We will always be learning more about our ancestors’

‘WORLD’S OLDEST CALENDAR’ DISCOVERED IN SCOTTISH FIELD

Yahoo!7 July 15, 2013, 6:28 pm

Archaeologists in Scotland have uncovered what is believed to be the world’s oldest lunar calendar.

Twelve pits, said to have been created by hunter gatherers almost 10,000 years ago, were unearthed in a field at Crathes Castle, Aberdeenshire.

The pits are arranged in a 50-metre long row and are said to represent the months of the year and the phases of the moon.

Variation in the depths of the pits suggests that each pit or month may have also been divided into three roughly ten-day ‘weeks’ used to indicate the waxing moon, the gibbous/full moon and the waning moon.

The discovery of the Mesolithic ‘calendar’ overtakes a 5,000-year-old monument from Bronze Age Mesopotamia to claim the title of the world’s oldest ‘calendar’.

A simple illustration of how the pits would have been used by hunter gatherers. Photo: University of Birmingham

The site at Crathes Castle was originally excavated in 2004, but the findings were only analysed over the last six months using a purpose-built software.

Professor Vince Gafney led the archaeological project that discovered the structures.

‘The evidence suggests that hunter-gatherer societies in Scotland had both the need and sophistication to track time across the years, to correct for seasonal drift of the lunar year and that this occurred nearly 5,000 years before the first formal calendars known in the Near East,’ he said.

‘In doing so, this illustrates one important step towards the formal construction of time and therefore history itself.’

An artist’s impression of the site at Crathes Castle. Photo: University of Birmingham

Dr David Bates of the University of St Andrews said the discovery provided “exciting new evidence” of Mesolithic Scotland given it’s age in comparison to other known calendars.

‘This is the earliest example of such a structure and there is no known comparable site in Britain or Europe for several thousands of years after the monument at Warren Field was constructed.’

Scientists believe the Mesolithic monument discovered in Aberdeenshire was in use for some 4,000 years, from 8,000 BC to approximately 4,000 BC.

WOW!!! Nature at her spectacular best again!

TASSIE AURORA SETS OFF SHUTTER FRENZY

Yahoo!7June 2, 2013, 3:08 pm

  

 

Ethusiasts have captured stunning images of the Aurora Australis (Click through to gallery). Photo: Susan Styles.

While thousands of Sydney-siders flock to see the light projections of the Vivid festival, Tasmanians are soaking up the splendour of nature’s own version.

The Aurora Australis, a lesser-known cousin of the Aurora Borealis, is more often visible only from Antarctica.

The Aurora Australis in Tasmania. Photo: Matt Green

But 2013 is a bumper year for nature’s light show, with a peak in sunspot activity that has sent colours spinning across the skies as far north as Tasmania, more frequently than seen for years.

The spike in solar activity has corresponded with a burst of interaction over social media, as avid shutterbugs vie to capture ever-more astonishing pictures.

“I captured my first aurora in January this year, and last night’s was my fifth time,” Leoni George Williams, member of the Facebook group Aurora Australis Tasmania said.

The Aurora Australis. Photo: Jolene Lye (Inoriz photography)

“I had never seen an aurora before, and only became interested in the phenomenon late last year, but I became obsessed with them!”

“I’ve learned so much about what the camera can see as opposed to the naked eye, and low light photography in general,” she added.

Fellow aurora-chaser Jolene Lye says the education process hasn’t ended there. Aurora photographers follow readings from sites such as the Aurora Alert page, from the Bureau of Meteorology.

The Aurora Australis. Photo: Laurie Davison

“I’ve learned a lot about how to read the charts and readings from NASA and NOAA which previously looked like Greek to me,” Lye said.

“But having said that, the Aurora can behave quite independently of these readings. Some weak readings have resulted in strong Auroras and vice versa so it’s not all predictable!”

Intrigued? George Williams says new members are always welcome in the online aurora community.

“There’s a wonderful camaraderie within the group and I love the willingness of the more seasoned members to share their knowledge with the newer members as they join.”

Space Station Musician – This is so cool!

I love what these guys are doing in space!

