[JURIST] Updating a JURIST report from earlier today, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Monday urged the Security Council in a closed-door emergency session to pass a resolution to end what he called "appalling" crimes in Sudan's Darfur region and called for sanctions against those preventing peace in the troubled area. He praised existing humanitarian and security measures, but criticized them for not going far enough. BBC News has more; the UN News Center offers further coverage. Read Annan's statement to the press after the meeting [UN press release]. JURIST's Paper Chase has archived news on the Darfur crisis.

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense Monday confirmed the release and transfer to France of three French detainees in Guantanamo Bay to France "for prosecution". Mustaq Ali Patel, Ridouane Khalid and Khaled Ben Mustafa were the last three French detainees held at Gitmo following the release of four other French suspects last July. The former detainees are currently being held by the Direction de la surveillance du territoire [official government website in French], France's counterterrorism agency. They were originally apprehended during US operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Including this transfer, the total number of released Gitmo detainees has risen to 211. Read the official US Department of Defense press release on the handovers. AP has more. France 2 has local coverage in French. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the Guantanamo Bay detentions.

[JURIST] A military judge in Foot Hood, Texas, has refused to dismiss any remaining charges [JURIST report] against US Army Spc. Sabrina Harman [Wikipedia profile] in connection with 2003 abuses of Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST Hot Topic news archive], setting the stage for a full court-martial trial scheduled for May 12. Harman will be the second Abu Ghraib soldier to be court-martialed; six others implicated in the scandal have accepted plea bargains. Harman appeared in several photographs with humiliated or dead Iraqi detainees taken at the prison. If convicted, she could face up to 6 1/2 years behind bars. AP has more.

[JURIST] In an interview with three news agencies Monday, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales denied renewed allegations that pursuant to an executive order issued after the September 11 attacks the CIA had flown as many as 150 terror suspects to foreign jurisdictions where they would be tortured. The New York Times published a story containing the allegations Sunday, picking up on individual reports and claims by former detainees that have been circulating for some time [JURIST report]. Gonzales acknowledged, however, that once prisoners were turned over to countries like Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Syria, Jordan and Pakistan, whose various security services have all been cited by the State Department for abusing detainees, there was little the United States could do, although he said the US did require "additional assurances" from those countries that prisoners arriving there would not be maltreated. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Special Court for Sierra Leone [official website] opened its final scheduled trial in Freetown Monday as outgoing chief prosecutor David Crane outlined his case [opening statement, PDF; case summary] against three former members of the the country's military junta - Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu. The leaders of the of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council who presided over the country after seizing power in a 1997 coup face 14 counts [indictment, PDF] of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including mutilation, rape, sexual slavery and conscripting child soldiers. The court is expected to wrap up its business after the trial; an indictment [text] against former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, wanted in connection with his support of a faction in the Sierra Leone conflict which led to the killing and mutilation of over 50,000 people, is still outstanding, but Taylor is presently in exile in Nigeria. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The House of Lords, the upper chamber of the UK Parliament, Monday turned back by 249-119 a controversial anti-terror bill that would have permitted government ministers to issue so-called "control orders" limiting the movement or freedoms of certain terror suspects without charge or trial. Former Labour Party Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine [profile] is said to have been one of those voting against the Prevention of Terrorism Bill [PDF]. UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke had previously said that the bill, which passed the Commons last week, would be amended so that only judges could issue control orders mandating full house arrest, but that restriction did not apply to lesser orders that might involve tagging, curfews amd phone bans. The bill now returns to the Commons for further consideration, although what will happen there is unclear, as Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has already said that there will be no additional concessions on the bill. From London, the Guardian has more. The UK Home Office provides background information on the bill. UK human rights group Liberty prepared a critical briefing paper on the bill [PDF] in advance of today's Lords debate.

[JURIST] Plagued by allegations of football prospects recruited with sex and alcohol, legal action brought against the university by two women who claimed they were raped by CU football players, and a free speech controversy about Ward Churchill [faculty profile], a professor in the university's Ethnic Studies department who supposedly made disparaging remarks [essay text; Ward Churchill press release denying disparagement] about the victims of September 11, University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman [official profile] announced her resignation Monday in a letter [text] to the university's Board of Regents. Hoffman, who failed last week in a last minute bid to get lawmakers behind the public institution, will stay on the job until June 30. The Rocky Mountain News has more.

[JURIST] Former Yugoslav army general Momcilo Perisic arrived in The Hague Monday as anticipated [JURIST report] to surrender to officials from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Perisic has been charged with eight counts of crimes against humanity and five counts of war crimes. Also Monday, the ICTY released the details of the charges against him, which include murder, persecution on grounds of politics, race, or religion, and unjustifed attacks on civilians. As well as being held individually responsible for these acts, Perisic is also being charged with command responsibility for the actions of his subordinates under Article 7(3) of the ICTY Statute [official text]. Perisic is the fourth Serbian general to surrender to the ICTY under a policy initiated by Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica [official profile] that encouraged voluntary surrender rather than controversial arrests. Read the ICTY indictment of Perisic. Read the official ICTY press release. AFP has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that President Bush has picked Under Secretary of State John Bolton [official profile] to be US ambassador to the United Nations [US Mission to the UN official website], according to a government official "knowledgeable about the move". Bolton, regarded as a conservative hardliner on foreign policy issues and a stauch opponent of the UN-sponsored International Criminal Court [JURIST report], indicated earlier this year that he would be leaving the State Department after incoming Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chose US Trade Reprentative Robert Zoellick as her deputy. If nominated and confirmed, Bolton would succeed outgoing US ambassador to the UN John Danforth, who had attempted to strike a more conciliatory tone in his brief time in the position following the departure of John Negroponte, who left to become US ambassador to Iraq and is now poised to become the new Director of National Intelligence.

