[JURIST] Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] has signed into law a bill [text; BBC backgrounder] requiring key industries, like mining and banking, to be controlled by local owners, a government newspaper reported on Sunday. Government officials have tried to address concerns around the "Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Bill" by saying that it will not result in the immediate seizure of foreign controlled assets, but instead that timelines for majority control of these business to be handed over to Zimbabwean interests would be set for each industry.

The bill has been staunchly opposed by members of Zimbabwe's opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change [party website], who have said it merely seeks to enrich Mugabe's political allies and to win his party votes in the upcoming March elections. The plan has also been criticized by those who believe it will share the fate of the country's farm seizure program, a plan whereby the government expropriated over 4,000 white-owned farms as part of a set of constitutional reforms [JURIST reports] in 2005. That plan has been blamed for being significantly responsible for the country's catastrophic 100,000 percent inflation rate, because so many of the farms failed under new, inexperienced ownership. Reuters has more. Government-run Sunday Mail Reporter has local coverage.

[JURIST] The Constitutional Court of Armenia [official website, in Armenian] Saturday rejected a challenge brought by an opposition candidate against the results of February's disputed presidential election, ruling that although polling discrepancies existed they did not affect the election's outcome. Tens of thousands of supporters of opposition candidate and former President Levon Ter-Petrosian [campaign website, in Armenian] staged protests after the results were announced, alleging fraud and prompting current Armenian President Robert Kocharian [official website] to declare a state of emergency [JURIST report] last Saturday. Ter-Petrosian has said he will call for more protests when the state of emergency is lifted.

The state of emergency is set to be in place until March 20. It imposes bans on all rallies and protests while also placing restrictions on the media. The declaration gives police the power to restrict movement, and to search private and public vehicles. Ter-Petrosian's supporters had held daily rallies [IHT report] since Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan [official profile], a Kocharian ally, was declared the winner [BBC report] of the February 19 election. Last Saturday, Ter-Petrosian was not allowed to leave his house, but he told reporters that he was not under formal house arrest. AP has more.

[JURIST] Pakistani lawyers protested Sunday, continuing their call for the reinstatement of former Supreme Court justices who were ousted [JURIST report] after President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule [JURIST report] in November 2007. Sunday's protest kicks off a week of protests [JURIST report] marking the one-year anniversary of the date when Musharraf first suspended former Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry [JURIST news archive]. The campaign, known as "black flag week," is being led by Pakistani Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan [PILDAT profile]. Lawyers are wearing black arm or head bands and flying black flags outside their offices and at bar association buildings. Ahsan has said that protests will continue if the new government does not reinstate Chaudhry and some 50 other judges removed in November. IANS has more.

The Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League [party websites] vowed last week to establish a fully independent judiciary [JURIST report]. The two parties, which will form Pakistan's new coalition government, also agreed to work together [JURIST report] toward the reinstatement of Chaudhry and other ousted judges. The two parties formally signed an agreement Sunday forming the coalition government. Under the agreement [text], parliament will vote within the next month on reinstating the judges. AP has more.

[JURIST] Democratic members of both the US House and Senate have criticized President George Bush's Saturday veto [JURIST report] of a bill [HR 2082 materials] that would have prohibited the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] from using waterboarding [JURIST report] and other interrogation techniques not explicitly authorized by the 2006 Army Field Manual. In an op-ed [text] in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Senators Dianne Feinstien (D-CA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) [official websites] wrote:

Waterboarding and the excesses at Abu Ghraib are a black mark against the United States. It undermines our fight against terror, conflicts sharply with our national values, does not produce better intelligence than more traditional techniques, and sullies our worldwide reputation.

We have been moved by the heartfelt testimony of so many senior military commanders concerned about what this means for the safety of American troops. The United States simply cannot use interrogation methods that we would find unacceptable if used against our own troops. This principle is part of the Army Field Manual.