Click on this link to see a short version of the song:
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/hallo-spaceboy-bowies-oddity-a-space-odyssey-for-astronaut-chris-20130513-2jhfq.html#ixzz2T9GECObQ

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‘Hallo Spaceboy’: Bowie’s Oddity a space odyssey for astronaut Chris

Date

May 13, 2013 – 2:17PM

Megan Levy Breaking news reporter

• Astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield
• David Bowie
• International Space Station
• Kazakhstan

Astronaut sings farewell to space

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield ends his stint on the International Space Station by recording a moving version of the David Bowie classic Space Oddity.

If anyone were qualified to cover David Bowie’s Space Oddity it would surely be astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Which is exactly what the mustachioed Canadian has done, recording a showstopping rendition of the classic tune on board the International Space Station as he prepares to descend back to Earth this week after a five-month mission in space.

Hadfield, who has been referred to as the “coolest guy in outer space”, has outdone himself in his latest stunt among the stars, posting a five-minute clip on YouTube in which he performs the 1969 classic.

Twist on a David Bowie song: Chris Hadfield.

The clip shows the 53-year-old veteran astronaut spinning around the cabin of the space station and playing his guitar while floating in zero gravity.

He sings “I’m floating in a most peculiar way”, while floating in zero gravity. Stunning views of the earth are visible from the space station’s windows for much of the clip.

Hadfield’s efforts have earned him the adoration of the internet, and the praise of Bowie himself, who tweeted “Hallo Spaceboy . . .”

Chris Hadfield: his song has captured the attention of social media users.

One of Hadfield’s fans commented on the YouTube clip: “You’re a bloody marvellous human being.”

“NASA might be cool again,” wrote another fan, while one person said they cried while watching the clip, adding: “I want to be a SCIENTIST”.

The film clip was mixed with the help of staff at the Canadian Space Agency and musician Emm Gryner, and some of the lyrics were modified to refer to the Soyuz capsule that will return Hadfield to Kazakhstan on Monday night.

David Bowie performs at the Odeon Theatre, in Hammersmith, West London in July 1973. Photo: Association Newspapers

Hadfield tweeted a link to the video with the words: “With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here’s Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World.”

It was retweeted nearly 9000 times in the first four hours.

During his stint as commander of the International Space Station, Hadfield has captivated and entertained his followers on social media with quirky videos and stunning photographs from space.

He has posted charming videos about sleeping, eating, safely clipping his fingernails, and even cooking spinach.

Half a million people tuned in to watch him brush his teeth, while more than 10 million people watched Hadfield wring out a soaking wet cloth. It was an experiment suggested by 10th graders in Nova Scotia.

He has also posted daily photographs and tweets from space, including images of the Great Barrier Reef and Sydney, in which he highlighted unique land formations, weather events and the glittering lights that mark out human development.

Hadfield handed over command of the station on Sunday to Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov.

He and his two crew members are scheduled to leave the space station on Monday night in their Soyuz spacecraft and head back to Earth for a planned landing in Kazakhstan.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/hallo-spaceboy-bowies-oddity-a-space-odyssey-for-astronaut-chris-20130513-2jhfq.html#ixzz2T9GECObQ

WTF??? KFC buys meat products from China???

The one country in the world, where everything, but particularly food and clothes, seems to be tainted with deadly, toxic, materials, chemicals, and disgusting practices.

And as if KFC was not already bad enough to one’s health, it buys chicken from China!!!

WTF are those in charge thinking??? Perhaps they have been eating too much of their own crap, and now their brains are so polluted and contaminated, they are no longer able to make rational decisions.

WHO, in their right mind, would buy food products from China??? Even the Chinese middle classes only buy, and consume imported food.

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CHINA DETAINS 900 OVER TOXIC MEAT SCANDAL

AFPUpdated May 4, 2013, 2:02 am

AFP ©Enlarge photo

 BEIJING (AFP) – China has detained 900 people for crimes including selling rat and fox meat as beef and mutton, the public security ministry said, in another blow to the nation’s food safety.

News of the three-month operation, which related to meat products, added to a string of scandals that have galvanised public concern over food safety in China, from recycled cooking oil to dangerous chemicals in baby milk powder.

Altogether there were “382 cases of water-injected meat, fake mutton and beef, diseased meat, toxic and harmful meat products”, the ministry said on its website on Thursday.

“Nine hundred and four suspects were arrested, more than 20,000 tons of various types of fake or inferior meat products were confiscated.”

