In international law news Tuesday, according to Russia's foreign minister, "considerable headway has been made in the work to define the legal status of the Caspian Sea." Sergey Lavrov has also said that a framework convention on the protection of Caspian marine life and the environment is crucial for the common success of the Caspian States. Itar-Tass has the full story.... Iran has agreed to speed up its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Organization by providing the UN's nuclear watchdog all information regarding its present and future nuclear activities. AP has more. The IAEA provides extensive background information about its work with Iran here.... The Central African Republic and Guinea have become the latest countries to sign Article 98 agreements [PDF] with the United States, thereby agreeing to not to hand over American citizens to the International Criminal Court. AP has more.... Two new criminal codes, the Provisional Criminal Code [PDF] and the Provisional Criminal Procedure Code [PDF], have come into force in the UN-administered province of Kosovo. The codes are meant to ensure consistency with principles of international law and therefore reflect international conventions on terrorism, organized crime and corruption. The UN News Service has more. The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo has this press release [PDF].

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In Tuesday's federal courts roundup, the US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the 30 year sentence of a former pharmacist convicted of diluting chemotherapy drugs, rejecting arguments that it was too long. Robert Courtney pleaded guilty in 2002. AP has the story.... The US First Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a state judge must reconsider whether an accused serial killer needs more money to mount a defense. Attorneys for Derrick Todd Lee have argued that they need more money to adequately defend their client. The trial court judge, who originally stated that he did not have the authority to take money from other governmental bodies to cover the costs, must now hold a private hearing with Lee's lawyers to allow them to demonstrate their need. AP has the full story.... Genentech Inc. announced today that the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld its legal victory in a $1 billion patent infringement battle with rival Chiron Corp. A federal jury ruled in 2002 that Genentech did not have to share profits from the breast cancer drug Herceptin. AP has the full story. Read the opinion here [PDF].

In Tuesday's tax law news, the GAO has released a report disclosing that corporations only pay 7.4% of the nation's tax bill. Overall, the amount of tax revenue paid by corporate taxpayers in the US declined from over $200 billion in 2000 to only $131.8 billion in 2003. See the GAO report here. Dow Jones News has more.... The DOJ, said today that due to a 35% increase in tax cheats since 2000 the IRS and DOJ will increase efforts to identify and punish the offenders. The 35% increase is represented by the 1,129 defendents the DOJ Tax Division referred to the IRS in 2003. View the release by the IRS and DOJ here. UPI has more.... The IRS also issued a notice today to businesses and individuals to be on the lookout for possible employment tax violations due to a current increase in cases involving such violations. Read the release here.... Finally, Xcel Energy Inc., in a lawsuit against the IRS filed last week, is claiming that the IRS erroneously dissallowed a deduction for life insurance premiums the company paid covering its employees. If unsuccessful, Xcel could be liable to the IRS for up to $245 million in back taxes. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal has more.

Here's Tuesday's legal news from the US Department of Justice. The DOJ and the FBI will likely face criticism during next week's hearings before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. The Commission is expected to question the agencies about their failure to foresee and prevent the September 11 attacks. The Commission is currently leaning toward the creation of a separate counterintelligence agency apart from the current FBI, but the Bush administration opposes such an agency. The New York Times has more.

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On a visit to Haiti yesterday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters that "There are inquiries being made by our judicial authorities in the US to see if there is any evidence of wrongdoing" on the part of deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide that could lead to his trial on charges of corruption. Aristide's lawyer, Miami-based Ira Kurzban, says such threats against Aristide are part of a continung US disinformation campaign about Aristide's rule and ouster. Aristide's former security chief Oriel Jean, now in Canada pending extradition, is already subject to an arrest warrant, and earlier today Haiti's former Interior Minister under Aristide was arrested (see this AP story) in connection with the mid-February killings of several of Aristide's political opponents. The Financial Times has more.

In Tuesday's corporations and securities law news, the SEC has announced that a court-ordered 10-day freeze of $2.7 million in UBS accounts of options investors, who traded in InVision Technologies Inc. just before news that General Electric was buying the company, has been converted into a preliminary injunction. The injunction means the cash cannot be removed until there is a resolution to the investigation. Read the InVision press release announcing cooperation with the investigation here. Read the GE press release announcing the deal here. Reuters has more.

In other corporations and securities law news, the SEC is investigating Mamma.com Inc., which provides Internet searches, for recent trades in the company's stock after a surge in the share price. Bloomberg.com has more.... Lucent Technologies Inc. fired four executives from its Chinese operation after discovering potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars the payment of bribes overseas. Reuters has more.... US securities firm Morgan Stanley will buy Barra Inc., which creates stock indexes and portfolio risk assessment tools, for $816.4 million in cash. Read the Morgan Stanley press release here. Bloomberg.com has more.... The executive board of Germany's Bundesbank will conduct an investigation of president Ernst Welteke for accepting a luxury hotel stay paid for by a bank he regulates. BBC has more.

