[JURIST] A committee of Japan's House of Representatives [official website, in Japanese] Friday approved a measure easing legal restrictions on placing Japanese military technology in space ahead of a vote of the full House of Representatives expected next week. The House of Councillors [official website, in Japanese] is expected to pass the bill as well. Lawmakers say that current rules, established in 1969, hamper innovation at Japanese firms, but some believe that the plan is a valid response to a January weapons test by China [BBC report] that destroyed a weather satellite. Consistent with the principles of their post-World War II pacifist constitution [JURIST report], Japanese lawmakers say that they still oppose launching actual weapons into space. AFP has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

Many countries have criticized China's January missile test, saying that it could induce future arms movements into space [CNS backgrounder]. In October 2006, US President George W. Bush authorized the first changes to the US space policy in nearly 10 years by asserting authority to deny access to space [JURIST report] to any adversary hostile to US interests. In 2002, China and Russia jointly proposed an explicit ban on weapons in space [PDF text; China Daily report], but the US opposed the measure, arguing that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty [text] already provided enough protection against the practice.

[JURIST] Talks between the leaders of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) [party websites] in London Friday failed to produce an agreement on a draft resolution for reinstating judges ousted by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf last year, but party members pledged to continue negotiations. A panel convened last week pursuant to an initial deal struck by the leaders in Dubai completed a draft parliamentary resolution [JURIST report] to restore the judges, but disagreements on implementation among panel members meant that the resolution had to go the top leadership of the PPP and the PML-N for approval before being submitted to the Pakistani parliament.

On Monday, retired Justice Fakhruddin Ibrahim quit the drafting panel [JURIST report], citing the "non-serious attitude" of fellow panel members and "unconstitutional" efforts by the PPP to retain judges who had endorsed Musharraf's declaration of emergency [JURIST report] last year. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif initially said that the judges would be restored May 12 [JURIST report], but Pakistani Law Minister Farooq Naek said Friday that the governing coalition will be unlikely to meet that deadline. JURIST's Pakistan correspondent says that if the deadline passes without agreement Sharif is likely to step out of the coalition cabinet. The Pakistan Newspaper has more. UPI has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral arguments Friday in the appeal by former USA Today reporter Toni Locy [profile] against sanctions imposed on her for refusing to disclose government sources [RCFP backgrounder] who provided information about former US Army germ-warfare researcher Dr. Steven J. Hatfill [Washington Post profile]. In a March ruling, US District Judge Reggie Walton found Locy in contempt of court [PDF text; JURIST report] and ordered that, beginning March 11, Locy pay a fine of $500 a day; the fine was due to increase to $1000 a day after one week and then up to $5000 a day after two weeks. Walton refused to delay the sanctions until Locy could file an appeal and also ruled that Locy cannot accept reimbursement for the monetary sanctions. The appeals court later granted [PDF text; JURIST report] an emergency stay against the monetary sanctions while Locy pursued her appeal. Locy's lawyers said that she is unable to pay the fines and categorized the sanctions as "destructive," arguing that Walton had abused his discretion. On Friday, the court appeared receptive to the argument.

Locy, currently a journalism professor at West Virginia University, has refused to cooperate in Hatfill's suit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) for its alleged violation of the US Privacy Act [text], arguing that the information Hatfill is seeking has not been demonstrated to be central to the lawsuit. Hatfill was identified as a "person of interest" in the investigations of the 2001 anthrax attacks [GWU backgrounder]. He contends that FBI and DOJ officials violated federal privacy laws [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] by providing personal information and information about the investigation to journalists. AP has more.

Editor's Note: Toni Locy served as a JURIST student staff member while pursuing her MSL at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2006-07.

[JURIST] Microsoft [corporate website; Microsoft EC archives] announced Friday that it has filed an appeal with the European Court of First Instance [official website] in hopes that it will annul the record fine [press release] of 899 million euros ($1.3 billion). The penalty [JURIST report] was imposed after Microsoft failed to comply with a 2004 landmark ruling [JURIST report] requiring the software giant to share technical information with competitors and lower its prices. CNN Money has more.

Microsoft dropped an appeal [JURIST report] to the 2004 decision in October 2007, one month after the European Court of First Instance upheld the 2004 ruling [JURIST report]. In response to the European decision and other judgments, the corporation has instituted an Antitrust Compliance Committee [official website]. In January, the European Commission began an investigation [JURIST report] into new allegations that Microsoft has misused its market position.