2:15 PM ET - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's remarks this afternoon announcing Bolton's nomination - together with Bolton's response - are now online from the State Department.

5:30 PM ET - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has "warmly congratulated" Bolton on his appointment, and says he looks forward to working with him on UN reform and other issues. The UN News Center has more.

[JURIST] Former Rwandan mayor Juvenal Kajelijeli [official ICTR case history; Trial Watch profile] Monday began his courtroom appeal of a life sentence imposed on himm in 2003 by the UN-created International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [official website]. Kajelijeli, onetime mayor of the Rwandan city of Mukingo, was accused and convicted of genocide, extermination, and direct and public incitement to commit genocide [2003 ICTR press release]. Read the ICTR announcement of hearing [official text]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud [official profile] agreed at a summit Monday that Syria would pull its troops back from their current positions in Lebanon [government website in Arabic] and move to the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon by the end of March. Syrian troops originally entered Lebanon as peacekeepers and helped end a 15-year civil war in 1990. The Taif accord [excerpts] that officially ended the civil war in 1989 called for the phased withdraw of all troops from Lebanon, but that withdrawal never occurred, prompting the UN Security Council to pass Resolution 1559 [official PDF text] in November 2004, calling for the complete withdraw of all foreign troops. The US has specifically called for the complete withdraw of all Syrian troops by May, the planned month for the beginning of a series of elections in Lebanon. BBC News has more. The government-run Syrian Arab News Agency has local coverage.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court ruled in three cases Monday. In Shepard v. US [case backgrounder from Duke Law School], the court in a 5-3 opinion by Justice Souter held that in making sentencing determinations, judges are confined to information in the charging document, in the terms of any plea agreement terms, or admissions by the defendant made to the trial judge, but cannot review other sources, such as police reports. Review the syllabus, opinion, concurrence and dissent [Cornell LII]. In Wilkinson v. Dotson [case backgrounder from Duke Law School], the court ruled 8-1 (Justice Kennedy dissenting) that prisoners asserting violations of their due process rights under federal civil rights laws are not required to bring a petition of habeas corpus questioning the validity of their incarceration. Review the syllabus, opinion, concurrence and dissent [Cornell LII]. Also Monday, the court held per Justice Ginsburg in the consolidated cases of Ballard v. Commissioner and Estate of Kanter v. Commissioner [case backgrounders from Duke Law School] that the US Tax Court must include reports filed by special trial judges in court records available to the parties. Chief Justice Rehnquist dissented. Review the syllabus, opinion, concurrence and dissent [Cornell LII]. SCOTUSblog has more.

In other Supreme Court action Monday, the Court granted certiorari in two cases, US v. Olson, raising the question of the federal government's liability for not carrying out safety inspections required under federal law, and Volvo Trucks North America v. Reeder-Simco GMC, raising the question of how far a transaction must go before price discrimation can be shown to have occured. The Court has posted today's full Order List [PDF].

[JURIST] French newspaper Le Monde reported Monday that the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website] at The Hague is about to indict Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj [Assembly of Kosovo biodata, in English; Economist profile] and issue a warrant for his arrest. No formal announcement has yet been made, but the newspaper quotes court sources as saying that the court had confirmed accusations [pro-Serb website report] made against the Albanian politician in connect with his conduct as a senior Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) [Wikipedia profile] commander during the 1999 guerilla campaign against Serb forces in the former Yugoslav province, now under UN administration. UN officials in Kosovo have said they are unaware of any indictment, which would likely set off a political firestorm given Haradinaj's popularity. An indictment against Haradinaj would be the court's first against a serving head of government; Haradinaj, who has already been questioned by ICTY investigators, has said that he would report to the court if charged. Le Monde has more in French; Reuters has more in English.

[JURIST] UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called an emergency, closed-door session of the UN Security Council [official website] for Monday to discuss the deteriorating situation in the Darfur region of Sudan, as well as the proposed deployment of over 10,000 UN peacekeeping troops to the country. UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, visiting the region over the weekend, accused world governments of failing to do enough to support the peace process. The Security Council has been considering a resolution to authorize the peacekeeping force for nearly three weeks [JURIST report], but has struggled with gaining unanimity on other provisions relating to the possible imposition of sanctions on the Sudanese government [official website] unless their is drastic improvement of the situation in Darfur. The Council is also divided on where to prosecute those guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The majority of the members prefer the International Criminal Court, but the US is still opposed to its use, and China objects to any non-national court. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Sudan [JURIST Country news archive]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Members of Kuwait's parliament [official website in Arabic; background video in English] Monday agreed to speed up consideration of a government-proposed law that would give Kuwaiti women the right to vote. No specific date for debate was set, however. The agreement came as several hundred Kuwaiti women demonstrated outside the country's parliament building. An earlier bill giving Kuwaiti women the right to vote was narrowly defeated in 1999; the government is pressing the latest version of the legislation to bring statutory law in line with the Kuwaiti constitution [text in English], which proclaims gender equality. Expediting debate on women's voting rights has been opposed by tribal leaders and by the Islamic Bloc politic grouping, which has said the issue is not important for the majority of Kuwaitis. As the law currently stands, only 15 percent Kuwait's 950,000 citizens will be eligible to vote in the next round of legislative elections slated for July 2007. AFP has more. The Kuwait Embassy in Washington provides background on women and women's rights in Kuwait.