The Judges’ Club – a banned but tolerated association that includes more than half of the country’s nearly 3,000 judges – said they were protesting over the failure of the US-backed government to deliver on constitutional reform.
Morocco’s courts have long been under the thumb of the king and his justice ministry, which determines judges’ salaries and appointments.
Following mass protests, the 2011 constitution gave the judiciary a status on a par with the executive and legislative branches of government and greater independence from the Justice Ministry.
But judges complain the changes haven’t been implemented.
The king nominated a 40-person commission on May 8 to begin a dialogue on bringing in the reforms.
The commission excludes any members of Judges’ Club.
May 2012. An international collaboration of scientists has announced the discovery of a new species of lizard from remote, war-torn mountains in Central Africa.
The new species, Cordylus marunguensis, is described from the Marungu Plateau, a montane area west of Lake Tanganyika in south-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The research team spent several weeks exploring the area around the plateau for new species of amphibians and reptiles. The new lizard was discovered near the village of Pepa under rocks in grassy fields that were riddled with landmines and unexploded ordnance left over from a heavy conflict that engulfed the region at the turn of the 21st century.
The expedition that led to the new species discovery in 2010 was led by Eli Greenbaum, assistant professor of evolutionary genetics at the University of Texas at El Paso, and Chifundera Kusamba, a research scientist from the Centre de Recherche en Sciences Naturelles in Congo.
See our full list of new species discovered recently.
Suspecting the lizard represented a new species, Greenbaum sent DNA samples to Edward Stanley, a student at the American Museum of Natural History’s Richard Gilder Graduate School in New York City. Mr. Stanley compared the DNA of the Marungu lizard to similar species throughout Africa and confirmed that it was indeed a new species to science. He bolstered the finding by using a new technique called high resolution x-ray computer tomography to reconstruct the lizard’s skeleton in three dimensions, the first time such a technique has been used in a living lizard species description.
Digital skeleton
The digital reconstruction confirmed the presence of tiny bones called osteoderms in the heavily armoured scales of the new species. The reinforced scales are thought to protect the lizards from attacks by predators, and in some cases, to allow the animals to avoid attacks by wedging themselves between small, rocky crevices.
The discovery of the new species offers hope for conservation, even though none of the lizard’s habitat is currently protected.
“Although the Marungu Plateau has been heavily damaged by warfare and habitat destruction, the new lizard proves that it is not too late to implement conservation efforts,” said Greenbaum. It is hoped that the new discovery will lead to the protection of the plateau’s unique plant and animal biodiversity in the near future.
Conservationists recommend that guard strength in northern Congo’s Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, where elephant numbers have remained stable, should be doubled immediately to protect the park’s estimated 2,300 individuals. In addition, protection should be bolstered just outside the protected area where 4,000 elephants remain in the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified logging concessions and swamps patrolled by forest guards: here.
Ancient Sea Reptile With Gammy Jaw Suggests Dinosaurs Got Arthritis Too
(May 15, 2012) — Imagine having arthritis in your jaw bones … if they’re over 2 meters long! A new study by scientists at the University of Bristol has found signs of a degenerative condition similar to human arthritis in the jaw of a pliosaur, an ancient sea reptile that lived 150 million years ago. Such a disease has never been described before in fossilized Jurassic reptiles.
The Bristol scientists studied a giant specimen of the pliosaur Pliosaurus dating from the Upper Jurassic. Found in Westbury, Wiltshire, it has been kept since its discovery in the collections of the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery.
The 8 metre long pliosaur was a terrifying creature with a large, crocodile-like head, a short neck, whale-like body and four powerful flippers to propel it through water in pursuit of prey.
With its huge jaws and 20 cm long teeth, it would have been capable of ripping most other marine reptiles or dinosaurs to pieces, but this particular individual was the unfortunate victim of an arthritis-like disease.
University of Bristol scientist, Dr Judyth Sassoon, was fascinated by the specimen when she saw it in the museum’s collections and studied it for her MSc research project.