Also, a federal bankruptcy judge has approved temporary caps on cash to be paid to Enron Corp. by two Nevada electrical utilities. Sierra Pacific Power Co. and Nevada Power Co. will put another $25 million into an escrow account, with $35 million already escrowed. AP has more.... A federal judge will consider a split sentence of five months in prison and five months confined at home for Lea Fastow, the wife of former Enron Corp. finance chief Andrew Fastow. Read the indictment against Lea Fastow here[PDF]. AP has more.

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The city council in Barcelona, Spain (official website in Spanish) voted Tuesday to outlaw bullfighting, making it the first Spanish city to denounce the traditional spectator blood-sport. The vote, technically non-binding since any formal prohibition is a matter for the regional Catalan parliament, followed a Europe-wide petition drive and pressure from the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and Spanish animal rights groups, including the Asociación para la defensa de los derechos del animal. Bullfighting is not highly popular in Barcelona's Catalan region, but activists hope that the city's condemnation will encourage communities around thge country to follow suit. WSPA has issued a press release welcoming the vote here. AFP has more.

The Bush administration indicated in a report to Congress Tuesday that it was increasing its support of the Iraqi Special Tribunal for Crimes Against Humanity set up by the Iraqi Governing Council to try former President Saddam Hussein and other Iraqis suspected of war crimes. An as-yet-unnamed "regime crimes adviser" will be appointed to work with the tribunal and more investigative assistance will be provided. Members of the US Marshals Service are already in Iraq under the aegis of US Department of Justice. A special evidence storage facility has been established at a former Iraqi army bases, and evidence for the tribunal will be computerized and tracked. Training is also being provided for Iraqi lawyers and judges who will work with the Tribunal. Reuters has more. Late last month a team of Iraqi judges and lawyers held a series of unannounced meetings in Amsterdam and The Hague with war crimes judges and experts from the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. The New York Times has more.

Speaking Tuesday at a press conference in Norfolk, VA, with new NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that US troops involved in an operation in an around the city of Fallujah had taken into custody a number of individuals in connection with the murder and mutilation of four American civilian contractors last week. He also said he was aware of no current circumstances warranting the postponement of the scheduled June 30 handover of sovereignty to Iraqis. C-SPAN provides recorded video. Reuters has more.

Speaking in Kigali, Rwanda, on the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the Rwanda genocude between Hutus and Tutsi's that killed over 800,000 people in 100 days in 1994, Canadian general Romeo Dalliare (read a CBC profile), former head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda - the UN peacekeeping force in the country at the time - branded the West, and especially France, Britain and the US, "criminally responsible" for not stopping the killings. He noted that instead the UN Security Council had at their behest cut his force from 2,500 troops to 450. "The genocide was brutal, criminal and disgusting and continued for 100 days under the eyes of the international community", he said. CNN has more. The United Nations has designated Wednesday, April 7, as an International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda - the commemorative day's official website carries extensive background information and documentation.

The ACLU is announcing a class-action lawsuit Tuesday challenging the legality of the "No-Fly" list maintained by the Transportation Security Administration. The list identifies potentially threatening individuals and prevents them from boarding commercial flights. The ACLU provides background information on the "No-Fly" list here - it says the list is fraught with errors and unjustifiably subjects innocent individuals to arbitrary searches and restrictions. Specific information on the lawsuit is expected to be available after an ACLU press conference later today. The Electronic Privacy Information Center provides information on complaints already brought. AP has more.

UPDATE: The ACLU has now issued this press release on its suit, identifying seven named plaintiffs and including a link to the complaint and additional information.

China, Iran and the United States topped the latest annual survey of death penalty statistics released Tuesday by Amnesty International. AI said that in 2003 1,146 known executions were carried out in 28 countries, with 84% of those executions being conducted in just four countries - 728 in China (a conservative figure, according to AI), 108 in Iran, 65 in the US, and 64 in Vietnam. A total of 2,756 people were sentenced to death in 63 countries during 2003. Read the AI report and an accompanying press release.

AP is reporting that Lithuania's parliament has voted to impeach and remove from office the country's President, Rolandas Paksas (official website here). Lithuania's Constitutional Court ruled last week that Paksas violated the constitution and his office by arranging citizenship for Russian businessman Yuri Borisov, who had donated $400,000 to Paksas's election campaign. Paksas had been warned by political colleagues that if he did not resign he would be removed. In a televised address to the Lithuanian people Monday evening, Paksas admitted "mistakes" but said he had disassociated himself from Borisov and would not resign. Under the Lithuanian constitution the Speaker of Parliament becomes acting President after a sitting President is impeached; new elections must be called within 60 days.

