[JURIST] Morgan Tsvangiari, the leader of the Zimbabwe opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was arrested and detained Saturday at Harare International Airport. Officials say he was released after a 20 minute detention. Tsvangiari, recently acquitted of treason, had just completed a tour of Europe and Africa. The government, controlled by Psreident Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) had criticized him heavily in his absence. Papers seeking appeal of Tsvangiari's acquittal were filed by government officals earlier this week. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The US Navy has begun investigating a new series of photos depicting abuse of detainees and prisoners of war in Iraq, according to a spokesperson. The photos, while not as graphic and brutal as the ones taken in connection with the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, appear to have been taken as early as May 2003 and were discovered posted on a commercial photo-sharing website. Navy Cmdr. Jeff Bender, a spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command, said the "photographs raise a number of important questions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war and detainees," and promised to investigate the matter thoroughly. Taking souvenir photos of prisoners of war is a violation of the Geneva Convention. AP has more.

[JURIST] A US military judge Saturday ordered Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, formerly in charge of US prisons in Iraq, to testify in the upcoming prisoner abuse trial of Sgt. Javal Davis. Davis has admitted to stepping on prisoners' fingers and toes, but says that the conduct was tacitly permitted by military intelligence. Karpinski's testimony at trial will be limited to conditions at Abu Ghraib and the interaction between guards and military interrogators. She will also submit a deposition in another Abu Ghraib abuse trial, that of Pfc. Lynndie England. After the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses were made public, Karpinski was relieved of her command and is presently in the Army Reserves. AP has the full story.

In a related story, the attorney representing Davis, Spc. Charles Graner, Spc. Sabrina Harman, the three accused US soldiers in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, has said that he will seek to have charges against his clients dropped. The request will be based upon the impossibility of the soldiers getting a fair trial because President Bush and other high military leaders have already said they should be punished. AP has more.

[JURIST] German authorities Saturday arrested a fourth man in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during his visit to Germany. None of the names of the individuals arrested have been released, although the fourth man is reported to have Libyan citizenship. A judge has ordered the continued detention of two of the three others on the assassination charges, issuing formal arrest warrants for them. The third individual initially arrested is being held on previous suspicions that he heads up an Ansar-al-Islam cell in southern Germany. JURIST's Paper Chase has coverage of the initial arrests. The Guardian has more.

[JURIST] The Ukrainian Parliament Saturday failed to pass an electoral reform package aimed at preventing fraud in the country's upcoming re-run of the presidential election, now scheduled for December 26. The bills had prevously been agreed to in a political deal by opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko and a significant portion of the smaller parties, including the Communist Party of Ukraine, in exchange for Yushchenko's support for legislation that limited the power of the office of the president. When Yushchenko said that he would only consider constitutional reforms on the presidency following the December 26 election, the minor parties withdrew their support and the election reform legislation failed to pass. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the election situation in Ukraine. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Serbian officials held an emergency cabinet session Saturday to petition UN Administrator for the Kosovo region Soren Jessen-Petersen to annul the recent election results that put Ramush Haradinaj in the office of Kosovar Prime Minister. Haradinaj has been accused of committing war crimes during the Bosnian conflict, where he led a rebel Albanian military group. Serbian officials have repeatedly petitioned the UN and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to indict Haradinaj. The ICTY recently interviewed him, but no charges have yet been filed. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that allowing Haradinaj to stay in office would be making a mockery of the struggles that Serbia has endured over the past few years on its return to democracy. Serbian officials said that the continuing presence of Haradinaj "cannot be justified by phrases about democracy or formal procedures." The Serbian government press release (in English) is here. Serbian independent radio B-92 has more.

[JURIST] London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens said in an interview Saturday that he believed the current UK laws addressing the rights of home owners to defend themselves against intruders needed reform. To avoid liability, the current law requires the homeowner to prove that the force used in resisting an intruder has to be 'reasonable' to the circumstances. This determination is made during trial, which is often viewed as automatic in light of a home invasion that results in injury to the invader. Recent rashes of burglary have, however, prompted criticism of the law, with critics claiming that the law favors criminals. Stevens advocated changing the laws so that homeowners would be presumed to have acted lawfully when acting inside their homes. He also said that prosecutions should be pursued only if death or gratuitous violence was observed at the scene. The Home Office blocked a similar attempt in April to allow homeowners the right to use whatever force necessary to defend themselves. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Columbia's most notorious drug trafficker, Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuelo, was flown to the US early Saturday to face trial in federal court on charges of smuggling cocaine and money laundering. As head of the Cali cartel, Orejuelo and his brother Miguel controlled nearly 80 percent of the world's cocaine trade, earning $8 billion annually. While serving time in a Columbian jail in 2002, Orejuelo was alleged to have continued to maintain control of the cartel's operations, leading to his extradition. Columbia's Supreme Court has yet to rule on whether to allow the extradition of Miguel Orejuelo. BBC News has more.