[JURIST] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile; official website, in Arabic] addressed the Iraqi parliament Sunday on a new national reconciliation plan [JURIST report] which he hopes will end the Sunni insurgency and sectarian killings that have hindered reconstruction efforts in the county. According to a dispatch from Baghdad by Voices of Iraq news agency, the plan sets out some 24 guiding principles and policies, including (quoting VOI):

• Pardoning the detainees who were not involved in terrorist crimes and actions or crimes against humanity and forming committees to release the innocent as fast as possible. Those willing to take advantage of the amnesty should denounce violence and pledge to support the elected national government and abide by the law.
  
  
• Banning human rights violations, improving prison conditions, punishing those responsible for torture and allowing national and international organizations to visit prisons and check the prisoners’ conditions.
  
  
• Discussing with the Multi-National troops mechanisms to stop human rights violations during military operations.
  
  
• Reconsidering the Baath Uprooting Authority and making it accountable before the law and judiciary to give it a professional and constitutional nature.Activating resolutions to support victims of the ex-regime and compensate them and provide the means to improve the living conditions and services in the deprived area in all of Iraq.
  
  
• Removing all obstacles that hinder the participation of any Iraqi citizen or group that did not commit any crimes and want to work upon the constitution in order to build Iraq.
  
  
• Compensating the victims of terrorist actions, military operations and violence.
  
  
• Activating the role of the judiciary to punish the criminals and making it the sole authority in dealing with the crimes and symbols of the ex-regime, the terrorists and killing and kidnapping gangs.
  
  
• Making the armed forces independent of the influence of the competing political powers and not allowing the army to interfere in the political affairs. Solving the issue of militias and illegal armed groups and handling the problem on the political, economic and security levels.
  
  
• Arrests and searches should be done according to legal warrants issued before the raid and arrest operations… and the military operations should be launched according to official orders.

[JURIST] Italians headed to the polls Sunday to begin voting on a constitutional amendment package which would give more power to the prime minister and decrease the size of parliament, in the largest set of proposed changes to the Italian constitution [text] since its inception. Those in favor of the package say that expanding the prime minister's power will help calm a political landscape in Italy that has seen 61 different governments since World War II. But those opposing the changes, including newly-elected [JURIST report] Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi [official website, in Italian; BBC profile], say the proposals were introduced by the government of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], and will give too much power to the prime minister's office.

The amendment package would change 50 of the constitution's 139 articles and many of the changes would not actually take place for several years. Specific changes would allow the prime minister to appoint and fire cabinet members without presidential approval, give him the power to dissolve parliament, and give Italy's 20 regions the authority to govern health, security and education issues locally. The polls will remain open through Monday. AP has more.

[JURIST] Fourteen more Saudi Arabian nationals being held at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] were sent back to their home country Saturday, according to a statement [press release] by the US Department of Defense [official website]. The Pentagon indicated that a Combatant Status Review Tribunal [DOD backgrounder] had considered one of the men to no longer be an enemy combatant, while the other 13 were transferred according to a decision by an Administrative Review Board [DOD briefing]. Approximately 120 other terrorist suspects are on a list to either be transferred or released, according to the Defense Department, "subject to ongoing discussions between the United States and other nations."

DOD says that about 310 detainees have now been released from Guantanamo, leaving 450 still at the prison camp. News of the transfers follows intense international criticism of the US after three Guantanamo prisoners - including two Saudis - committed suicide [JURIST report] earlier this month, prompting Saudi Interior Ministry officials to renew calls for all Saudi prisoners to be released [JURIST report] and returned to Saudi Arabia to face charges. The US transferred another 15 Saudi detainees [JURIST report] to Saudi custody last month. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Citizens of the north African state of Mauritania [CIA backgrounder; official website, in Arabic] voted Sunday on a constitutional amendment that would limit the number of terms that a president can serve. The vote follows a successful coup attempt [JURIST report] last August by a military group that sought to overthrow former President Maaouiya Ould Taya [Wikipedia profile], who controlled the country for 20 years, despite several coup bids against him [JURIST report]. The amendment would make it more difficult for elected presidents to automatically change laws when they take office and would only allow a president to serve no more than two terms with 5-year limits.