[JURIST] European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering [official website] Thursday slammed a bid by Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya [official profile, in Turkish] to have the country's ruling Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) [party website, in Turkish] legally dissolved [JURIST news archive] for not respecting Turkey's strict secular principles. Poettering said it would be "absurd" for the Constitutional Court of Turkey [official website, in Turkish] to close the party as it had come to power through democratic means. On Wednesday, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn [official website] called for the Turkey to respect democratic principles [Turkish Daily News report] in what was considered a message of support for the government. Rehn has previously warned [JURIST report] that the closure of the AKP could have could be serious ramifications for Turkey's bid to join the European Union [JURIST news archive]. MSNBC has more.

In March, Yalcinkaya petitioned the court to disband the AKP and bar Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul [BBC profiles] from political office. The AKP filed a response [IPS report] to the dissolution petition last week, arguing that shutting down the party would leave a political void and endanger Turkey's democracy.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice indicated Thursday that the Pentagon will review the "enemy combatant" status of Afghan Guantanamo detainee and US federal court litigant Haji Bismullah [JURIST news archives] in light of what was referred to as "new evidence," according to SCOTUSblog. The notification came in a motion [PDF text] asking the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit [official website] to remand his federal court case to the Pentagon or hold it in abeyance. Last July, a three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled [PDF text; JURIST report] that federal appeals courts reviewing enemy combatant designations under the Detainee Treatment Act [text] must review all evidence regarding that detainee, rejecting the government's argument [JURIST report] that it should only have to turn over the same evidence as presented to a detainee's Combatant Status Review Tribunal [DOD materials]. The government has appealed to the US Supreme Court, which has not yet ruled on the certiorari petition in the case. SCOTUSblog has more.

The future of Gates v. Bismullah may be affected by a ruling in Boumediene v. Bush (06-1195) [docket; merit briefs], another case on appeal from the DC Circuit already pending [JURIST report] before the Supreme Court. In Boumediene, the Court is considering whether Guantanamo detainees should be allowed to challenge their detentions in federal court.

[JURIST] Myanmar's ruling junta Friday urged the country's citizens to approve the military-backed draft constitution in an upcoming Saturday national referendum [JURIST news archives] that the government has refused to reschedule despite a devastating cyclone last week that may have left up to 100,000 people dead [AP report]. The United Nations estimates that another 1.5 million people have been "severely affected," but the Myanmar regime has thusfar blocked international aid efforts. Reports have also surfaced that a riot broke out [Telegraph report] after the storm in a notorious Rangoon prison used to hold political dissidents; soldiers and police reportedly opened fire on the rioters, killing 36.

Myanmar opposition groups and international figures have slammed the government's decision to go forward with the vote under the circumstances. On Wednesday, European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering condemned the decision, while the National League for Democracy Tuesday derided it [JURIST reports] as "extremely unacceptable." Myanmar state media have reported that Saturday's vote will proceed as scheduled in most of the country [JURIST report], although the regime now says that the vote will be postponed in districts hardest hit by the cyclone. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US Defense Secretary Robert Gates [official profile] said Thursday that a number of current Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees would pose a new threat to the US if they were returned to their home countries. Of the 500 inmates who have been released from the detention facility, Gates said Pentagon data shows that between 5-10% of detainees "return to the battlefield" after being released.

Gates, who has been a proponent of closing the base [JURIST report], added:

I think we do as careful a vetting job as we possibly can before releasing these people. There are a lot of -- there are a lot of prisoners down there, frankly, that we would be prepared to turn over to their home government, but the home government isn't prepared to receive them, or we don't have any confidence that if they still need to be incarcerated, that the home government will keep them incarcerated. So there are actually a fair number of the prisoners at Guantanamo that we would be prepared to send home if we had -- if their government would accept them and -- or if we had confidence that the government would continue to keep them incarcerated.

[JURIST] The Bolivian National Congress [official website, in Spanish] voted Thursday to hold a national referendum on President Evo Morales [official website; JURIST news archive] Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera, and nine regional governors within the next 90 days. The officials must receive more than 53.74% percent of the vote to keep their positions. Morales is the first indigenous president of Bolivia, and began the six-year term in 2005. The call for the vote of confidence came after Bolivians in the wealthy state of Santa Cruz [official website, in Spanish] voted for greater autonomy from the national government [JURIST report] in an effort to protect its natural gas and agriculture. Morales has tried to redistribute land and natural resource revenues throughout the nation, and called that referendum illegal. Morales says, however, that he will go along with the confidence referendum proposal; he actually proposed the concept himself [JURIST report] last December. CNN has more.

