Kyrgyz president approves new constitution limiting presidential power News
Kyrgyz president approves new constitution limiting presidential power

[JURIST] Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev [BBC profile] signed the country's new constitution [constitutional materials, in Kyrgyz] Thursday, which limits his power to dissolve the parliament, gives the legislature the right to form the government and enlarges the parliament from 75 to 90 deputies. The People's Assembly [official website] adopted the new constitution [JURIST report] Wednesday after opposition party members and pro-government supporters reached a compromise [JURIST report] Monday. Bakiyev initially rejected a draft of the new constitution last week, a move that drove thousands of protestors to the main square in the country's capital.

Bakiyev came to power [JURIST report] during the so-called Tulip Revolution [Wikipedia backgrounder] of 2005 in Kyrgyzstan [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] during which former president Askar Akayev resigned [JURIST report] amid charges of corruption and abuse of office. AFP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Tojo and other Japanese WWII leaders executed for war crimes

On December 23, 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed for war crimes in Tokyo.

Learn more about the Tokyo War Crimes Trials.

Terry Nichols convicted for Oklahoma City bombing

On December 23, 1997, Terry Nichols was found guilty of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter for assisting Timothy McVeigh in bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He was later sentenced to life in prison. On April 19, 1995, McVeigh detonated a truck bomb that gutted the building and killed 168 people, making it the deadliest terrorist attack on US. soil until the attacks of September 11, 2001. McVeigh was convicted for his role before Nichols on June 2, 1997. Learn more about the trials of Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh.