[JURIST] Argentinian President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner [official profile; BBC profile] Saturday signed into law a controversial bill giving her government more power to regulate the media, while limiting the power of private media companies. The executive branch now has the power to appoint [NYT report] representatives to a media regulating board. The new law is said be particularly directed at media conglomerate Clarin [media website, in Spanish], which owns several major newspapers and television channels. Current media holdings will not be grandfathered in [Buenos Aires Herald], but rather given one year to adjust to the new regulation.

Kirchner reportedly has blamed her 20 percent approval rating and a mid-term election loss on Clarin, which controls 46 percent of the Argentina cable market, and wanted to pass the law before losing [VOA report] her Congressional majority in December. Last week, tax agents raided [BBC report] the Clarin newspaper office, and currently, Argentine judges are holding a hearing [AP report] to determine whether the children of a Clarin director are illegally adopted orphans from Argentina's so-called "Dirty War" [JURIST news archive].

[JURIST] Turkey and Armenia [JURIST news archives] signed [text, PDF; Anadolu Anjasi report] a landmark accord Saturday in Zurich, Switzerland, which is expected to normalize relations between the two countries and open up borders. The accord, which actually consists of two protocols, contains provisions to establish a common border between the two countries, to establish an intergovernmental commission, and to set up sub-commissions which will deal with a variety of policy issues ranging from the environment to education. In a tense moment, the signing of the protocols was delayed for three hours because of a disagreement over statements that were to be made after the signing ceremony. Mediation by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [official profile] apparently resolved [press release] the dispute, which involved neither of the signatory foreign ministers making a statement after the signing. The Turkish and Armenian parliaments must still approve [Xinhua report] the agreement before it takes effect.

Despite the apparent appeal of the agreement, there is opposition by factions in both countries. Many Armenian nationalists want Turkey to acknowledge the killings of 1.5 million Armenian citizens during World War I, which many refer to as the "Armenian Genocide" [BBC backgrounder]. Turkey has long disputed [Al Jazeera report] the numbers, and has said the killings were a result of a civil war that took place after the collapse of the Ottoman empire. Turkey has expressed concern over its ally Azerbaijan, which has been fighting [DW report] with Armenia over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan. Turkey closed its border to Armenia in 1993 after Armenian separatists began fighting with Azerbaijani military to show its support for the preservation of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.

[JURIST] Chinese officials said Saturday that 21 people who were charged with arson, robbery, and murder after July's violent demonstrations [JURIST news archive] in China's Xinjiang province, will be put on trial. A total of 108 people have so far been charged [China Daily report] as a result of the riots in the city of Urumqi, located in the Uighur Autonomous Region. Chinese prosecutors in Urumqi said they have been slow to start proceedings against more of the indicted because they are trying to build strong cases. Additionally on Saturday, a man was sentenced [Xinhua report] to death and his co-worker was given a lifetime prison sentence, for causing a fight at a toy factory in China's Guangdong Province in June, which left two Uighur workers dead. It is believed that the altercation at the toy factory was the impetus [AFP report] for the Xinjiang riots.

In early July, violence broke out [NYT report] in Urumqi between Han Chinese and Uighur residents. After two days of rioting, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] called for restraint [JURIST report] from all sides and a respect for due process in arrests and prosecutions. The Chinese government claims [Xinhua report] that the majority of the 197 killed and 1,600 injured in the violence were Han residents killed by protesters, although Uighur advocacy groups maintain that many protesters were killed by authorities but not included in the official death toll. Chinese officials have acknowledged [JURIST report] that 12 protesters were killed by police. The Uighur population, which is Muslim, is opposed [BBC backgrounder] to China's restrictive bans on religious practice, and says that the recent influx of Han Chinese has disenfranchised non-Chinese-speaking Uighurs.