[JURIST] Following up a 3-sentence order [PDF] issued early last month [Seattle Post-Intelligencer report], a panel of the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Friday issued a full ruling upholding the US military's power to issue emergency "stop-loss" orders to keep soldiers on active duty beyond the time set in their service contracts. The court rejected the contention [US Ninth Circuit oral argument audio; WMP] of Oregon Army National Guardsman Emiliano Santiago, a sergeant now posted to Afghanistan whose original term of enlistment ran out in 2004, that the orders validly applied only to reserve units on active duty. It held that the "plain language" of the federal law at issue gave the president authority to suspend the retirement or separation "of any member of the armed forces who the president determines is essential to the national security". Read the full text of the opinion [PDF]. Stop-loss has been severely criticized by a variety of soldiers and analysts as being unduly disruptive to the lives of military personnel and constituting, in fact, a "back-door draft". Other legal challenges to the policy are still in play. Reuters has more. Watch a February 2005 PBS NewsHour feature on stop-loss [RP], featuring comments by Santiago, his lawyers, and military officials.

[JURIST] Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Friday in a statement [text] that after the Senate completes deliberations next week on a highway bill he will put forward the hitherto-blocked nominations of Judges Priscilla Owen [DOJ OLP profile] and Janice Rogers Brown [DOJ OLP profile] for seats on the federal appeals bench, forcing a showdown with Democrats. He also indicated that if all seven blocked Bush judicial nominees [AP report] are not give up-or-down votes on the Senate floor, he will use what critics have called the "nuclear option" and force a rule change that would ban filibusters of judicial nominations [Frist factsheet]. Senate Democrats say that they have rejected only 10 of 215 Bush judicial nominees and insist on the constitutionality and political legitimacy of the filibuster [Senate Democrats factsheet] as a Senate practice in the face of majority power. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] Nine more people were killed in spreading anti-US riots across Afghanistan [BBC report] Friday despite new US assurances that American authorities would not tolerate disrepect for the Koran at Guantanamo Bay or anywhere else and Pentagon insistence that the reported desecretion of the Muslim holy book never happened at the detention camp and that Afghan rioting earlier in the week [JURIST report] was in fact unrelated to the alleged Gitmo incident. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a Senate committee [VOA report; State Department transcript] Thursday that Americans found disrespect for the Koran abhorrent and that the allegations made in a recent edition of Newsweek magazine about US personnel at Guantanamo Bay were being investigated. Meanwhile General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the only incident they had turned up similar to US troops placing the Koran on toilets, at one time flushing the book down, was evidence in the call log of a detainee's effort to clog a toilet by stuffing Koran pages down it in protest. Myers also insisted that the rioting was not related to the reported desecration at all, but was but "more tied up in the political process and the reconciliation process that President Karzai and his cabinet are conducting in Afghanistan." VOA has more.

[JURIST] The UK government announced Friday that it will propose new laws to combat fraudulent postal voting, a problem that arose in the recent national election [JURIST report] when fraudulently-requested postal ballots prevented some voters from voting in person and the secrecy of the balloting process was called into question. The Queen is expected formally to call for the reforms in her speech at the state opening of Parliament [UK Parliament backgrounder] next week, setting out a five year sentence for postal voting fraud, and requiring signatures and birth dates on all ballots. The UK Electoral Commission [official website] recently released a report [text] calling for a range of postal voting reforms. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] A leading Pakistan daily reported Friday that 40 detainees released from US detention at Guantanamo Bay have been held without charges at Rawalpindi's Adiala prison for the past eight months. Pakistani law currently allows the detention of "Indian agents" in the country for a full year before bringing them to trial. The Pakistani government has become increasingly suspicious of former Taliban fighters or jihadists that may be opposed to the rule of President Pervez Musharraf [official profile], who has already survived two al-Qaeda assassination attempts. Islamists view Musharraf's alliance with President Bush on the war on terror and the dropped support for the Taliban as a betrayal. The ex-Guantanamo prisoners have protested their imprisonment with hunger strikes and continuous shouting at prison guards [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] As anticipated [JURIST report], Russian prosecutors Friday announced plans to bring new charges of money laundering against Mikhail Khodorkovsky [BBC profile], former CEO of second-largest Russian oil firm Yukos [corporate website], and his business partner Platon Lebedev. Khodorkovsky is currently awaiting the expected May 16 verdict [JURIST report] in his trial [Khodorkovsky defense website] on charges of fraud and tax evasion, for which he could spend up to ten years in jail if convicted. Many observers believe the charges filed against Khodorkovsky are a result of his opposition to the Putin government; Russia's richest citizen, he began funding opposition parties in 2003. BBC News has more; MosNews has local coverage.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase:

• Khodorkovsky trial adjourns
• Russian prosecutors call for maximum sentence for Khodorkovsky
• Former Yukos CEO to testify in court
• Arrest of Russia's richest man precipitates Moscow stock crash