The crimes ranged from sellers in eastern Jiangsu province making fake mutton from fox, rat and chemicals, and others in southwestern Guizhou province mixing hydrogen peroxide solution with chicken claws.

The scandal was widely discussed by users of China’s popular Sina Weibo microblog.

“Anything can be done once humanity is gone,” said one user.

“We are nearly immune to hundreds of poisons, should we thank these fantastic businessmen?” wrote another.

China’s top court on Friday announced its first ever detailed guidelines for the punishment of food-safety related crimes, the state-run China News Service reported.

The crimes listed included supplying meat from animals which died of illness, selling food with excessive amounts of chemical additives, and falsely advertising food products, the report said, citing China’s Supreme People’s Court.

The public security ministry said the sting on the toxic meat was part of a wider probe into food safety issues, from the discovery in March of thousands of dead pigs floating down a Shanghai river to the problem of “gutter oil”.

Cheap recycled cooking oil is available nationwide made illegally from leftovers scooped out of restaurant drains.

One of China’s worst food safety scandals hit in 2008 when the industrial chemical melamine was found to have been illegally added to dairy products, killing at least six babies and making 300,000 people ill.

In another recent incident, US fast food giant KFC was hit by controversy after revealing some Chinese suppliers provided chicken with high levels of antibiotics, in what appeared to be an industry-wide practice.

And Tony Abbott still thinks Climate Change is Crap!

Talk about an Ostrich putting its head into the sand!!!

And he wants to be the next Prime Minister!!!

Of what!

Once the earth’s climate is fucked, so are all its living things, including dumbshit Abbott supporters!
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Greenhouse gases in new danger zone

Date

April 29, 2013

Ben Cubby

Environment Editor

View more articles from Ben Cubby

The world’s carbon dioxide levels are on the cusp of reaching 400 parts per million in the atmosphere for the first time in 3 million years.

The daily CO2 level, measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, stood at 399.72 parts per million last Thursday, and a few hourly readings had already risen above 400 parts per million.

”I wish it weren’t true, but it looks like the world is going to blow through the 400 ppm level without losing a beat,” said Ralph Keeling, a geochemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the US, which operates the Hawaiian observatory. ”At this pace we’ll hit 450 ppm within a few decades.”

The 450 parts per million level is considered the point where the world has a 50 per cent chance of avoiding dangerous climate change – any higher, and the odds of avoiding searing temperature rises of four or five degrees by the end of the century become prohibitively risky.

The rise in greenhouse gases corresponds with the extra CO2 emitted by human activities such as burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests. More greenhouse gases mean more heat builds up at the Earth’s surface.

The last time CO2 reached the symbolic milestone of 400 parts per million in the atmosphere – in the Pliocene era – temperatures rose three to four degrees and sea levels were between five and 40 metres higher than they are today. Carbon dioxide levels have been increasing since the first measurements at the observatory in 1958 recorded 317 parts per million.

Levels above 400 parts per million have already been breached at a few polar monitoring stations in the past year.

It comes as Australia’s Climate Commission will release a report on Monday on global action to reduce emissions. The US and, particularly, China were moving into leadership positions on greenhouse gas cuts, according to the report, The Critical Decade: Global Action Building on Climate Change.

Growth in coal use in China had declined substantially and renewable energy had expanded on a massive scale, it said. Its wind power generation had increased almost 50-fold between 2005 and 2012, solar power capacity rose by 75 per cent last year.

Australia doubled its renewable energy capacity between 2001 and 2012, but was at some risk of being left behind by other nations, according to the chief of the Climate Commission, Tim Flannery.

”We are the 15th largest emitter in the world, larger than 180 other countries,” Professor Flannery said. ”We are more influential than most of us think.”

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/greenhouse-gases-in-new-danger-zone-20130428-2imjm.html#ixzz2RlsuKg9e

Organic food wins!

Flying in the face of the organic debate

Date

April 25, 2013 – 10:17AM

Sarah Berry

Life & Style reporter

View more articles from Sarah Berry

Follow Sarah on Twitter Email Sarah

Unlikely as it may sound, a 16-year-old’s school science project has added weight to the organic versus conventional debate.

Adding weight to the organic debate: the humble fruit fly. Photo: California Institute of Technolo

A 16-year-old’s school science project has added weight to the argument that eating organically has greater health benefits than eating conventionally-grown foods.

