Word: legalizing
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...death has triggered a wave of public discussion in Russia - reaching as high as the Kremlin - about the squalid conditions in the country's jails and bureaucratic incompetence. But it has also renewed focus on an odious criminal practice that embodies what President Dmitry Medvedev describes as the "legal nihilism" pervading the country. It's known as reiderstvo, or "raiding," a term that describes an array of illegal tactics - including identity theft, forgery, bribery and physical intimidation - used by corrupt policemen, tax officials, lawyers and financiers to seize a person's business or property. (See pictures of Hillary Clinton...
There are nuggets in the report to hearten both supporters and opponents of capital punishment. The number of executions was up, after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared away a group of legal challenges to lethal injection. Fifty-two inmates were put to death in 2009 - up from 37 in 2008, but far fewer than the 98 prisoners executed in 1999. As usual, Texas put more inmates to death than any other state, with 24 executions, followed by Alabama with six and Ohio with five...
...immediately affected by the amnesty's cancellation include Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar and top presidential aide Salman Farooqi. "These are the people most loyal to the President," said a Zardari aide. Prospects are increasingly uncertain for the survival of the already unpopular government. Leading legal experts argue that Zardari, who could face eight corruption cases in Pakistan, currently remains protected by presidential immunity. But his political opponents, building pressure on him to resign, now appear poised to mount fresh challenges to his eligibility as a candidate for the presidency in the 2008 election. (See pictures...
...legal setback for Zardari comes at a moment of low approval ratings and widespread allegations of fecklessness, along with mounting pressure on him to shed the executive powers claimed for the presidency by Musharraf and revert to its traditional, largely ceremonial role. Even within the government there is a slow, grinding power struggle between the President and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who stands to benefit if Zardari recedes into the political background...
...violence has spurred proposals for reform. Legal experts say the current rules, which were passed in 2001, give authorities too much power to push through demolitions even before compensation disputes are settled. And the involvement of government officials in property development creates potential conflicts of interests, with the officials who make the decision to confiscate property sometimes benefiting from future developments on the site. The current law "completely overlooks the protection of private property in the process of housing demolition and it's strongly biased towards the local government by facilitating their management, while neglecting individual property rights," says Wang...