[JURIST] At least 12 people were killed Friday when thousands of people took to the streets of the eastern Uzebekistan city of Andijan to protest the highly publicized and controversial trial for extremism of 23 Muslim businessmen. Over 2,000 government prisoners were set free when militants stormed a high security prison and other key government buildings, apparently in the hopes of freeing those charged. Troops opened fire to contain the disturbances. Some reports say that dozens of people may have died [Eurasia.net report] as government forces backed by tanks and armored vehicles retook the city center. In another region of Uzbekistan, the US embassy in Tashkent reported that a suicide bomber was shot dead outside the Israeli embassy, halting a probable attack on the embassy, and security forces have reported that the Tashkent situation is under control. Observers are concerned that disorder in Uzbekistan [government website, English version] could greatly destabilize the Central Asian region [Interfax report]; the US maintains a military presence in the country at the former Soviet Karshi-Khanabad airbase. A local newspaper has reported that the protestors are demanding the resignation of the current government [Muslim Uzbekistan report, in English]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Recently-demoted {JURIST report] Abu Ghraib commander Colonel Janis Karpinski [Wikipedia profile], formerly a reserve Brigadier General, says that she is being discriminated against and that evidence exists that top ranking officials should be held responsible for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. In an ABC television interview [ABC News report] aired Thursday night on Nightline she blamed a ranking officer, Gen. Geoffrey Miller [Human Rights Watch report], for introducing the use of human pyramids and dog leashes in interrogation: "I can tell you with certainty that the MPs (military police) certainly did not design those techniques, they certainly did not come to Abu Ghraib or to Iraq with dog collars and dog leashes." Karpinski is the only high-ranking US military officer to date to be punished in the scandal. "I think there's definitely grounds for discrimination," she told ABC. "Why was I the only general officer that was singled out to be suspended from command when all the of the information clearly shows that other people had knowledge and were involved?" Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Recent UN Security Council resolutions setting up sanctions against Sudan [Resolution 1591] and referring criminal actions in Darfur to the International Criminal Court [Resolution 1593] have led to protests and heightened tensions in Darfur, according to UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Hedi Annabi, briefing the UN Security Council Thursday. In his monthly report on Sudan he also told the Council that the "security situation in Darfur is misleading at the moment, because attacks on civilians are not occuring on the massive scale encountered in 2004". Sudan had previously expressed displeasure [JURIST report] with Resolution 1593 on ICC referrals and has insisted upon trying Darfur-related cases in Sudan itself. AP has more; the UN provides additional background on the Sudan situation.

[JURIST] Mexico has announced plans to oppose recent measures under the Real ID Act [PDF] signed into law Wednesday [White House press release] as part of an appropriations package making it harder for immigrants to get state IDs and drivers licenses [JURIST report] and authorizing the extension of US border walls near San Diego. Speaking Thursday, Mexican President Vicente Fox [official website, in English] did not say what precise actions Mexico would take, and also indicated he would be meeting with the US before any action is taken. US officials insist that immigration-related changes are necessary to combat terrorism and enhance border security. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Arizona State Legislature [official website] voted Thursday to approve a new bill [AZ Senate factsheet] tightening immigration laws in the state for the thousands of illegal immigrants who enter the state from Mexico annually. The bill restricts benefits that immigrants can receive, and prohibits illegals from attending adult education classes, receiving child care assistance, or having in-state tuition status at public universities. The bill's supporters say that Arizona is burdened by a extremely large number of illegal immigrants and currently loses much revenue by providing health care and educational services to them. A second bill [factsheet] passed Thursday forbids local governments from supplying money to centers that help illegal immigrants find work. Both bills must now be signed into law by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano [official website]. In November, Arizona voters approved Proposition 200 [JURIST report], requiring a person to show proof of US citizenship when seeking publicly funded benefits. AP has more.

[JURIST] A subcommittee of the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce [official website] has released new documents that could implicate French and Russian officials [press release] in the scandal involving the UN Oil-for-Food [official website] program. The documents suggest that in 2002 the Iraqi intelligence service, in an attempt to garner support from other countries, composed a list of French and Russian officials who could possibly be influenced by oil bribes. The documents do not contain much information on who was actually contacted, or what agreements were made between Saddam and the officials. One official named in the documents, French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua [official website, in French], was identified Thursday [JURIST report] by the investigations subcommittee [official website] of the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee [official website], one of four other congressional committees investigating the oil-for-food scandal, as having receiving "allocations" of 11 million barrels of oil. The Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has scheduled a hearing for Monday. AP has more.

[JURIST] Connecticut serial killer Michael Ross [advocacy website] was executed by lethal injection early Friday morning in New England's first execution in 45 years, made possible after the state Supreme Court ruled earlier this week that he was competent to end his appeals [JURIST report]. Ross, convicted for raping and killing eight women in the 1980s, had previously chosen to waive his right to death row appeals [JURIST report] despite objections from his lawyer and family members. Both Ross' father and sister attempted to appeal his case in his stead, claiming that Ross was too narcissistic and had difficulties changing his mind after making a decision and that he suffered from "death row syndrome," leading to mental incompetency after 18 years on death row. A last-minute plea to the state governor [press release] by anti-death penalty activists seeking to have the execution halted was unsuccessful. AP has more.