The Saharan Islamic republic borders West Africa and many Mauritanians of African descent say that the amendment does nothing to correct the continuing inequality in the nation. They say that changes, such as making French one of the county's official languages, should be included since they do not generally use Arabic. Results of the referendum are expected to be announced on Monday and a presidential election is currently scheduled for next March. If the amendment passes, Mauritania will be one of the few Arab nations to allow a limit on presidential terms. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US military announced Sunday that two US Pennsylvania National Guardsmen have been charged [MNF-Iraq press release] in connection with the February 15 shooting of an Iraqi civilian near a US military base at Ramadi west of Baghdad. Specialist Nathan B. Lynn has been charged with voluntary manslaughter, and is joined by Sergeant Milton Ortiz Jr on a charge of obstructing justice for allegedly conspiring with another soldier who put an AK-47 near the body of the man in an attempt to make him look like an insurgent. Ortiz is additionally charged with assault and one count of communicating a threat for allegedly placed an unloaded weapon against the head of an Iraqi man and threatening to send him to prison in a separate incident on May 8. Both soldiers await Article 32 [backgrounder] hearings and possible court-martial. The third soldier involved in the incident has left the Army and has not yet been charged.

The charges are the latest in a spate of legal actions and probes involving US servicemen for allegedly killing Iraqi civilians over the last few months. In mid-June, the US Army charged four soldiers for the deaths of Iraqi detainees [JURIST report; US Central Command press release on charging of fourth] in the northern Salahuddin province of Iraq. Last week seven Marines and a Navy corpsman were charged with murder and kidnapping [JURIST report] in connection with the April 26 death of an Iraqi man outside his home in Hamdania. Military investigations into the alleged killing of 24 Iraqi civilians [JURIST report] by Marines in the city of Haditha in November, 2005 are ongoing.

A US military spokesman said Sunday that some 350 innocent Iraqi civilians were killed by US troops at checkpoints or on convoys last year. AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

[JURIST] President Bush Saturday urged Congress to approve a line-item veto bill in his weekly radio address [recorded audio; transcript] Saturday, insisting that "a line-item veto would allow the President to remove wasteful spending from a bill while preserving the rest." He said current law forces a President to either veto an entire bill or approve one with unnecessary spending. A line-item veto would allow the President to "insist on greater discipline in the budget."

Last Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed [JURIST report] the Legislative Line-Item Veto Act of 2006 [text, PDF] by a vote of 247-172. The bill, which President Bush proposed [JURIST report; White House press release] in March, allows the President to strip special spending and earmarks out of a bill and then send those provisions back to Congress for an up or down majority vote, rather than requiring them to be sustained by a two-thirds supermajority. The legislation is weaker than the 1996 line-item veto legislation [text, PDF] that the US Supreme Court struck down [decision text] as violating the constitutional separation of powers. The bill must still get Senate approval before Bush can sign it into law. AP has more.

[JURIST] Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] knows that a death sentence awaits him at the end of his trial {JURIST news archive] before the Iraqi High Tribunal for alleged crimes against humanity, but his lawyer says Hussein believes the US will use his sentence as leverage to persuade him to end the Sunni insurgency and to "save it from its mess" in Iraq, the New York Times reported Sunday. Lead defense counsel Khalil al-Dulaimi made the statement in an interview just days after Hussein's short-lived hunger strike [JURIST report] in protest of the murder [JURIST report] of another one of his defense lawyers last week.

The defense is scheduled to begin its closing arguments on July 10. Hussein and his seven co-defendants are charged [JURIST report] with killing, torturing and illegally detaining Dujail residents and for committing other inhumane acts in response to an alleged 1982 assassination attempt on Hussein. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] President Bush [official website] issued an executive order [text] Friday directing that US federal agencies and government departments may not seize private property unless the taking is for public use "and not merely for the purpose of advancing the economic interest of private parties." Bush's order instructs the US attorney general to ensure that all federal entities limit the use of the government's eminent domain [JURIST news archive] power to the taking of private property for projects such as government offices, parks, hospitals, and roads.

The executive order was issued on the one-year anniversary of the 2005 US Supreme Court [official website] decision of Kelo v. New London [text] that permitted a Connecticut municipality to seize private property for private redevelopment [JURIST report] when the taking would economically benefit the community. Also on Friday, Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell [official profile] announced that an agreement had been reached [JURIST report] between New London and two remaining homeowners who had refused to leave their land. Since the Kelo decision, 31 states have passed laws limiting the use of eminent domain by state and local governments. In addition, Senator John Cornyn [official profile] of Texas has introduced federal legislation that would cut federal funding for any state or local projects where the land was seized through eminent domain. AP has more.