Kenneth Starr, the former US Solicitor General under President George H.W. Bush, a former judge of the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals, and later and perhaps most notably the Independent Counsel who investigated Whitewater dealings and the Monica Lewinsky affair during the Clinton Presidency, has been chosen as the next dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law. Pepperdine is expected to announce the appointment officially later today. Starr had accepted the Pepperdine deanship in 1997, but later declined it after he was criticized for "abandoning" his Independent Counsel duties (see this 1997 CNN story on Starr admitting his "mistake" in taking the deanship). AP has more. Starr is currently a partner with Kirkland & Ellis in Washington DC - view his profile page. Listen to audio of Starr speaking at Pepperdine in February 2004 during a conference asking "Can the Ordinary Practice of Law be a Religious Calling?".

A military court in Jordan Tuesday convicted 8 Muslim militants to death in connection with the 2002 murder of USAID official Laurence Foley (see a remembrance page from the US Embassy in Amman). It also convicted two others for jail terms for conspiracy. One of the militants given the death sentence is known by the name of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and is considered to have been a close associate of al-Qaida head Osama bin Laden. AP has more.

China's National People's Congress ruled Tuesday that it had the power to amend the Basic Law (essentially, the constitution) of its Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, a controversial move which Hong Kong democracy activists say puts Beijing in the way of potential reforms. The NPC ruling reads, in part:

China is a unitary state instead of a federation, and localities have no power to decide on or change their constitutional system on their own... The power to make decisions on whether or not there is a need to amend and how to amend rests with the central authorities. This is the most important principle established in the Chinese constitution and the Hong Kong Basic Law, and is also an integral part of the `one country, two systems' principle."

(AP offers additional excerpts). A Chinese government news release with English translation of the full ruling is here. Read the official Hong Kong government news release on the ruling here. Chinese officials quoted in the Tuesday's People's Daily have already branded protesting Hong Kong activists as "troublemakers". AP has more.

In Tuesday's media and information law news, nine media groups are seeking to unseal transcripts of closed proceedings in which New York state court judge Michael Obus declared a mistrial in the prosecution of two former Tyco executives. The news groups, which include the New York Times, Washington Post and AP, argue that the First Amendment and New York law require the release of the transcripts, and any reason for keeping them sealed is gone now that a mistrial has been declared. The transcripts include Obus' interviews with juror Ruth Jordan, who was at the center of controversy in the trial. AP reports that media coverage of the Tyco trial could have an impact on access to jurors in future high-profile trials... The Committee to Protect Journalists is sseeking access to a military investigation into the deaths of two reporters in Iraq in March, in which the US military accepted responsibility, calling the deaths "accidental." CPJ announced that it had filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the results of the investigation, which was concluded March 29. The reporters, both of whom worked for the Arabic news station Al-Arabiyya, were shot March 18 at a checkpoint in Iraq.

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In Tuesday's US law and business press, the Legal Times reports on how the legal ground rules set for the 9/11 Commission inquiry will be tested Thursday when National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice testifies.... The New York Law Journal reports that a NY federal judge has rejected a request for attorney fees in the $1.3 billion Swiss settlement of Holocaust claims, stating that the attorney and his client contributed nothing to the case and had tried to blackmail the court.... The Denver Business Journal reports that concert promoter Nobody in Particular Presents Inc.'s case against Clear Channel Communications Inc. alleging monopolistic and predatory practices has been cleared to proceed to trial.... The Legal Intelligencer reports that a Philadelphia jury has returned a defense verdict for GlaxoSmithKline in PA's first phenylpropanolamine (PPA) trial.... The ABA Journal reports on how a midlevel Dynegy executive has felt the sting of amended sentencing guidelines for defendants committing financial crimes.... FindLaw's Writ features Hofstra law professor Joanna Grossman's assessment of the new USNWR law school rankings.

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Some of the legal stories featured in Tuesday's foreign press... Serbia's B92 reports that Justice Minister Stojkovic has rescinded his support for the Belgrade Special Court. The court, which is currently prosecuting the former prime minister's assassination and Vukovar war crimes, was to continue as a Serbian forum for trying war crimes and organized crime.... In Scotland, the Scotsman features government efforts to update family and divorce laws. Among the reform's goals are accelerating divorce proceedings and assuring paternal rights

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On April 6, 1931, the nine "Scottsboro boys" were put on trial in Alabama on false charges of raping two white women during a freight train trip from Tennessee. Learn more about the trial of the Scottsboro boys in JURIST's Famous Trials series.