[JURIST] A federal district judge in San Francisco has ruled that the US Forest Service [official website; JURIST news archive] violated environmental laws when it promulgated a 2005 regulation governing the management of national forests. On motions for summary judgment in combined lawsuits brought by environmental groups, US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton [official profile] of the Northern District of California Friday enjoined the Forest Service [opinion, PDF] from enforcing the rule "until it has fully complied" with the Endangered Species Act [EPA summary; text] and the National Environmental Policy Act [EPA summary; text]. Hamilton found that the 2005 regulation [text; summary], which gave national forest managers more discretion in allowing logging, mining and other activities, had been adopted without adequate procedural safeguards, environmental reviews and public comment. Hamilton wrote:

[T]he agency was required to undertake some type of consultation, informal or otherwise, prior to making a conclusive determination that there would be no effect [on endangered species]. Given the 2005 Rule's potential indirect effects on listed species, combined with the USDA's lack of documentation in support of their "no effect" determination, the failure to consult and/or prepare any type of biological analysis in conjunction with the 2005 Rule was arbitrary and capricious.

The Bush administration reversed decades of progress in managing national forests, without considering the impacts on wildlife and the environment. The administration also cut the public out of the loop when considering these large-scale changes to how our nation's forests are managed.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) claimed [text] Saturday that the US, Kenya, and Ethiopia are cooperating with the transitional government of Somalia [official website] to secretly detain people who have fled the recent conflict there. HRW deputy Africa director Georgette Gagnon said: "Each of these governments has played a shameful role in mistreating people fleeing a war zone. Kenya has secretly expelled people, the Ethiopians have caused dozens to ‘disappear,’ and US security agents have routinely interrogated people held incommunicado.”

Predominantly-Islamic Somalia [JURIST news archive] has endured a lengthy civil war and several rounds of failed peace talks [BBC timeline] since the collapse of its last civil government in 1991. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The FBI released a 464-page report [text, PDF] Friday containing details from the autopsy of Emmett Till [PBS backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. Till was fourteen when he was abducted from his uncle's home in Money, Mississippi in August 1955 and murdered, reportedly for having whistled at a white woman. The publicity surrounding his brutal slaying helped propel the civil rights movement into a new era. The report stated that Till died of a gunshot wound to the head and that he had broken wrist bones and skull and leg fractures.

Two white men charged with Till's murder were acquitted by an all-white jury [PBS trial overview] though they later confessed [text] in a Look magazine interview. Both men have since passed away. Last month a grand jury in Mississippi refused to indict [JURIST report] the widow of one of the men on charges of manslaughter. FBI personnel began unearthing [JURIST report] a concrete vault containing the remains of Till in June 2006 in hopes of finding clues [JURIST report] about the exact circumstances of his death. AP has more.

[JURIST] An Iranian ambassador has said his country could put 15 detained British military personnel on trial for violating international law, according to reports in state media Saturday. Iran detained [JURIST report] eight British Royal Navy sailors and seven Royal Marines [UK MOD statement] in waters along the disputed Iraq-Iran border last week, denouncing [IRNA report] the British forces for their "illegal and interventionist" entry into Iranian territorial waters.

The UK has condemned the detentions [MOD statement] and submitted the matter to the UN Security Council [official website], but Iranian officials say the UK could resolve the matter by admitting the trespass and apologizing for its mistake. The British government has published GPS data [MOD press release] that it insists shows the personnel were not in Iranian waters. The soldiers were seized at the mouth of a river that Iraq refers to as the Shatt al-Arab [Wikipedia backgrounder] and Iran calls the Arvandrud. Control of the river and its use has been a longstanding source of tension [ICE backgrounder] between the two countries. AP has more.

[JURIST] Iraqi Justice Minister Hashim Abderrahman al-Shebli told AP Saturday that he had submitted his resignation to the Cabinet Thursday, citing internal "differences" within the coalition government. Al-Shebli did not specify the particular "differences" that led to his decision to resign, but the secular Iraqi National List [BBC backgrounder] and Sunni representatives from the Iraqi Accord Front [BBC backgrounder] have disagreed with the Cabinet's decision to endorse a plan that will relocate and compensate the thousands of Arabs who were moved to the northern city of Kirkuk [JURIST news archive] during the "Arabization" phase of Saddam Hussein's Anfal Campaign [HRW backgrounder] against the Kurds in the late-1980s.

Al-Shebli, who will remain the acting justice minister until the Cabinet's response, is a Sunni Arab representative under the secular Iraqi National List. AP has more.

[JURIST] A US military commission [JURIST news archive] at Guantanamo Bay recommended sentencing Australian detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archive] to seven years in prison late Friday but all but nine months of that were effectively suspended by a military judge under the terms of a plea agreement kept secret from the panel of military officers during its deliberations. Hicks is expected to be returned to Australia [JURIST report] to serve his prison term within two months. He has already spent more than five years in US custody since being captured in Afghanistan. Under the plea agreement, Hicks was required to state that he "has never been illegally treated" while being held as an enemy combatant by the United States and that his detention was lawful pursuant to the laws of armed conflict. Hicks is also prohibited from having contact with the media for a period of one year, is to not take any legal action against the United States for his treatment during his 5 year detention, and is required to turn over any profits from an eventual sale of his story to the Australian government.

Vincent Warren, Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights [official website], criticized the plea [statement] as an "[attempt] to silence criticism and keep the facts of their torture and abuse of detainees from the public." Hicks is the first Guantanamo detainee to be tried [JURIST report] under the new Military Commissions Act [text, PDF]. Hicks' conviction is also the first by the tribunal. The New York Times has more. AP has additional coverage. The Sydney Morning Herald has local coverage.

[JURIST] The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) [official website; JURIST news archive] passed a resolution on "Combating defamation of religions" by a vote of 24 to 14, with 9 abstentions Friday, expressing a "deep concern at attempts to identify Islam with terrorism, violence and human rights violations... and the ethnic and religious profiling of Muslim minorities... in the aftermath of the tragic events of 11 September 2001." The statement [text], endorsed by the Organization of the Islamic Conference [official website], was opposed by members of the European Union, and other non-Muslim states like Canada, South Korea, and Japan partly because of its specific emphasis on Islam and concerns that the statement contradicted freedom of expression rights. It follows calls by Muslim leaders and lawmakers in several countries for legal limits on anti-Islamic speech [JURIST report] more in line with Western laws on hate speech against Jews and Christians.

The Human Rights Council has been criticized for its limited successes in Israel and Sudan last year, when both countries refused to accept UNHRC investigative teams. On March 13, Sudan attempted to block the UNHRC from considering a report [JURIST report] by a UNHRC team that was dispatched to investigate conditions in Darfur [JURIST news archive]. Also in March, UN General-Secretary Ban Ki-moon urged member states to work with the UNCHR [JURIST report]. The United States has twice refused to run for election to the body [JURIST report], citing its failure to adequately address violations in Darfur, North Korea, and China. AP has more.