Ria Chhabra overheard her parents debating the topic and decided to see if she could find out the answer for herself, the New York Times reports.

To test whether organically grown food provides greater health benefits than its conventionally grown counterpart, Chhabra turned to fruit flies; they have around 75 per cent of the genes that cause disease in humans and have a short life span so a variety of biological factors can be studied in a reasonably short period of time.

Her experiment was conducted over her summer break with the help of an assistant professor and a researcher at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. It won her top honours in a national science competition and has now been published in the respected Plos One journal.

Half of the flies in the experiment were fed an organic diet and the other half a conventional one. She then tested levels of fertility, stress resistance, physical activity and longevity.

They found that eating organically improved levels on virtually all fronts.

“These data suggest that organic foods are more nutritionally balanced than conventional foods, or contain higher levels of nutrients, leading to improved fertility and longevity,” they said.

Similarly, flies on the organic diet were more active and had greater stress resistance.

The main exception to these findings was that the diet had to be balanced. Flies that were fed only one type of organic food had shorter lifespans and were less fertile than those fed a balanced conventional diet.

While the results are by no means conclusive and cannot be extended to humans, they certainly call for further study, particularly given that organics, worth over 1.2 billion a year, is one of Australia’s top five growth industries.

Previous studies on organic versus conventional have had conflicting results in terms of nutritional or health benefits. This is significant considering the price difference between organic and conventionally farmed foods. A recent analysis of supermarket prices by Suncorp Bank found that organic food is 79 per cent more expensive than conventional.

One major study by Stanford University last year found: “There isn’t much difference between organic and conventional foods, if you’re an adult and making a decision based solely on your health.”

Yet, the majority of studies and meta-analyses have found that eating organically may lower risks of allergies, can cut energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Plus, as the Stanford researchers found, organic produce had a 30 per cent lower risk of pesticide contamination than conventional fruits and vegetables.

This alone is enough for many, Ria’s family included. Her study put an end to their household debate. “All of our fresh produce is organic,” she said.

As for the public debate, Ria and the researchers would like to see studies extending from their own: “Our data suggest that organic foods provide improved health outcomes. The reason for this effect remains unclear.”

Environmental Working Group has just released this year’s Dirty Dozen Plus and Clean Fifteen; conventionally grown foods containing the most and least pesticide residue.

The Dirty Dozen Plus: Apples, celery, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, grapes, hot peppers, nectarines, peaches, potatoes, spinach, strawberries, sweet bell peppers, kale and collard greens, zucchini.

The Clean Fifteen: Asparagus, avocados, cabbage, rockmelon, sweet corn, eggplant, grapefruit, kiwi, mangoes, mushrooms, papaya, onions, pineapples, sweet peas, sweet potatoes.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/flying-in-the-face-of-the-organic-debate-20130424-2ietj.html#ixzz2RS2ekZq7

Why is Islam such a destructive religion?

Let’s start with the Taliban, who have destroyed, priceless monuments carved, centuries ago, in cliff faces, by believers of their own religion, of Islam!!!   Why???

Why is it that all the 172 chapters of Islamic sects, hate each other?   Why???

Why is is it, that even in the absence of western persons, the Shi’ites wage cowardly attacks on their own people who share the religion of Islam, the Sunni’s, and vice-versa???   Why???

Who, or what, drives this insane hatred of anyone who does not agree with one mother-fucker, …oops, I meant camel-fucker, …oops, I meant mule, …oops, I think I meant Mullah?

And why is is that since the death of the Crusades, some 700 or 800 years ago, the people of Islam and the people of all other religions, lived together, in peace and harmony? Until recent times?   Why???

And now, all of a sudden, Islam hates everybody!!! Islam even hates itself!!! If that was not true, why attack other version of Islam???

WTF happened, to create this situation???  All of a sudden peaceful co-existence turned to COWARDLY attacks on the western world, and even on other versions of Islam itself!!!

And now we get to the COWARDLY acts of murderers. Acts of mass murder on unsuspecting, innocent, people, who are not even involved in the fight with Islam.

Irrespective of what one’s religious beliefs are, it is increasingly evident, that COWARDS have adopted Islam as their religion… Or is it that Islam, has created so many COWARDS among its believers?

