[JURIST] Pope John Paul II [official website; BBC profile; CBC backgrounder] has died, according to Vatican sources. He was 84. An announcement [recorded audio] has just been made in Italian and English on Vatican Radio, monitored over the Internet from Pittsburgh. Vatican Radio's 105 Live FM service has posted a memorial page in black.

John Paul's health had been deteriorating gradually for years due to Parkinson's disease and the after-effects of a 1981 assassination attempt, and recently he had been admitted and re-admitted to Gemelli hospital in Rome for treatment of flu and fever and the insertion of a tracheotomy tube. Earlier this week he chose not to go back to the hospital for further treatment, and instead remained in the Vatican.

His pontificate was the third-longest in papal history, surpassed only by that of Pius IX in the 19th century and by St. Peter. A Pole, and the first non-Italian elected pope in 450 years, he has been credited with a leading role in precipitating the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe in the 1980s. An exponent of social justice and human rights, meaningful rapproachement with Judaism, Islam and other world religions, international abolition of the death penalty, and a vigorous, youth-oriented evangelicalism that he spread personally on over 100 foreign visits, he was nonetheless criticized for centralizing papal and hierarchical control within the Catholic church, suppressing politicized "liberation theology" in the developing world and refusing to liberalize doctrines disfavoring women and homosexuals. He insisted on strict prohibitions against birth control and abortion. He brought in a revised Code of Canon Law [text] in 1983. Members of the Catholic church's papal electoral body, the College of Cardinals [backgrounder], have already been summoned to Rome to begin deliberations on choosing a successor. Reuters has more on the papal succession process.

In 1995, Pope John Paul II addressed the UN General Assembly on the topic of freedom, human rights and universal moral law, and reflected on the collapse of totalitarianism in Europe. Listen to his address [excerpt] via the History Channel.

3:10 PM ET - The Pope's time of death has been given at 9:37 PM local time in Rome, 2:37 PM ET. The official procedure to have been followed then has been described this way:

When the Pope dies, the head of the Sacred College of Cardinals, or Camerlengo, verifies the death. Standing over the deceased, he calls the pontiff by his baptismal name three times. Upon receiving no response, he announces the death and arranges for the Fisherman's ring -- inscribed with the name of the reigning pope -- and papal seal to be broken.

• Papal Transition [PDF]
• The College of Cardinals [PDF]
• The Cardinal Electors [PDF]

[JURIST] AP is reporting that a co-ordinated insurgent attack on the notorious Abu Ghraib prison {JURIST news archive] in Baghdad has resulted in 18 US casualties.

5:25 PM ET - An updated AP story has increased the US casualty count to 20.

[JURIST] A US military judge ruled Friday that Army sergeant Hasan Akbar is competent to stand trial for a grenade attack that killed two Army officers in Kuwait in 2003 [JURIST report]. Sgt. Akbar faces multiple charges of premeditated murder and attempting premeditated murder under Article 118 and Article 80 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Sgt. Akbar's pretrial hearing was originally scheduled to begin on Wednesday, but was delayed after he fought with military guards, and a doctor scheduled to testify failed to report to court. Akbar's attorneys have stated that they plan to use an insanity defense, and have asked the court for special accommodations for the Army sergeant because he suffers from a severe form of sleep apnea [Army Times report]. Akbar is scheduled to undergo a court-martial later this month, and if convicted could face death. AP has more.

[JURIST] Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai Saturday rejected the official results of national parliamentary elections held Thursday. The official tally gave President Robert Mugabe's ruling party 74 seats, while Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic Change [official website], is said to have won 40 seats. The results came amid allegations of widespread fraud [JURIST report] designed to ensure Mugabe's Zanu PF party [official website] would remain in power. International observers have criticized the poll, and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated that the elections were "heavily tilted in the government's favor". Mugabe has promised to alter Zimbabwe's constitution and establish a second parliamentary chamber. The current constitution concentrates power in the hands of one president. AP has more.

[JURIST] Kyrgyzstan's deposed president Askar Akayev [official website] agreed Saturday to resign. Earlier in the day, the Kyrgyz Supreme Court had ruled that presidential elections would proceed on June 26 whether Akayev formally resigned or not. Under current law, a president must resign before the parliament is allowed to vote on holding new elections. The court's exception comes one week after it invalidated disputed parliamentary elections [JURIST report], and Akayev fled into exile in Russia. A parliamentary delegation is scheduled to fly to Moscow Sunday to meet with Akayev and discuss a preliminary resignation agreement. The agreement is expected to allow Akayev to return to the country at any time as a normal citizen. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] In an annual report [text] to Congress Friday, the US Department of Justice Office of Legislative Affairs [official website] revealed that the government applied for and was granted a record number of special warrants in 2004. The report submitted by Assistant Attorney General William E. Moschella [official website], revealed a 75 percent increase in the number of special warrants approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review [statutory text] since 2000. The court was created under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [text] to approve special warrant requests related to foreign intelligence. However, after the September 11 attacks and passage of the US Patriot Act [JURIST news archive], federal agencies have requested a higher number of warrants to investigate persons suspected of terrorist activity. According to DOJ reports [report archive], the court approved 1,003 warrant requests in 2000, 1,724 requests in 2003, and 1,754 in 2004. The FBI used a special warrant granted by the court in 2004 to search the home of Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield [JURIST report], who was jailed after his fingerprint was incorrectly matched to one found on a bag of detonators near the scene of train bombings in Spain that killed 191 people in March 2004. He was released after the FBI admitted its mistake. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice [official website] claimed Friday in court papers that contractors for the former Coalition Provisional Authority [official website] in Iraq can be sued for profiteering under the Federal False Claims Act [text]. Lawyers for the US government contend that the Act, enacted to curb war-profiteering, applies to contracts issued by the CPA from its inception shortly after the invasion until it handed over power to the interim government last June. The brief followed a hearing involving a fraud lawsuit against the security firm Custer Battles LLC [Official website] brought by two former employees who claim that the firm scammed CPA out of nearly $50 million. The Justice Department lawyers argued that because US government and military officials distributed the funds, fraud against the CPA is tantamount to fraud against the US government. Lawyers for Custer Battles maintained that they could not be sued in the US over seized Iraqi funds. The company and the former employees have until April 15 to file briefs when a US District judge will decide whether to dismiss the case. AP has more.

[JURIST] US officials Friday went out of their way to explain why the United States Thursday evening did not veto [JURIST report] a French-sponsored resolution [text] referring war crimes in Sudan to the International Criminal Court [official website] in The Hague, long anathema to US policymakers. Echoing comments made by the US representative in the Council chamber immediately after the vote, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice emphasized the urgency of international action to address the Darfur situation. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher later suggested that the US had recognized a limited practice allowing such referrals when the internal justice system of a state which not a party to the ICC statute was not capable of conducting prosecutions itself. US officials also pointed out that the approved resolution had contained an express provision exempting nationals of nonparties to the ICC (other than Sudan) from prosecution while referring a nonparty to the court, thereby addressing one of their ongoing concerns about the tribunal. The Washington Times had more.