[JURIST] A bill that would make consumers satisfy a series of requirements before being permitted to cancel their debts through bankruptcy is close to passage in the US Senate. On Tuesday the Senate killed what some Republicans called a "poisoned pill" - a proposed Democratic amendment that would have prohibited anti-abortion protestors and other engaged in violent protest from using bankruptcy to avoid paying fines, a provision which halted a similar bill from passing through the House of Representatives in 2003. The bankruptcy bill, supported by credit card companies, will likely be passed later this week, as a number of Democratic attempts to soften the measure have now been struck down [JURIST report]. Bloomberg has more. The bill summary and status [text] is available from THOMAS.

[JURIST] Initial reactions by Senators on both sides of the aisle prompted speculation Tuesday that Monday's nomination [JURIST report] of Under-Secretary of State John Bolton to be the new US ambassador to the UN could be problematic, or at least controversial. Senior Democrats such as Senator Joseph Biden and former Democratic presidential challenger Senator John Kerry expressed "surprise" [Biden press release] and puzzlement [Kerry website, calling Bolton's "just about the most inexplicable appointment the President could make"] at the advancement of the staunch UN critic and implacable ICC opponent [2002 speech] as America's representative to the world body, while even Republicans like Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Richard Lugar said they would reserve judgment. Confirmation hearings for Bolton are expected in April. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US has indicated in a Supreme Court filing that it has asked the state of Texas to rehear the cases of 51 Mexicans whose death sentences were recently deemed improper [ruling and case materials; JURIST report] by the International Court of Justice [official website] as the accused had been denied access to help from their consulates as guaranteed by the 1963 Vienna Convention, ratified by the United States in 1969. The case of one death row convict, Jose Medellin, is scheduled to come before the high court next month. The filing by US Acting Solicitor General Paul Clement, made on February 28 but only circulated by the Supreme Court Monday, said that international law was being enforced at the discretion of the President, not the ICJ, but the move does address international criticism of the Bush Adminitration - from, among others, Mexico [JURIST report] - for disregarding its legal obligations and thumbing its nose at the global tribunal. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Senior Shiite political leaders said Tuesday that the trial of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity should get under way before any vote is taken on a new permanent constitution for Iraq. Muwafaq al-Rubaie, a national security advisor to the outgoing government of Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and a member of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance [Wikipedia entry] told AFP that would be surprised if Saddam was not "in the box" by the end of the year, and said he hoped he would be on trial before the Iraqi Special Tribunal [governing statute] by September or October, before Iraqis go the polls again to vote on the constitution drafted by the recently elected national assembly, slated to meet for the first time March 16. AFP has more.

[JURIST] New York Deputy Attorney General Dietrich Snell, former senior counsel to the now-defunct 9/11 Commission, testified as anticipated [JURIST report] Tuesday before a German court retrying the case of Mounir el Motassadeq [BBC profile], a Moroccan accused of being an accomplice in the 9/11 attacks. Motassadeq was convicted in 2003 of being an accessory to more than 3000 murders, but a retrial was ordered [JURIST report] last year when an appeal court said he had been unfairly denied the benefits of testimony from al Qaeda suspects in custody in the United States. Snell was asked by the Hamburg trial court on Tuesday about summaries of American interrogations [JURIST report] of high-profile suspects Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh made available by the United States and whether he knew whether any evidence they had given had been obtained under toture; he said he didn't know. AP has more. Also Tuesday, defense counsel for Motassadeq called for US President Bush to be summoned as a witness to testify on American transfers of terror suspects to foreign countries for interrogation. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] In a split 84-34 vote that is being claimed as a symbolic victory for the Bush administration, the UN General Assembly Tuesday urged governments to enact a total ban on human cloning [UN news release], including the cloning of embryos for stem cell research. The US had worked with anti-abortion groups to support the proposal, which also found success with primarily Roman Catholic countries. Nations opposing the ban, many of which cited the potential for curing disease through stem cell research, said the non-binding resolution would have no impact on scientists' cloning efforts. Thirty-seven nations, many of them Islamic, abstained. The UN statement is all that could be salvaged from a four-year international effort to frame a comprehensive human cloning treaty. Reuters has more. The Register reports on British opposition to the ban, including the statement of British Health Secretary John Reid that the stem cell research industry in the UK will remain "open for business", while emphasizing that reproductive cloning is already outlawed in the UK.

