without Graner testifying on his own behalf during his court-martial at Fort Hood [official base website]. Graner had been expected to testify [JURIST report] that he had been ordered by military and civilian intelligence agents to soften up detainees at Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST Hot Topic] for further questioning. The military jury will begin deliberating the charges [original chargesheet; two charges have since been dropped] Friday. AP has more.

[JURIST] In Thursday's international brief, Somalia's parliament has approved the proposed cabinet of Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi [BBC profile] Thursday in a crucial step towards establishing a truly functioning government for the trouble-ridden country. The proposed list was the second offering from Ghedi; his first selections were rejected by parliament, which claimed that Ghedi had not followed the clan proportion requirements spelled out by the country's constitution. The newly appointed government viewed this as a crucial step on the way towards moving the seat of government from Nairobi, Kenya, where it has functioned in exile since last year to avoid faction violence, back to the nation's capital of Mogadishu, a move which is tentatively scheduled for late January. The African Union [official website] has already agreed to supply troops to the new Somali government upon its return to Mogadishu, should they be requested. AllAfrica.com has local coverage.

In other international legal news...

• International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA official website] officials visited the site of an alleged secret nuclear program in Iran, which the US claims is conducting experiments into producing illegal supplies to be used in creating a nuclear weapon. Iranian Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology [official website in Arabic] officials said that they granted IAEA inspectors access to the Parchin site to take environmental samples, located southeast of Tehran, in order to disprove US allegations that the site is being used to research the illegal creation of nuclear weapons. Environmental samples consist of testing the soil of the surrounding area for any radiation that would occur from nuclear testing. The IAEA's visit is a 'transperancy visit', so called because the IAEA's mandate under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [PDF text] does not authorize such inspections and the IAEA requires permission to enter from the country under investigation. Iran Mania News has local coverage.
  
  
• The US will announce shortly that it has created a new post of security attache to the European Union [official website] under the US Department of Homeland Security [official website]. The post will be based out of the US Mission to the EU [official website] in Brussels, and will strive to coordinate responses and information sharing between the EU and the US. The move comes after a series of bilateral agreements were signed between the US and EU countries to strengthen ties in fighting international terrorism. One of the first items on the agenda with the new attache will be visa-free entry to the US for EU citizens. The US has notified EU countries that their citizens will no longer receive visa-free entry to the US beginning next year, unless their national passports begin to include biometric data, such as fingerprints and retinal scans. The European Parliament has voiced strong disapproval of the plan, raising concerns over the privacy interests of European citizens. Read exiting Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge's announcement of the post in Thursday's Financial Times. ISN News has more.
  
  
• The trial of 23 men that attempted to gain asylum in the Mexican Embassy in Cuba began Wednesday. The men stole a local transport bus and used it to crash through the gates of the Mexican Embassy in Havana in an attempt to gain asylum and exit visas from Cuba in February of 2002. The incident was sparked by rumors that the Mexican government was issuing exit visas to Cuban nationals. Prosecutors have charged the men, 16 of whom have been held in prison since their arrest, with a combination of offenses, including theft of the bus, violating a diplomatic mission and damage to property. Prosecutors announced that they will seek sentencing from 5 to 12 years. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] has released its 2005 human rights report [full text] surveying human rights developments in more than 60 countries in 2004. The report says that worldwide system for protecting human rights was significantly weakened in 2004 by the crisis in Darfur [BBC Q&A] and the Abu Ghraib [JURIST Hot Topic] scandal:

No one would equate the two, yet each, in its own way, has had an insidious effect. One involves indifference in the face of the worst imaginable atrocities, the other is emblematic of a powerful government flouting a most basic prohibition. One presents a crisis that threatens many lives, the other a case of exceptionalism that threatens the most fundamental rules. The vitality of the global defense of human rights depends on a firm response to each on stopping the Sudanese government's slaughter in Darfur and on changing the policy decisions behind the US government's torture and mistreatment of detainees.

[JURIST] US District Court Judge Clarence Cooper has ruled that the Cobb County School District [official website] in Atlanta must remove an evolution disclaimer inside textbooks. The stickers inside the science books stated "Evolution is a theory not a fact." Judge Cooper said the stickers violated the Establishment Clause [UMKC Law backgrounder] of the US Constitution. The case was brought by parents in Cobb County and the Georgia ACLU [advocacy website] who argued the stickers violated the constitutional separation of church and state. Read the US District Court order [PDF]. CNN has more.

