[JURIST] The US Trade Representative [official website] on Friday said the office had placed China on a "priority watch list" due to what the US considers rampant copyright infringement in the country. China was at the center of the US trade office's annual report on intellectual property rights, with the report concluding [China review results, PDF] that infringement in China remained "unacceptably high," despite efforts by the Chinese government to crack down. Acting Trade Representative Peter Allgeier said that despite China's efforts, the US was considering taking the issue to the World Trade Organization [official website], which is the first time the US has threatened such action on the issue. The report found mixed results in worldwide efforts to set up legal protections for intellectual property rights. Read the Trade Representative's press release, as well as the full report [PDF text] and an executive summary [PDF text]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] House Republicans on Friday said they planned to finish drafting social security reform legislation by June, a day after President Bush in a prime-time press conference [transcript] challenged legislators to move forward on the issue. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas [official website] said Republicans would expand on simply social security and offer more comprehensive retirement legislation that could address health care and private retirement savings. Thomas said he plans to hold weekly hearings throughout May until the legislation is ready. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley [official website] said he hoped to complete draft legislation for consideration by the end of July. The White House has more on social security reform. AP has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that the US and Italy have issued a joint statement that they have failed to agree on the circumstances surrounding the shooting of an Italian agent by US soldiers in Iraq. Italy had indicated earlier [AP report] that it might not agree with the US over the results of the investigation.

1:45 PM ET - An AP story is now available online. Read the joint statement issued by the State Department and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

[JURIST] Taiwan opposition leader Lien Chan [BBC News profile] and Chinese President Hu Jintao [official profile] agreed on Friday to end decades of hostility and to work to avoid dangerous tensions in the Taiwan Strait during a historic meeting in Beijing. The impact of the meeting remains in doubt, after Taiwan's government criticized the meeting [AP report] and said it would do little to improve relations between the neighboring countries. Taiwan's ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party [official website], has backed a declaration of independence for Taiwan [JURIST news archive], which China has maintained as its own territory since the end of World War II. The meeting between Lien and Hu has been seen as a move by the Chinese government to divide Taiwan's political parties over the issue. Lien, who leads the opposition Kuomintang party [Wikipedia article], said the burden was on the DPP to make progress in relations between the countries, but the DPP's support for independence has soured diplomatic dialogue since the party took power. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Following up on a story reported Thursday on JURIST, prominent Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi [Wikipedia profile; JURIST news archive] was named deputy prime minister and acting oil ministry chief in the Cabinet approved Wednesday by the interim national assembly in Iraq [JURIST news archive]. At one point the US favorite to lead Iraq following Saddam Hussein's ouster, Chalabi appeared to fall from favor last year after he was linked to intelligence leaks to Iran, misleading information on Iraqi weapons and a counterfeiting scandal. Chalabi's recent appointments, as well as his nephew's installation as finance minister, leave his family in a prominent position with regard to Iraq's economy. Chalabi has faced charges of corruption throughout his political career, including a 1992 conviction in Jordan for embezzlement, fraud and breach of trust after a bank he managed collapsed and $300 million went missing. During Saddam's rule, Chalabi led the Iraqi National Congress [Wikipedia article], one of the leading opposition groups abroad. Chalabi was a candidate on Ibrahim al-Jaafari's Shiite political party ticket. AP has more.

[JURIST] MA Gov. Mitt Romney [official website] filed a bill Thursday to reinstate the death penalty in Massachusetts for deadly acts of terrorism, killing sprees, murders involving torture, and the killing of law enforcement authorities. Romney's bill uses ten recommendations set out by a special commission [report, PDF] last year as the basis for the capital punishment legislation. The panel was formed to design a "foolproof" death penalty law by relying on tougher legal safeguards including verifiable scientific evidence and a higher standard of "no doubt" of guilt for juries instead of "beyond a reasonable doubt." The bill also calls for a pool of certified capital case lawyers to ensure proper representation for indigent defendants and allows jurors who do not support the death penalty to serve in the guilt phase of the trial. The bill, which appears unlikely to pass, met immediate resistance from death penalty opponents and several Democrats in the state Legislature who have already defeated numerous bills to reinstate the death penalty. The state Supreme Judicial Court abolished the death penalty in 1984. Massachusetts is one of only fourteen states that either have no capital punishment law or had their law abolished by state high courts. Read the Romney press release. The Boston Globe has more.