She soon noticed that it had the signs of a degenerative condition similar to human arthritis, that had eroded its left jaw joint, displacing the lower jaw to one side. This animal evidently lived with a crooked jaw for many years, because there are marks on the bone of the lower jaw where the teeth from the upper jaw impacted on the bone during feeding. Clearly the animal was still able to hunt in spite of its unfortunate condition.
There are several signs on the skeleton to suggest that the animal could have been an old female who had developed the condition as part of the aging process. The pliosaur’s large size, and the fused skull bones, suggest maturity. It is identified, very tentatively, as possibly female because its skull crest is quite low — presumed males had a higher crest.
Dr Judyth Sassoon said: “In the same way that aging humans develop arthritic hips, this old lady developed an arthritic jaw, and survived with her disability for some time. But an unhealed fracture on the jaw indicates that at some time the jaw weakened and eventually broke. With a broken jaw, the pliosaur would not have been able to feed and that final accident probably led to her demise.”
Pliosaurs were probably pursuit or ambush predators, feeding on fish, squid and other marine reptiles but would also have been capable of scavenging. They were at the top of their food chains, so there would not have been any predators to take advantage of an aging, disabled pliosaur — except for another pliosaur.
Professor Mike Benton, a collaborator on the project, said: “You can see these kinds of deformities in living animals, such as crocodiles or sperm whales and these animals can survive for years as long as they are still able to feed. But it must be painful. Remember that the fictional whale, Moby Dick from Herman Melville’s novel, was supposed to have had a crooked jaw!”
The pliosaur from Westbury is an amazing example of how the study of disease (palaeopathologies) in fossil animals can help us to reconstruct an extinct animal’s life history and behavior and to show that even a Jurassic killer could succumb to the diseases of old age.
The research was published May 16 in the palaeontological journal, Palaeontology.
A formal complaint has been lodged against Swaziland’s Times Sunday and its writer Qalakaliboli Dlamini after the newspaper published an article encouraging hatred of gays.
The Times readers’ ombudsman has been asked to investigate a complaint that Dlamini broke the Swaziland National Association of Journalists’ code of ethics.
Prof Richard Rooney, former head of the department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Swaziland, has written to the ombudsman to ask for a formal investigation.
The ombudsman adjudicates on complaints readers have against articles published in the Times group of newspapers.
Rooney wrote, ‘The article contained a lengthy attack on homosexuals and included the phrase, “I hate homosexuality with every fibre of hair or flesh in my body.” Dlamini also wrote homosexuals performed “satanic deeds” and were an “abomination”.
‘Dlamini’s article contrives Article 13 of the Swaziland National Association of Journalists code of ethics which states, “Hate speech: ‘Journalists shall avoid by all means the publication of speech that might promote hatred, spite and conflict amongst the Swazi or any other nation.”
‘Hate speech is a type of speech or writing which can do any of the following: deliberately offend, degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action against someone based on their race, ethnicity, profession, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. It can be aimed at an individual; or racial, ethnic, religious or other group. Such speech generally seeks to condemn or dehumanize the individual or group; or express anger, hatred, violence or contempt toward them.’
Already many readers have lodged complaints against the article on the Times’ website and the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations has askedTimes Managing Editor Mbingo Mbongeni to take ‘positive action’ against Dlamini.
The Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, has for the second day running censored itself in its reporting of King Mswati III.
Today (9 May 2012), the Times reports on a Gallup poll that asked Swazi people whether they approved of the King’s leadership.
According to the newspaper, the King ‘received a majority vote from the Swazi people’.
Today’s publication follows a report in the Times yesterday that the Swazi Government had received only 40 percent of Swazi approval in the same Gallup poll. The Times made no reference to the King’s poll rating in that report.
The Times was criticised yesterday by Swazi Media Commentary for censoring itself by not reporting the poll result for King Mswati, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
Today, the Times responded with its report on the King’s rating.
But, although the report says the King received a ‘majority vote’ of his people, it does not give the figures.
That is because the King received only 56 percent approval – another 43 percent of the Swazis interviewed by Gallup disapproved of the King’s leadership.
The real story is not the number who approve of the King, but the 43 percent who disapprove.
In Swaziland, the mainstream media do not allow any criticism of the King. Instead they are likely to play up the importance of the King and report that his subjects unreservedly love him.
