Google responded Wednesday to concerns [JURIST report] of US Congressmen about the new policy as well. It responded to 11 questions posed in a letter sent by the Congressmen [JURIST report] last week. Some topics of concern addressed by Google included assurance that no new types of data will be collected, reasons supporting data-sharing between Google products and an explanation of how data can be deleted by users once their accounts are closed. It also assured that it will comply with conditions of its 2011 settlement with the FTC [JURIST report], in which Google was charged with breach of consumer privacy rights and misleading consumers during the launch of Google Buzz, a social networking site.

In January, Chief Defense Counsel for Guantanamo war crimes tribunals, Colonel J.P. Colwell, ordered attorneys under his command not to comply with rules [JURIST report] requiring military officials to review all legal correspondence between lawyers and the detainees accused of involvement in the 9/11 terror attacks. Navy rear Adm. David Woods [official profile] issued the new rule in December. Lawyers for detainees at Guantanamo have previously raised concerns with practices used at the prison. Last November, lawyers complained specifically about the infringement on attorney-client privilege [JURIST report] in a letter directed to the attention of the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs.

The Quebec Superior Court's decision to deport Mugesera was delayed one last time in January. In a final attempt to stay in Canada, he appealed to the UN Committee Against Torture [official website], asking it to investigate his case and determine whether he would face inhumane torture if he returned to Rwanda. While Mugesera asked the court to hold off ruling [Global Post report] until the committee could complete an investigation, the court ruled the following Monday to deport him. In 2005, a Canadian justice said Mugesera should not be deported unless Rwanda gave a binding promise not to pursue the death penalty [JURIST report] against him after the Canadian Supreme Court had ruled unanimously [JURIST report] that he be deported. Mugesera has been fighting deportation in Canadian court since 1995, when the Canadian government charged him with omitting material documents from his asylum application.

Many of Google's services have been called into question recently. Earlier this month, Google defended its new privacy policies to US lawmakers after 8 congressmen questioned the new policies [JURIST reports]. In August the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] announced that the agency had reached a $500 million settlement [JURIST report] with Google for unlawfully permitting Canadian pharmaceutical companies to advertise to and target US consumers. In July a federal judge extended settlement negotiations [JURIST report] over a 2005 copyright suit filed against Google over its Google Books [corporate website] book scanning project. Also in July another federal judge ruled that Google could appeal a decision permitting a wiretapping lawsuit [JURIST report] over Google's Street View [corporate website] service. Google was accused of violating user privacy by using WiFi networks to collect data for the service, a charge that came as a result of a multistate investigation [JURIST report] that began in June of 2010. There have been international rulings on the Street View service as well. A Swiss court ruled the service constituted a violation of privacy, while a German court ruled it did not [JURIST reports].

In [2003], the Supreme Judicial Court specifically noted that without the right to civil marriage, same sex couples were required to "undergo the sometimes lengthy and intrusive process of second-parent adoption to establish their joint parentage." As a result, it follows that when there is a marriage between same-sex couples, the need for that second-parent adoption to, at the very least, confer legal parentage on the nonbiological parent is eliminated when the child is born of the marriage.

Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex marriages in 2004 and has since issued licenses to more than 16,000 same-sex couples. In March 2009, a group of Massachusetts plaintiffs who were or had been married under the state's same-sex marriage law filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging the federal Defense Of Marriage Act [JURIST news archive]. Other jurisdictions have also enacted same-sex marriage laws. Currently, seven US jurisdictions recognize same-sex marriage: New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Washington and New York [JURIST reports].

In so far as the argument based on the combined effect of the circumstances is to be understood as meaning that the national court should balance the different factors, assessing the respective weight, on the one hand, of the various circumstances that might justify the exercise of its jurisdiction, and, on the other hand, of the interests attaching to the protection of immunity, such an approach would disregard the very nature of State immunity.

In October 2008 the Court of Cassation awarded the damages [Corriere della Sera report, in Italian] in a case against Max Josef Milde, a German sergeant present at the Civitella attack, who was sentenced in absentia to life in prison. Under Italian law, crime victims may seek civil damages as part of a criminal proceeding. Germany had argued that the 1961 Bonn Treaty, where Germany agreed to pay 40 million marks to Italy for war crimes committed, closed all further financial compensation claims [JURIST report], but the Italian court held the treaty only applied to treatment of the Jews. International agreements that govern situations in which a nation may claim immunity include the European Convention on State Immunity [text], ratified by members of the Council of Europe in 1972, and the UN Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and their Property [text, PDF], adopted in 2004. JURIST Guest Columnist Laurie Blank [academic profile] discusses the implications of sovereign immunity [JURIST op-ed] in cases like Germany v. Italy that involve war crimes and other atrocities

Kaing is the only former Khmer Rouge leader to have been convicted by the ECCC. Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea were indicted [JURIST report] in September 2010. The ECCC ruled that Ieng Thirith was unfit to stand trial, but the Supreme Court Chamber in December ordered that she remain in detention [JURIST reports] and that the Trial Chamber exhaust all measures so that she can stand trial. The other three went on trial [JURIST report] in November. In October 2010, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen [BBC profile] informed the UN that Cambodia will not allow further prosecutions of low-ranking Khmer Rouge officers [JURIST report].

Children have not been spared the horror of Syria's crackdown. Syrian security forces have killed, arrested, and tortured children in their homes, their schools, or on the streets. In many cases, security forces have targeted children just as they have targeted adults.

The Syrian government has been under severe criticism for its continued violence and its failure to stop it. Last month, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon [official profile] demanded [JURIST report] Syria's president Bashar al-Assad [BBC backgrounder] end the violence against its own people and strive for establishing democracy. In the same month, Syria released [JURIST report] more than 500 prisoners who were accused of having participated in terrorist activities, according to its agreement with the Arab League [official website, in Arabic]. However, such release was only of the small responsibilities that Syria had to comply with and HRW criticized Syria for failure to meet the majority of these obligations. HRW and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also called for an ICC investigation [JURIST report] concerning shootings of unarmed protesters by military officials and other crimes against humanity [JURIST report].