In March, Bolivia's National Electoral Court blocked a national referendum on the new draft constitution originally slated for May 4, finding that the proposed poll [JURIST reports] failed to satisfy a constitutional provision requiring the national vote to be held within 90 days of congressional approval. The proposed national referendum was narrowly approved [JURIST report] in February by the Bolivian Constitutional Assembly [official website, in Spanish], amid reports that Morales supporters prevented many draft opponents from entering the constitutional building and participating in the vote.

[JURIST] The world's five major nuclear powers - Britain, China, France, Russia, and the US - cited Iran's uranium enrichment program as a major threat to the goals of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) [PDF text; JURIST news archive] in a joint statement [PDF text] issued Thursday at the end of a two-week meeting [official website] of 106 NPT member nations. The five urged Iran, currently under UN sanctions for its nuclear program, to accept an incentive package [JURIST reports] in exchange for abandoning uranium enrichment. The statement also addressed the nuclear situation in North Korea [JURIST news archive], which opted out of the treaty in 2003 to restart disarmament negotiations. Conspicuously absent from the statement was any mention of a secret reactor [BBC report] that Syria is suspected of building, which some speculate is because of a lack of confidence in the related US intelligence.

Iran maintains that it is pursuing nuclear capabilities solely for use in producing electricity [Iranian backgrounder, PDF], a use allowed under the treaty, and has repeatedly balked [JURIST report] at the UN sanctions targeted at the country. The US and other western powers are particularly concerned that energy-related uranium enrichment processes could be easily altered to produce weapons-grade material. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Legislative Assembly [official website] of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) [official website] passed a law Friday that will enable same-sex domestic partners to register their relationships with the government. A part of the legislation which would have legalized same-sex civil union ceremonies was removed prior to passage [JURIST report] because the Australian federal government [official website] threatened to veto the Civil Partnerships Bill 2006 [legislative materials; PDF text] if it passed the Assembly. AP has more [news report].

The legislation will grant same-sex couples access to Commonwealth pensions, tax and social security benefits. The Civil Partnerships Bill was introduced after an earlier civil unions law [legislative materials] was overturned by the federal government [JURIST report] because that law's provisions made civil unions appear unacceptably similar to marriage. Despite that action, the federal government has announced plans to change over 100 laws [JURIST report] to eliminate same-sex discrimination.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] announced Thursday that Vidoje Blagojevic [ICTY case backgrounder, PDF] has requested a new trial. Blagojevic, former commander of the Bratunac Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, claims that he had little access to his defense counsel and was prevented from testifying on his own behalf. AP has more.

The ICTY convicted Blagojevic of complicity in genocide; aiding and abetting the persecutions, killings and forcible transfer of Bosnian Muslims and sentenced Blagojevic to 18 years imprisonment [JURIST report] for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre [BBC timeline; JURIST news archive]. Blagojevic's sentence was reduced to 15 years when the ICTY Appeals Chamber reversed [judgment summary; JURIST report] his conviction of complicity in genocide, holding that Blagojevic should have been acquitted on those charges because he was not aware that the massacre was going to take place.

[JURIST] US military judge Col. Peter Brownback again refused to set a trial date for Canadian-born Omar Khadr [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] at a pre-trial hearing Thursday, threatening to suspend military commission proceedings against the Guantanamo detainee until the government submits daily records of Khadr's detention. Khadr's lawyers claim the government is stalling the prosecution under the Military Commissions Act [PDF text] to cover up abusive treatment at Guantanamo. In an affidavit released in March, Khadr claimed that US interrogators in Afghanistan threatened him with rape [JURIST report], physically abused him, and forced him to swear to false statements. The Toronto Star has more.

Khadr, 21, faces life imprisonment for crimes allegedly committed at the age of 15 while fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan. He was charged [charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] in April 2007 with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, as well as spying.
In April, Brownback ruled [PDF text] that Khadr was not a child soldier when he was captured in Afghanistan. Khadr's lawyers had asked for the case to be dismissed [JURIST report] saying that it violated the Optional Protocol of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child [text], which gives special protection to children under 18 involved in armed conflicts.