[JURIST] Leading Tuesday's international brief, last minute opposition from the UN representatives of both Russia and China has blocked the imposition of proposed UN sanctions [JURIST report] against four Sudanese officials accused of intentionally delaying the peace process in the war-torn Darfur region [JURIST news archive]. Russian Ambassador to the UN Andrey Denisov [official profile] told reporters that Russia felt that the current peace negotiations hosted by the African Union (AU) [official website] would be threatened by the imposition of sanctions, while China expressed its continued position that sanctions were an unsuccessful means of enforcing changes in government action. The US and UK missions to the UN are proposing introduction of the sanctions as a formal resolution, which would require the use of an official veto by Russia or China, instead of them being able to derail the sanctions by simply raising objections to the Sudan Sanctions Committee's actions. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of the United Nations [JURIST news archive]. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage. AP has more.

In other international legal news…

• Indonesia's Supreme Court has agreed to hold a second case review of the three Christian men sentenced to death for masterminding violent attacks on the local Muslim populace in Poso in 2001. The three men have been convicted and sentenced to death and already had their case reviewed by the Supreme Court once before, the maximum allowed by Indonesian criminal procedure law. The Indonesian attorney general's office has issued a stay on the execution while they prepare for the process, but has agreed to keep the stay in place until the second case review has been completed. The attorney general's office told reporters however that because the law only allowed one case review, nothing the Supreme Court did would change the executive branch's decision to carry out the sentence. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono [BBC profile] has already rejected a plea for clemency from the convicted men. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Indonesia [JURIST news archive]. The Jakarta Post has local coverage.
  
• The Supreme Court of India [official website] has refused a request to issue a stop-work order for government construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam [official website] on the Narmanda River, but has given the Indian government until May 1 to prepare documents demonstrating that it has undertaken sufficient reimbursement and relocation procedures for individuals, villages and communities ousted by the dam's construction. If the court finds that the government has not met the burden of adequately compensating those forced to move, it has indicated that it will issue a work-stoppage order until the government complies. The dam is a key interior project that is designed to help bring significant amounts of hydro-electric power to the already power-starved sub-continent. The Calcutta Telegraph has local coverage. BBC News has more.
  
• In a move remarkably similar to last year's violent confrontation between Zimbabwean police and illegal street vendors [JURIST report], the south African nation of Malawi [government website, CIA backgrounder] has notified its own street vendors that it will not hesitate to use police and military troops to enforce a recent executive order requiring all street business to be conducted only within certain authorized areas of the capital city of Lilongwe. Early attempts to secure a court ruling to place a hold on the order have failed and police broke up a street vendor protest yesterday with tear gas as the vendors congregated to pray for the right to continue their trading on the main thoroughfares of Lilongwe. BBC News has more.