[JURIST] A five-day military court hearing for an unidentified Navy SEAL [official military website] lieutenant accused of abusing an Iraqi prisoner at Abu Ghraib [JURIST Hot Topic] prison has concluded. Prosecutors said actions by the lieutenant were "unacceptable by any standard," while the officer's lawyer argued nothing he did warranted a court-martial. Navy's top SEAL, Rear Admiral Joe Maguire [official profile], will now decide whether the officer will face a court-martial. The SEAL is accused of assault, maltreatment and conduct unbecoming an officer related to the handling of prisoners. Much of the evidence presented by the prosecution centered on Iraqi Manadel al-Jamadi [Wikipedia photos], a suspect in the bombing of a Red Cross facility. Al-Jamadi, who was captured by SEALs during a joint CIA-special operations mission in November 2003,died a few hours later under CIA interrogation in the shower room at Abu Ghraib prison. Prosecutors said the lieutenant posed in degrading photos with the handcuffed and hooded prisoner. Additionally, an ex-SEAL, who served under the lieutenant in Iraq, testified that he saw the lieutenant abuse prisoners, including al-Jamadi, three different times. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Mississippi judge set bond at $250,000 Wednesday for Edgar Ray Killen [UKMC Law profile], an alleged former KKK member charged with the murders of three civil rights workers in 1964. The judge also ordered a March 28 trial date for 79-year-old Killen, who was arrested last week [JURIST report] on state charges, the first against anyone for the murders. In 1967, nineteen people, including Killen, were tried [UMKC Law backgrounder] on federal charges related to the murders. Only seven were convicted and served no more than six years. From Mississippi, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports that Killen was freed after posting bond. AP has more.

[JURIST] [JURIST] A Congressional committee negotiating an intelligence reform bill last month backed away from greater restrictions on interrogation by the CIA under pressure from the White House, the New York Times reported [registration required] Thursday. The restrictions were part of an initial bill that won overwhelming Senate support, but four Congressional leaders eliminated the provisions from a final version of the bill, after White House pressure. The final version of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 [PDF text], which was passed in December [JURIST report] leaves the CIA greater leeway in how it interrogates captured terrorists. The CIA interrogation tactics were the subject of dispute in several DOJ memos [JURIST report] that were viewed by some as condoning practices bordering on torture. One of the legislators involved in the negotiations, California Democrat Jane Harman, said the issue was too complex to resolve in the legislation. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] UNICEF [official website] spokesmen said Thursday that they have evidence that Tamil Tiger rebels [factional website] in northern and eastern Sri Lanka have recruited children in tsunami relief camps as child soldiers to help their ongoing struggle for autonomy against the Sri Lankan government. More than 30,000 Sri Lankans were killed in the tsunami on December 26, leaving thousands of children homeless. Before the tsunami, UNICEF believed the Tamils to have had about 1300 children in their ranks. The Tigers have denied that they are recruiting children from the tsuanmi relief camps. BBC News has more. As of April last year, some 115 countries have signed the 2000 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict [official text], establishing 18 as the minimum age for direct participation in hostilities, for compulsory recruitment, and for any recruitment or use in hostilities by non-governmental armed groups. Additional information is available from the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers [advocacy website].

[JURIST] An Iranian court has summoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi [Nobel Committee biography] for questioning on an undisclosed matter, indicating that she must appear by Sunday or face prison. Ebadi, Iran's first female judge, won the Nobel in 2003 for her defense of women's and children's rights, founding the Iranian Children's Rights Society [advocacy website]. She lost her judgeship after the revolution that brought Islamic hardliners to power; in 2000, she received a suspended sentence for distributing a videotape accusing conservative leaders of physically attacking reformers. Most recently she has represented the family of Zahra Kazemi [CBC News backgrounder], a Canadian-Iranian photographer murdered under suspicious circumstances in 2003 after being arrested for taking photographs of a prison. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Leading Thursday's corporations and securities law news, the SEC [official website] is considering a combined settlement with several brokerage firms in its probe of the $204 billion auction-rate bond market. The SEC's investigation has uncovered several potential violations related to the sale of the bonds including manipulation of the bond's yields which increase borrowing costs for states, cities, and companies which issue the securities. A combined settlement would save the agency time and money by not having to litigate multiple cases. Bloomberg has more.

In other corporations and securities law news...

• China, the world's largest tobacco consumer, has announced it will not allow any new tobacco factories to be built in the country. A State Tobacco Monopoly Administration [official website in Chinese] spokesperson said the move is the current excess in the country's cigarette-making capacity. The plan would jeopardize plans by British American Tobacco [corporate website] plans to become China's first foreign cigarette maker. The China Daily has more.
  
  
• Martha Stewart's [JURIST hot topic] legal team is looking into determining whether the homemaking expert's sentence can be shortened in light of the US Supreme Court's ruling tossing out federal sentencing guidelines. JURIST's Paper Chase has more on the Supreme Court ruling. AP has more.
  