Is it possible, that Islam has given natural COWARDS an half baked, insane, illogical, sense of a way to DISGUISE their COWARDICE, by promoting the slaughter of innocent persons, as a way to redeem their COWARDLY, WORTHLESS, individual existence, in the eyes of their, god?

No matter what the incentive, people who murder, innocent, unsuspecting, vulnerable people, are COWARDS. These people of Islam, are not terrorists! They are just COWARDS…

They do not even deserve the acknowledgement of being called terrorists…

It just seems to me, that Islam is a religion for displaced souls, for COWARDS, for insecure individuals…

But, having said all of the above, … I was going to say, … that the religion may be of benefit to some, but then… given that the religion is so fragmented, I cannot truly believe, that that there is a religion of Islam…

 

It can be done!

Read author Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy of Mar’s books. Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars.

All directions are there! 
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Fancy living on Mars? This reality show is for you

Date

April 23, 2013 – 11:19AM

It could be the plot to Avatar‘s sequel, but a Dutch ‘interplanetary media group’ is really looking for applicants who are willing to take a one-way trip to the red planet and face possibly lethal radiation, no growable food and cramped quarters for the rest of their lives.

An artist’s impression of what the Mars One colony will look like in 2023. Photo: Mars One

Are you crazy enough to sign up for a one-way trip to Mars? Applications are being accepted by the makers of a Dutch reality show that says it will deliver the first humans to the red planet in 10 years.

The main requirements are strong health, good people and survival skills, being 18 or older, and having a reasonable grasp of the English language.

The company, called Mars One, aims to land its first four astronauts in 2023 for a televised reality show that would follow the exploits of the first humans to attempt to establish a colony on Mars.

Space odyssey 2023 … Could man call Mars home? Even if it meant possible death on the red planet?

Already, the organisers have received “10,000 emails from more than 100 different countries from people who are interested in joining us for this mission”, said founder Bas Lansdorp at a news conference in a New York hotel.

In all they are seeking six groups of four people each. A new group would make the seven-month journey every two years after the first crew departs in 2022.

The cost for the first mission is about $US6 billion ($A5.9 billion).

“It sounds like a lot of money. And actually it is a lot of money. But imagine what will happen when the first people land on Mars. Literally everybody on the globe will want to see it,” Lansdorp said.

The project has garnered plenty of sceptics but is backed by Dutch Nobel laureate Gerard ‘t Hooft, who won the 1999 prize for physics.

The world’s space agencies have only managed to send unmanned robotic rovers to Mars so far, the latest being NASA’s $US2.5 billion Curiosity rover that touched down in August 2012.

Major drawbacks to the proposed mission include the inability to return to Earth, the small living quarters and the lack of food on the dry planet. That is, if the radiation endured during the trip is not lethal, and if the volatile landing goes according to plan.

Key attributes for applicants, according to Mars One medical director Norbert Kraft, are being adaptable, resilient, creative and having empathy.

“Can you really work with other people from other countries, as a team?” he asked.

Many questions remain about how the astronauts would survive, breathe and drink on a planet with a temperature of minus 55C and whose atmosphere consists mainly of carbon dioxide.

But the company’s representatives insisted that they believe they are within ethical guidelines by pursuing their mission.

“The long-term aim is to have a lasting colony,” said Hooft. “This expansion will not be easy. How soon that will be accomplished is anyone’s guess today.”

AFP

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/fancy-living-on-mars-this-reality-show-is-for-you-20130423-2iblo.html#ixzz2RGYsZGrV

BOSTON ARREST SPARKS DEBATE OVER READING OF RIGHTS

Yes, of course this person has rights!

He is entitled to the same rights he gave his innocent, unsuspecting victims!
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AFPApril 21, 2013, 11:17 am

Boston bomb suspect in hospital

The Boston bombing suspect who was captured alive yesterday could face the death penalty. Nineteen-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remains under police guard in hospital.

AFP ©Enlarge photo

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The arrest of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect has ignited debate over a legal exception that allows police to interrogate individuals without reading them their rights.

The suspect, Dzokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old naturalized US citizen, was in hospital to receive treatment for injuries he sustained during a shootout with police on Friday.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said the seriously wounded Tsarnaev was “not able to communicate yet,” hinting that he may not have been questioned so far.

But rights advocates were quick to express concern over possible efforts by President Barack Obama’s administration to use a provision waiving the need to inform Tsarnaev of his right to an attorney or to remain silent.

