Draft Law

Serbia's Socialist government drafted legislation to reinstate opposition victories, but tens of thousands of protesters kept up demonstrations for democratic reforms. The measure recognizing opposition victories Nov. 17 in 14 cities, including Belgrade, the capital, was sent to parliament, the official news agency reported. State radio said parliament will meet next week to consider the draft law.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to draft a law prohibiting the possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines, sparking lawsuit threats from two gun rights organizations. On an 11-0 vote, the council called for an ordinance labeling the magazines a public nuisance and "an immediate threat to the public health. " Although the state already has a ban on the sale and transfer of high-capacity magazines, residents can still legally own them. Before the vote, council members described the measure as a response to a series of mass shootings, including the massacre of 26 people - many of them children - at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December.

Soviet trade unions, long closely controlled by Communist authorities, will be given the right to strike under a draft law to be adopted in the next few months, union leader Stepan Shalayev said Wednesday. The draft law follows sporadic reports from across the country of wildcat strikes by miners, bus drivers and carpet weavers demanding better pay and conditions. Leningrad police officers demonstrated in the city center April 9 to back a series of demands, according to the newspaper Socialist Industry.

YANGON, Myanmar - When Mizzima moved its headquarters to Yangon last year from India, media watchers saw it as a sign that political reform in Myanmar was real. For more than a decade, the media group has published hard-hitting coverage of military corruption and Myanmar's dismal human rights record, and many saw its arrival as a bellwether of the regime's tolerance. Recent days, however, have brought growing industry concern about backsliding after the government sent a draft press law to the parliament March 4: It bears an unsettling resemblance to the draconian 1962 media law still in effect, which has long been used to jail, torture and harass journalists.

The lower house of Parliament approved a draft law limiting women's freedom to have abortions, but it rejected proposals to ban abortion altogether. The draft was a compromise between parties backed by Poland's powerful Roman Catholic Church and liberals and left-wingers who favor a less restrictive bill.

When Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced that he was rescinding restrictions on women in combat, he dropped this provocative comment: “Our nation was built on the premise of the citizen soldier. In our democracy, I believe it is the responsibility of every citizen to protect the nation. And every citizen who can meet the qualifications of service should have that opportunity.” Query (as they saw in law school) whether this formula undermines the rationale for current law requiring 18-year-old males, but not females, to register for a “standby” military draft.

Swiss Justice Minister Elizabeth Kopp said her ministry would produce a draft law by next spring that would make concealing the criminal origin of money an offense punishable by up to five years in prison.

Soviet trade unions, long closely controlled by Communist authorities, will be given the right to strike under a draft law to be adopted in the next few months, union leader Stepan Shalayev said today. The draft law, which sets out a broad range of powers for unions, follows sporadic reports from across the country of wildcat strikes by miners, bus drivers and carpet weavers demanding better pay and conditions. "The right (to strike) is being considered as a means to press management to speed up the resolution of labor disputes," Shalayev said in an interview with the trade union daily Trud.

There are two mitigating factors in the desertion of Marine Cpl. Donald J. Bailey. Bailey's countrymen collectively turned their backs on him before he turned his back on them. And ss stated in The Times of Feb. 7, President Carter, himself once a line officer in the Navy, gave blanket pardon to draft dodgers who had not yet experienced the rigors of military service or faced hostile fire. There is a kicker to be added here. We have currently three national figures who, though legally, finagled provisions in the Vietnam era draft law to avoid military service: our current president, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas)

Singapore, the world's haven for copyright pirates, will send violators to jail under new laws now being drafted, government officials said. The draft law would replace the island's 74-year-old Copyright Act, which U.S. officials and foreign investors have criticized as outmoded and ineffective. "We are introducing for the first time jail sentences for infringement, although normally copyright trespasses are really civil matters," a senior government official said.

When Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced that he was rescinding restrictions on women in combat, he dropped this provocative comment: “Our nation was built on the premise of the citizen soldier. In our democracy, I believe it is the responsibility of every citizen to protect the nation. And every citizen who can meet the qualifications of service should have that opportunity.” Query (as they saw in law school) whether this formula undermines the rationale for current law requiring 18-year-old males, but not females, to register for a “standby” military draft.

To settle a lawsuit, the city of Los Angeles entered into a billboard deal in 2006 that was so improper that it would have been funny were it not for the damage it did to neighborhoods, the city's pocketbook and local government's reputation for competence. The agreement kept in place a ban on new billboards but allowed two companies to convert hundreds of conventional signs into huge outdoor electronic screens that change messages every few seconds and glare into adjacent neighborhoods.

Discount retail giantWal-Martoutwitted Los Angeles City Council members who sought to slow the company's expansion into Chinatown, securing permits for its store on the eve of a crucial vote on the topic. The council voted 13 to 0 on Friday to draft a law temporarily banning large chain stores from opening in the neighborhood. But minutes before that vote, the top official at the Department of Building and Safety revealed that a day earlier Wal-Mart had obtained permits needed to renovate its vacant commercial space.

Chinese officials plan to enact a law against secession, a move analysts said could legally bind leaders to attack Taiwan if it declares independence. The government will submit a draft of the bill to its top lawmaking body next week, the New China News Agency reported. Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian wants to rewrite the island's constitution and rename state businesses to stress its separateness from China, but his party suffered losses in legislative elections last week.

The government has drafted a law to enable the extradition of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and other war crimes suspects to a U.N. court, a top official said Wednesday. The law would allow the extradition of suspects but only after a legal review of their cases at home, said Nebojsa Sarkic, an assistant justice minister.

Citing the deadly violence at Santana High School, the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to ban the sale of small, easily concealed handguns and to require purchasers of other firearms to provide a thumbprint. Despite opposition from gun owners, the council voted 9 to 2 to ask the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would outlaw the sale in Los Angeles of so-called pocket rockets, handguns that are 6 3/4 inches long or less and 4 1/2 inches high or less.

This country will impose the death penalty on rapists who use weapons or whose victims are under 10 years old, Justice Minister Ridha ben Ali said Saturday. He said a draft law to go before Parliament will also impose the death penalty on people convicted of raping or sexually molesting members of their own family. At present, convicted rapists can be sentenced to hard labor for up to 20 years.

When I read the letters about the draft, I felt as if I were reliving the arguments I had with my parents and others some 20 years ago. As I tried to explain then, the draft should be seen in the context of the times. Abuse of power was prevalent from arbitrary arrests to the killings at Kent State University (Ohio) in 1970. The draft law, capriciously applied, was seen as another attack by an unresponsive, faceless authority which controlled the lives of the citizens. The letters show that the divisions about the draft and war still exist.

The complexities of the nationwide movement to require what backers consider a living wage were on full display at the Board of Supervisors' meeting Tuesday, as the region's largest employer wrestled with the question of equity for its thousands of low-wage workers.