[JURIST] Wiretaps increased by 19 percent last year, with federal and state judges approving 1,710 applications while denying none, the Administrative Office of the US Courts [official website] reported Thursday. New York, California, New Jersey and Florida accounted for three of every four surveillance orders. The number of court-authorized wiretaps jumped last year as investigators pursued drug and other cases against increasingly tech-savvy suspects. The increased surveillance led to 4,506 arrests and 634 convictions based on wiretap evidence. The numbers do not include wiretaps for terror-related investigations under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [Wikipedia article; bill text]. According to the Justice Department, warrants brought under FISA reached a record of 1,754 last year. Read the Administrative Office press release [PDF] and the full report. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Florida Supreme Court [official website], in a 4-3 decision, on Thursday rejected Rush Limbaugh's [Wikipedia profile] appeal to review a lower court's decision that the state could seize his medical records. The court will not consider a motion for rehearing. Florida's 4th District Court of Appeal had ruled [opinion, PDF] the state did not violate Limbaugh's privacy rights when it seized his medical records with a warrant. Limbaugh has been under investigation to determine how he received multiple painkiller prescriptions. The ACLU [advocacy website] has supported Limbaugh's position saying the seizure violated Florida's constitutional right of privacy and doctor-patient confidentiality. Limbaugh's lawyer argued the use of a warrant did not adequately allow his client the opportunity to challenge the seizure. The state responded that giving notice would have compromised the investigation. Limbaugh, who has denied any wrongdoing, has not been charged, and his medical records will remain under court seal until a decision has been made in the case. CNN has more.

[JURIST] The UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website; JURIST news archive] on Thursday sentenced Mika Muhimana, who was a councilor in the western Rwandan province of Kibuyea, to prison for the rest of his life for his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide [PBS report]. Judge Khalida Rashid Khan said the tribunal had found beyond any reasonable doubt that Muhimana shot Tutsi [Wikipedia profile] victims to death, raped several Tutsi women and also encouraged other men to rape in the town of Gishyita. Muhimana's sentence is the highest penalty the tribunal can give because no pardons are allowed. Muhimana's lawyers did not indicate whether they will appeal the ruling. The Rwandan genocide which killed more than 500,000 people, mostly the minority Tutsis, was led by a regime of extremists from Rwanda's Hutu [Wikipedia profile] majority. Read the ICTR press release and the summary of the judgement [PDF text]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former Army Sgt. Erik Saar, who served as a Guantanamo Bay [official website; JURIST news archive] translator, told CBS's 60 Minutes [news website] that prisoner interrogations were staged to give visiting congressmen, senators and generals the impression that valuable intelligence information was being gathered from detainees on a regular basis. The interview will be broadcast Sunday on CBS. Saar, who spent six months at the camp, said he believes only a few dozen of the 600 detainees being held at the camp were terrorists and that very little information has been obtained from them. Saar also claims detainees were treated in sadistic ways. Saar talked about an incident where a female officer smeared red ink on a devout Muslim detainee's face saying it was her menstrual blood. FBI agents stationed at Guantanamo Bay also have reportedly written classified e-mails to FBI [official website] headquarters saying detainees were being physically mistreated during interrogations. CBS News has more.

[JURIST] Stephen Cambone [official biography], undersecretary of defense for intelligence, on Thursday told the Senate Armed Services Committee [official website] that the CIA will no longer be allowed to hold unregistered "ghost" detainees at US military installations such as Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison [Wikipedia profile; JURIST news archive]. Cambone said the newly issued interim interrogation rules [JURIST report] which require a single standard to be used at all military prisons should eliminate the CIA's practice at Abu Ghraib of hiding detainees and subjecting them to separate interrogation methods. Critics have indicated the CIA tactics are much harsher than those employed by the military. Army investigations into Abu Ghraib blamed the CIA's practices for a loss of accountability, abuse and a poisoned atmosphere at the prison. The CIA [official website], which has come under attack over the pace of its internal investigation into interrogation tactics, declined to comment on the committee's proceedings. Read Cambone's prepared statement [PDF text]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Sgt. Hasan Akbar [Wikipedia profile], the US soldier convicted of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder [JURIST story] for attacking comrades with a rifle and grenades in Kuwait during the early stages of the Iraq invasion, was sentenced to death by a military jury on Thursday. Two officers were killed and fourteen others were injured in the attack. The jury, which took seven hours to decide on the punishment, could have sentenced Akbar to life in prison without parole. Before the jury deliberation, Akbar gave a brief but barely audible apology where he asked for the jury's forgiveness. The sentence will now be reviewed by a commanding officer and also will be automatically appealed. If the sentence is upheld, Akbar will be executed by lethal injection. Akbar, who will be the sixth person on the military's death row, would be the first American since the Vietnam era to be prosecuted on charges of murdering a fellow soldier during wartime. The last US military execution was in 1961. AP has more.