[JURIST] While acknowledging that the March 4 incident was "accidental", Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini Tuesday disputed Washington's version of the events that led to the shooting death of an Italian intelligence officer and the wounding of a freed Iralian journalist [JURIST report] by US soldiers at a coalition checkpoint. Fini demanded a full US investigation into the shooting, adding that US claims that several attempts were made to stop the vehicle before opening fire were false. He also disputed the US claim that the vehicle was speeding. While the US has reiterated its claims that soldiers made several attempts to halt the vehicle, which it claims was traveling at high rates of speed, US Central Command issued a news release [text] Tuesday announcing that the Multi-National Corps-Iraq will begin a full investigation into the matter, expected to take three to four weeks. AP has more.

3:10 PM ET - Speaking Tuesday at a Pentagon press conference, Gen. George Casey commander of US forces in Iraq, said that as part of the military investigation of the shootings his officers would investigate procedures followed in all checkpoint incidents in the last six months. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] UK Registrar-General Len Cook [official profile] Tuesday dismissed 11 legal objections to the proposed civil marriage of Prince Charles [official profile] and Camilla Parker Bowles that had been filed in their home towns of Chippenham and Cirencester. The Registrar-General is responsible for the application of the Marriage Act 1949 and hears all objections to marriage ceremonies proposed under the legislation. Tuesday was the last day for legal objections to be filed, and Cook said that he accepted Lord Falconer's ruling [JURIST report] that the Human Rights Act 1998 overrides the provisions of the Marriage Act that would have prohibited royals from engaging in a civil wedding ceremony. The passage of the final filing date means that there are no more legal challenges that may be brought against the ceremony, currently scheduled for April 8. Read the Registrar-General's full statement [General Register Office press release]. BBC News has local coverage.

[JURIST] Radical Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir [BBC profile] appealed the sentence of the South Jakarta Court Tuesday, following his conviction on conspiracy charges [JURIST report] last Thursday in connection with the 2002 Bali bombings. Wirawan Adnan, a member of Ba'asyir's defense team, filed the appeal and told reporters that it was mainly based on the unreliability of the interrogation report, the only piece of evidence used to convict Ba'asyir. The South Jarkarta Court must pass the appeal on to the Jakarta High Court, which has 60 days to review the appeal and render its decision. The Jakarta Post has local coverage.

[JURIST] Vice Chairman Wang Zhaoguo [official profile] of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress [government website] formally presented the draft version of China's controversial anti-secession law to China's National People's Congress on Tuesday. The NPC, China's parliament, will consider the legislation this week, and is expected to approve the draft code next Monday. The legislation has become a major point of contention [JURIST report] between China and Taiwan [government website], as it authorizes China to use military force in light of any "Taiwanese Independence" forces acting to officially seceed Taiwan from China, or if all peaceful means of reunification have failed. Reading from the as-yet-undisclosed full text of the law, Wang said:

If possibilities for a peaceful reunification should be completely exhausted, the state shall employ non-peaceful means and other necessary measures to protect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

[JURIST] A major international anti-terrorism summit opened Tuesday in Madrid as Spain prepared to mark the one-year anniversary on March 11 [Meet on March 11 commemorative website] of the Madrid train bombings {JURIST report], which killed 200 people and injured some 2000 more. Leaders in attendance at the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism, and Security [official website] include US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. VOA has more.

[JURIST] EU Enlargement Commissioner Gunther Verheugen [official profile] has warned Turkey not to pursue legislation currently before the Turkish Parliament [official website in Turkish] that would recriminalize adultery. Adultery had been struck down as a punishable crime by the Turkish Constitutional Court [official website] eight years ago as unfairly punishing women more than men. A criminal law reform bill before the Turkish Parliament last fall was hotly contested [JURIST report] for its inclusion of an anti-adultery provision, just as Turkey was entering talks with the EU about integration into the Europe-wide regional body. The reform package was eventually passed without the ban [JURIST report], but proponents recently reintroduced it as part of a new reform package. Verheugen called any such ban completely out of step with Europe, and warned Turkey that it would be viewed as an attempt to introduce Islamic law into modern, secular Turkey, a move the EU has said would be unacceptable. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on Turkey [JURIST Country news archive]. Deutsche-Welle has more.

