[JURIST] Twin suicide bombings in Baghdad Sunday targeted the ministry of justice and the headquarters of the local provincial government ahead of an attempt this week by the Iraqi parliament [official website] to resolve a political stalemate that would permit changes to the country's election law. The blasts destroyed the front of the ministry building and killed at least 132 people [Al Jazeera report], with more bodies expected to be found. The elections, which are planned for January, cannot be held until a new election law is passed, and parliament continues to disagree about the exact changes to be made to the law, which was originally passed in September 2008. The attacks are currently being blamed [Telegraph report] on al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party.

The Iraqi parliament's last attempt to change the election law [JURIST report] took place earlier this week. Disputes over voting procedures in Kirkuk [JURIST news archive] have caused amendment attempts to fail repeatedly. Kirkuk is inhabited by Arabs, Turkmen, and Kurds, and has been a point of contention between the ethnic groups. Kirkuk also consistently produces nearly one million barrels of oil per day, accounting for almost half of Iraqi exports. Although parliament was eventually able to pass the previous election law in September 2008, it failed to come to an agreement [JURIST report] before the summer recess which began in August of that year.

[JURIST] Amnesty International USA, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch [advocacy websites] on Friday turned down an opportunity to tour the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], citing lack of access to detainees. The groups regularly send observers to the facility who have the same level of access as journalists, but have long been lobbying for the same level of access granted to the Red Cross under the Geneva Conventions [text]. The groups believe that full access to detainees is crucial [AP report] to fulfilling their mandate of protecting human rights and civil liberties. The US Department of Defense, which extended this most recent visiting offer to the groups on October 8, has not responded to the refusals.

While the rights groups expressed dismay at not being granted access to detainees, they did applaud the Senate [AI press release] for passing a bill that would allow Guantanamo detainees to be tried in the US [JURIST report]. Last week the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving 13 Uighur [JURIST report] detainees who could be released into the US. The past month has seen a number of detainee releases, including repatriation of detainees to Kuwait and Yemen, and an approved transfer of eight Uighurs to Palau [JURIST reports].

[JURIST] US President Barack Obama's Saturday emergency declaration [text, PDF; press release] on the H1N1 flu [CDC backgrounder] has granted Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) [official website] Secretary Kathleen Sebelius [official profile] authority under section 1135 of the Social Security Act [text] to allow medical providers to bypass federal regulations when it comes to treating large numbers of infected people. Hospitals and other facilities will be allowed to set up off-site care in order to accommodate more people, and also take measures to prevent uninfected people from catching the virus. The declaration also allows Sebelius to temporarily waive or modify certain provisions of the Medicare, Medicaid, and State Children's Health Insurance programs and of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule [HHS backgrounder] as required.

On Friday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [official website] announced [press release] that 46 states had reported widespread influenza activity. It is believed that there have been more than 1,000 deaths directly attributed [Washington Post report] to the virus, with another 2,400 deaths presumed to be related. The CDC also reported [press release] Friday, that it has more than 14 million doses of H1N1 flu vaccine, and that it has already shipped more than 11 million doses. In addition to the resources available from the CDC, the US government has developed a website [official website] providing pandemic flu information to the public.