  
• The NYSE [official website] is criticizing a SEC proposal to open order books in the markets to investors. The NYSE instead supports and alternative plan which calls for the SEC to protect the best bids and offers of the nine major stock markets. Read the SEC proposed rule [PDF]. Read the NYSE NYSE comment [PDF] and the related NYSE press release. CBSMarketWatch has more.
  
  
• SunTrust Banks Inc. [corporate website], the nation's seventh largest bank, has announced that the SEC has opened a formal investigation in the company over recent financial restatement. The SEC has issued subpoenas seeking documents related to how much SunTrust set aside for bad loans. Read the SunTrust press release . Reuters has more.
  
  
• Airbus [corporate website] has applied to four European governments for launch aid totaling around one billion euros to help finance its four billion euro development of its planned A350 long-range airliner. The request comes after the US and EU returned to the negotiating table before engaging in a trade battle over subsidies given to Airbus and Boeing. The Financial Times has more.
  
  
• Imprisoned Yukos [corporate website] founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky [Wikipedia profile] has transferred his interest in the embattled oil giant to his long-time partner Leonid Nevzlin. Khodorkovsky is currently on trial [Khodorkovsky defense website] in Russia on tax fraud charges. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of the Yukos scandal. AP has more.
  
  
• US Airways [corporate website] has announced that federal regulators will allow the troubled airline to extend its use of cash proceeds from a federal loan through June 30. A bankruptcy court will need to approve the plan. Read the US Airways press release. Reuters has more.
  
  
• Anthony C. Snell, a former JP Morgan vice president, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud relating to a $50,000 payment to an adviser of Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street in an attempt to win favor with the administration. AP has more.
  
  
• RadioShack Corp. [corporate website] has announced its president, David Edmondson, would become chief executive succeeding Leonard Roberts. Roberts will remain as chairman of the company. Read the RadioShack press release. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Mark Thatcher [BBC profile], the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has been fined 3 million rand ($500,000) by a court in South Africa in connection with his role in a plot [BBC Q&A] to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea [official website; US State Department backgrounder]. If he fails to pay the fine he faces a five-year prison term, in addition to a further 4-year suspended sentence. Thatcher, a wealthy businessman, was charged with helping to finance the coup contrary to the terms of South Africa's Foreign Military Assistance Act [text]. As anticipated yesterday [JURIST report], he entered a guilty plea in court in Cape Town Thursday morning. Reuters has more. From South Africa, the Mail & Guardian newspaper provides local coverage. The Cape Town Cape Argus reports that Thatcher is shortly expected to leave South Africa for the United States.

[JURIST] US Army Spc. Charles Graner [Wikipedia profile] may take the witness stand in his own defense Thursday on the second day of the defense case in his court-martial at Fort Hood [official base website] TX for abusing Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib [JURIST Hot Topic] prison in Iraq. A defense witness called Wednesday admitted on cross-examination that Graner, a former prison guard from Uniontown PA, just six miles outside of Pittsburgh, didn't like to follow orders, refusing to cut his hair, wear a regulation uniform and to stay away from a female soldier, Pfc. Lynndie England, with whom he was having an affair. The admission is critical insofar as Graner's defense to abuse-related charges [original chargesheet; two charges have since been dropped] is that he was only following orders originating further up the chain of command. AP has more. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review provides additional coverage.

[JURIST] Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Thursday, January 13.

Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer will discuss the relevance of foreign law for American constitutional adjudication at a forum hosted by American University's Washington College of Law. Watch a live webcast (via C-SPAN) beginning at 4 PM ET.

The Federal Communications Commission will hold a 9:30 AM ET open meeting. The agenda [PDF] includes a comprehensive review of FCC policies and procedures. Watch a live webcast.

At the United Nations, the Security Council will meet at 10 AM ET to discuss the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.... Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, will hold a 12 PM ET press briefing on humanitarian assistance to countries affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Watch a live webcast.

The trial of Slobodan Milosevic continues Thursday at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Watch a webcast of the trial beginning at 9:30 AM local time (3:30 AM ET); the webcast is on a 30-minute tape delay. The ICTY has background on the case.... Also Thursday, the trial of Fatmir Limaj and his co-defendants continues at the ICTY. Watch a webcast beginning at 2:45 PM local time (8:45 AM ET); the webcast is on a 30-minute tape delay. The ICTY has case information.

The European Parliament will debate cases of breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, including the situation in Tibet, torture in Iran, and trafficking of women and children in Cambodia. Watch a live webcast beginning at 3 PM local time (9 AM ET).

Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, is expected to appear before a South African court Thursday and will reportedly enter a guilty plea to charges that he provided financial support to an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea. Thatcher is expected to maintain that he believed his money was being used for humanitarian purposes. AP has more and JURIST's Paper Chase has a report on the expected plea.