[JURIST] Responding to a lawsuit filed Friday [JURIST report] in New York by survivors of the December 26 tsunami, a spokesman for the Thailand Foreign Ministry [official website] said Tuesday that his country rejected any legal liability arising from the disaster. "Thailand and its government agencies did not fail to perform their duties...The disaster was a force majeure that could not possibly have been predicted. The tsunami was a phenomenon never experienced before in Thailand." A major tidal wave had not hit the country for 300 years, according to officials. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A US military spokesman has told the Associated Press that the US may pull its security detainees out of Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST Hot Topic news archive] due to the high number of insurgent attacks against the facility. The high-security prison, already notorious during the rule of Saddam Hussein, became additionally infamous in 2003 when evidence emerged of US military personnel abusing Iraqi prisoners held there. At one point President Bush said it would be demolished [JURIST report], but that option was later rejected on legal grounds [JURIST report]. The prison currently houses Iraqi detainees held by the US military and common criminals held by Iraqi law enforcement authorities. The US does not plan to withdraw its prisoners in the immediate future, but the spokesman said it might eventually shift them to a more secure location near Baghdad International Airport, leaving the Iraqis in complete charge of Abu Ghraib. The prison, like most other American detention camps in Iraq, is currently overcrowded; in the wake of many arrests made prior to the January 30 elections, it now holds 3,200 inmates, 700 more than capacity. AP has more.

[JURIST] Documents from investigations of alleged Iraqi prisoner abuses released by the US Army last week [JURIST report] pursuant to an ACLU FOIA suit and made public Monday include a report on a army sergeant who after reporting abuses of Iraqi prisoners by US personnel was ordered to undergo a psychiatric examination and later sent out of Iraq after the psychiatrists's clean bill on mental health was questioned by the sergeant's military superiors. The officer, attached to 223rd military intelligence battalion, reported several incidents in Samarra in April 2003, including undue use of force and staged executions. The documents made available Monday also include references to an earlier-reported video entitled "Ramadi Madness" shot by members of the Florida National Guard attached to the 124th Infantry Regiment. The video was not put online by the ACLU but has been obtained and posted by the Palm Beach Post. It contains grisly footage and shows US troops making abusive statements [video clips and transcripts; audio notably not included by the Post because of "profane language"], although the a military investigation concluded that the actions constituted "inappropriate rather than criminal behavior." Read the ACLU press release on the latest set of relesaed documents, and review the documents [ACLU log, with descriptions]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj [official website, English version] has resigned after being indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague. The indictment, anticipated yesterday [JURIST report] but still not formally announced by the court, is in connection with Haradinaj's activities as a senior Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerilla commander during the campaign against the Serbian government of the former Yugoslav province in 1999. BBC News says that Haradinaj, who had promised to co-operate with the tribunal, will fly to The Hague on Wednesday.

8:17 AM ET - In anticipation of possible civic unrest following news of the indictment the NATO-led KFOR [official website] international peacekeeping force in Kosovo has brought in some 500 extra British troops, and UN authorities attached to UNMIK [official website], the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, have raised their threat level in western Kosovo, Haradinaj's traditional power base, and have warned some of the UN's non-essential personnel to stay off the streets. Reuters has more.

8:25 AM ET - UNMIK administrator Saren Jessen-Peterson [official profile] has now issued a statement from Pristina, praising Haradinaj's decision to co-operate with the tribunal and appealing for calm:

In his decision today, Mr. Haradinaj has once again put the interests of Kosovo above his own personal interests. It is important that the people of Kosovo respond with the same dignity and maturity as that shown by Ramush Haradinaj.

I understand the sense of shock and anger over this development. I appeal, however, to the people of Kosovo to express your feelings through peaceful means. A violent response will not help Kosovo. It will only serve the interests of those determined to block Kosovo’s way forward. It will be a major setback to everything Kosovo has achieved recently and it will defeat all the recent achievements, notably those reached during Mr. Haradinaj’s leadership.

The decision announced by Mr. Haradinaj to co-operate with the Tribunal, despite his firm conviction of innocence, and although painful for him, his family, Kosovo and for his many friends and partners, including in UNMIK, is at the same time an example of Kosovo's growing political maturity as a responsible member of the international community. I trust that Mr. Haradinaj will again be able to serve Kosovo to whose better future he has sacrificed and contributed so much.

It is important that we all remain calm and dignified during these difficult days. In accordance with the Constitutional Framework and applicable regulation, the Deputy Prime Minister will temporarily lead the Government. Meanwhile, I will work with the political leaders of Kosovo to make sure that, as soon as possible, there is a government in place that can continue, without delay and disruption, the work that will bring Kosovo towards a comprehensive review of standards this summer and into status talks later this year.

US Office Pristina (USOP) wishes to alert American citizens in Kosovo, particularly Pristina, to the possibility of protest demonstrations in reaction to news about International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) proceedings. While we are not aware of any scheduled demonstrations at this time, we wish to remind American citizens that even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence. American citizens are therefore urged to avoid the areas of demonstrations if possible, and to exercise caution within the vicinity of any demonstrations.