American Civil Liberties Union executive director Anthony Romero called for a narrow read of the “public safety” exception, which is only allowed in cases where there is a “continued threat” to public safety.

“We must not waver from our tried-and-true justice system, even in the most difficult of times,” he said in a statement.

“Denial of rights is un-American and will only make it harder to obtain fair convictions.”

Obama speaks after Boston arrest

US President Barack Obama speaks to the media after the successful arrest of the suspected Boston Marathon bomber.

 US Attorney Carmen Ortiz told reporters after Tsarnaev’s arrest that the authorities had invoked the public safety exception and delayed reading him his rights, or Miranda warning.

Republican lawmakers have gone a step further, arguing that Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen who lived in the United States for a decade, should be declared an “enemy combatant,” the same legal status as detainees being held at the Guantanamo military prison.

“A decision to not read Miranda rights to the suspect was sound and in our national security interests,” read a joint statement by Senators Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Kelly Ayotte and Representative Peter King.

“However, we have concerns that limiting this investigation to 48 hours and exclusively relying on the public safety exception to Miranda could very well be a national security mistake.”

But Senate Armed Service Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Democrat, disagreed and expressed full confidence in the US justice system to try the suspect in federal civilian courts.

He warned that there was “no legal basis for his detention as an enemy combatant.”

“I am not aware of any evidence so far that the Boston suspect is part of any organized group, let alone Al-Qaeda, the Taliban or one of their affiliates — the only organizations whose members are subject to detention under the Authorization for Use of Military Force,” Levin said.

“To hold the suspect as an enemy combatant under these circumstances would be contrary to our laws and may even jeopardize our efforts to prosecute him for his crimes.”

Tsarnaev was caught after a massive manhunt that saw his older brother and fellow suspect Tamerlan killed.

FBI releases vision of bomb suspects

The FBI has released vision and images of two suspects in connection to the Boston Marathon bombings.

A 1966 Supreme Court ruling requires that police read suspects their Miranda rights, in order to protect them against involuntarily incriminating themselves.

Under normal rules, only comments made by a suspect who has been read his rights is able to be used in a subsequent trial.

The court created an exception in 1984 allowing police to interrogate a suspect without reading the rights if there is deemed to be an immediate threat to themselves or to the public.

In a 2010 policy memo, the FBI ordered agents to interrogate suspected “operational terrorists” about immediate threats to public safety without first advising them of their Miranda rights.

I nearly threw up when I read this…

But despite the world’s protest, I totally agree with the sentence. If it is true.
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Saudi Arabia denies sentencing man to surgical paralysis

Local newspaper had reported punishment ordered over stabbing carried out at age 14

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah (in car) at a recent funeral in Riyadh. The king ordered sweeping judicial reforms in the state in 2007, including setting up specialist courts to handle criminal, financial, family and other cases, and retraining for judges. Photograph: Faisal Al Nasser/Reuters

 Saudi Arabia‘s Justice Ministry has denied reports that a judge sentenced a young man to be surgically paralysed in retribution for stabbing a friend who had been left unable to move.

The case was originally reported in local media and prompted outrage from governments and human rights groups around the world, bringing renewed scrutiny to an Islamic legal system that has no sentencing guidelines or system of precedent in determining punishments.

“The ministry would like to announce that this is utterly incorrect, and in fact the judicial ruling was contrary to that. The judge had shied away from demanding this punishment,” the ministry said on its official Twitter feed.

The ministry issued a series of tweets on the subject but did not reveal what the man’s sentence had in fact been.

The Saudi Gazette reported last month the man had been ordered to pay $270,000 (€207,000) or be paralysed for a crime he had committed 10 years earlier when he was aged 14.

He had reportedly stabbed a school friend who was paralysed as a result.

Human rights group Amnesty International described the reported sentence as “torture”.

The kingdom’s sharia justice system gives judges extensive leeway to reach verdicts and award sentences based on their own interpretation of the law. Capital punishment is common, and can be applied for crimes ranging from murder and armed robbery to drug smuggling and witchcraft.

King Abdullah ordered sweeping judicial reforms in 2007, including setting up specialist courts to handle criminal, financial, family and other cases, and retraining for judges.

However, the reforms have moved slowly in the face of what Saudi political scientists and some Justice Ministry officials describe as bitter opposition from conservatives.

Reuters