Investigations into Morlock's unit, the 5th Stryker Brigade, have led to charges against several soldiers. Staff Sgt. Robert Stevens pleaded guilty [JURIST report] in December to shooting two unarmed Afghan farmers following a plea agreement that will allow him to remain in the military after serving a nine month sentence and testifying against other soldiers accused of terrifying civilians. Earlier in the week, the US Army had ordered a court-martial [JURIST report] for Staff Sgt. David Bram, who was accused of severely beating an Army private in his unit to keep him from informing about alleged drug abuse within the unit. The Army announced in May that its Criminal Investigation Command was opening an investigation into the civilian deaths [JURIST report] in Kandahar. The charges are the latest in a number of incidents involving US soldiers in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In April, a military appeals court reversed the conviction [JURIST report] of US Marine Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III for the 2006 killing of an Iraqi civilian, citing lack of a fair trial. Hutchins was serving an 11-year sentence, reduced from 15 years [JURIST report], for his role in the April 2006 kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi civilian. In December 2009, former soldier Steven Green appealed his conviction [JURIST report] for his role in the rape and murder of a 14-year old Iraqi girl. Green was sentenced to five consecutive life terms [JURIST report] in September 2009.

In my view, it cannot be emphasized strongly enough ... that in Botswana water is at a premium. Lawful occupiers of land such as the appellants must be able to get underground water for domestic purposes, otherwise their occupation would be rendered meaningless. Indeed, I accept that this is the rationale behind s 6 of the Act. Accordingly, I have no hesitation in concluding that the appellants, being the lawful occupiers, do not require a water right for the use of Mothomelo borehole, or indeed any other current or future borehole on land in the CKGR, for domestic purposes.

The Bushmen applied for permission to use a borehole [BBC report], originally dug by diamond company De Beers [corporate website] in the 1980s, as a water well on their ancestral land located in the Kalahari desert. Judge Lashkavinder Walia originally denied [AFP report] the tribe's application, stating that they needed to specify how much water they intended to pump from the borehole in order to comply with water regulations. Tourist areas as well as diamond claims are located within miles of the game reserve, and the closest source of water for the Bushmen is 25 miles from their village. The Bushmen are considered to be the first inhabitants of southern Africa, with ancestors occupying the Kalahari Desert region for 20,000 years. The tribe was evicted from the game reserve from 1997 to 2002 and forced to reside in settlement camps. The Bushmen contended that the eviction was the result of the government attempting to make room for diamond claims and tourist areas, whereas the government cited the Bushmen's negative effect on conservation as the motivation behind the relocation. The borehole was sealed in 2002 in an additional effort to drive the tribe from the land. In 2006, the High Court ruled [JURIST report] that the government's eviction was "unlawful and unconstitutional" and allowed the Bushmen return to the area.

Stanford is accused of defrauding investors [indictment, PDF; JURIST report] out of $7 billion. Last January, a federal judge ordered that $21.2 million in gold coins and bullion be returned [JURIST report] to more than 200 of Stanford's investors. Weeks earlier, the US Department of Justice [official website] began investigating [JURIST report] political donations and other connections between Stanford and US lawmakers. Stanford donated more than $2.3 million to lawmakers' campaigns and spent more than $5 million in lobbying efforts while allegedly carrying out the fraud. Stanford has denied the charges [JURIST report] against him and was originally set to be released on $500,000 bail until prosecutors successfully appealed the decision. Through three of his investment companies, Stanford allegedly violated the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Investment Company Act of 1940 [texts]. He was originally charged [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] in February 2009 with running a fraudulent investment scheme by selling certificates of deposit on the promise of improbably high interest rates.

Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika [BBC profile] has signed into law a bill permitting the government to ban media outlets that its information ministry declares contrary to public interest. The new law, which amends the 2009 penal code amendment bill, has already drawn heavy criticism from regional media watchdogs, such as the Media Council of Malawi (MCM) [official website] and the National Media Institute of Southern Africa in Malawi (NAMISA) [official website], which charged that the bill gives political allies of the president unchecked authority to exercise arbitrary regulatory power of the African nation's media. NAMISA has also argued that the law is unconstitutional under Section 36 of the Malawi Constitution [text], which stipulates that "the press shall have the right to report and publish freely, within Malawi and abroad, and to be accorded the fullest possible facilities for access to public information." Free press advocates have asked Mutharika to agree not to use the new authority in an abusive fashion and urged the Malawian Parliament [official website] to refrain from advancing bills that would run counter to the principles of a free democracy.

Mutharika has had a rocky relationship with the press during his time in office. In November 2010, the Malawian government threatened [Nyasa Times report] the publishers of the Malawi Daily Times [official website], Blantyre Newspapers Limited (BNL), with a ban on advertising sales after one of their five publications ran stories covering sex scandals involving national celebrities and socialites. The government had already banned the publication of BNL's Weekend Times, which ran several such stories, for the paper's failure to register with the nation's national archives, a violation that critics charged was a pretext. In August 2010, his administration threatened [Reuters report] to shut down news outlets and refuse aid and donations from foreign organizations and governments after several papers reported on a British study that suggested more than a million people in Malawi were in need of food aid. In July 2009, to the alarm of free pres advocates, Malawi police in the capital of Lilongwe arrested [IFEX report] the editor of privately-owned Zodiak Broadcasting, Gabriel Kamlomo, on charges of causing public panic by broadcasting what police said was untrue information about a murder case. Station representatives told NAMISA that police accused Kamlomo of criticizing police for the lack of an investigation. Kamlomo was acquitted [IFEX report] in December 2010.

According to some commentators, the unrest in Egypt is modeled after recent civil unrest in Tunisia that culminated with the resignation [JURIST report] of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali this month. The Tunisian Constitutional Council, the country's highest legal authority on constitutional issues, declared that the leader of the lower house of parliament, Foued Mebezza, will assume power [AFP report] until elections are held in two months. Controversy marred parliamentary elections that were held in Egypt this past November, as violence accompanied accusations of corruption [JURIST report], fraud and silencing the opposition. Reports surfaced [AP report] of vote buying and the ejection of independent vote monitors from polling locations.

Foreign governments as well as US courts and agencies continue to scrutinize the role of private security contractors in conflicts abroad as incidents of violence and abuse have raised concerns that the firms operate largely outside of the law. In October, the Afghan government announced that it had disbanded eight private security companies [JURIST report] operating locally and confiscated their weapons pursuant to a decree from President Hamid Karzai [official profile]. In September, a judge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia [official website] declared a mistrial [JURIST report] in a murder case against two Blackwater defense contractors after the jury failed to reach a verdict following nine hours of deliberation. The defendants were charged with killing two unnamed men in Kabul and argued self-defense. In February, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] announced that it had launched an investigation [JURIST report] into Blackwater following allegations that the company bribed Iraqi officials with $1 million to allow them to continue operating in the country after the Nisour Square incident. Bribery of foreign officials is a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) [text, 15 USC § 78dd-1 text].

The FCC has long been trying to exert more control over Internet regulation. Last year, US Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) [official website] introduced legislation [text, PDF] intended to block the FCC from implementing its National Broadband Plan [official website; materials]. The Freedom for Consumer Choice Act would remove the FCC's ability to declare the actions of a communications provider illegal unless there was a clear showing that the practice causes harm to consumers and will not be corrected by market forces. A month earlier, the FCC opened a new proceeding [JURIST report] to identify the legal approach that will best support its efforts to develop universal access to "high quality" Internet broadband services. A previous court ruling [JURIST report] found that the FCC lacks the power to enforce net neutrality. Net neutrality is thought by supporters to be essential to the goal of an open flow of information over the Internet regardless of the amount of revenue generated by the information.