Also, the King has strict control over his subjects’ lives, especially the 75 percent who live in rural areas. Chiefs of areas are the King’s representative and they can decide who is able to live and work in the area. If you criticise the King, you upset the chief, and you can be sent into exile.
This means that when people have criticisms of the King, they keep them to themselves.
So, the fact that more than four in ten people are prepared to tell a Gallup pollster they disapprove of the King’s leadership is a significant development and might encourage others who have been too scared to voice their objection.
The Times newspaper knows this and that’s why it censored itself in the report.
USA: Chris Hedges | Homophobia Threatens to Turn Democracy Into a Fundamentalist Theocracy.
Chris Hedges, Truthdig: “The long-term unemployment, the collapse of housing prices, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the draconian cuts in social spending have created a climate in which the vulnerable, the different, the marginal – from Muslims to undocumented workers to homosexuals – are blamed for the nation’s decline, White argues. This climate is fueling a culture of hate”: here.
Report exclusively obtained by Al Jazeera says 23-year-old had been electrically tortured before drowning in January.
Matthew Cassel Last Modified: 16 May 2012 11:22
On most mornings Yousef Mowali would leave his home near Bahrain’s international airport to go for a stroll. The 23-year-old had been diagnosed with schizophrenia a few years earlier and liked walking, both for exercising and relaxing.
On January 11, Mowali left for his morning walk and never returned.
Police said they found Mowali’s body floating in the water on January 13 in the Amwaj area, not far from his family’s home in Muharraq. A state doctor reported the cause of death as drowning and ruled out signs of violence.
However, Al Jazeera has exclusively obtained a report from a second autopsy performed by an independent forensic pathologist that concludes Mowali was electrically tortured and unconscious when he drowned.
If true, Mowali’s death would be the first of a person in police custody since the government promised reforms, following the release of a report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), which looked at the early months of unrest surrounding last year’s pro-democracy uprising.
The government-sponsored commission found that Bahrain‘s Interior Ministry and national security agency employed “a systematic practice of physical and psychological mistreatment, which in many cases amounted to torture” during the early months of the crackdown in 2011.
BICI also reported five deaths as a result of police torture. Mowali’s death could be the sixth – and an indication that the mistreatment of prisoners in Bahrain has not stopped, despite the government’s promises.
U.S. arms Bahrain, despite human rights concerns: here.
Dino-Era Insects Frozen in Time During Oldest Pollination
As dinosaurs loomed overhead, tiny female insects had just dusted themselves with pollen grains when they perished.
Tue May 15, 2012 10:11 AM ET
THE GIST
Amber preserved the earliest evidence of insect pollination.
The insects, called thrips, lived during the dinosaur age and had dusted themselves with pollen.
With massive dinosaurs towering above, tiny female insects called thrips had just dusted themselves with hundreds of pollen grains from a gingko tree more than 100 million years ago when they perished, only to be preserved in tree resin called amber.
The discovery, detailed this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the oldest known record of insect pollination.
(Pollination occurs when either the wind or an animal, mostly insects, deliver pollen from a plant’s male reproductive organ to the female parts either on the same plant or another one.)
During the lower Cretaceous Period when the newly discovered thrips lived, flowering plants would have just started to diversify, eventually replacing conifers as the dominant species, the researchers said.
“This is the oldest direct evidence for pollination, and the only one from the age of the dinosaurs,” study researcher Carmen Soriano said in a statement. “The co-evolution of flowering plants and insects, thanks to pollination, is a great evolutionary success story.”
Soriano and an international team of scientists studying the two pieces of amber, which were discovered in what is now northern Spain, say the specimens date back between 110 million and 105 million years ago. [Photos of the Ancient Pollinators]
They found six female thrips, also called thysanopterans, enclosed in the amber, with hundreds of pollen grains attached to their tiny bodies — the insects are just 2 millimeters long. The thrips, the researchers found, belong to a new genus now named Gymnopollisthrips, with two new species, G. minor and G. major.
After the amber pieces’ initial discovery, they were then kept in a collection of the Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Álava in Spain.
To get a closer look at the pollination event frozen in time, the team used synchrotron X-ray tomography at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), focusing on the most representative of the amber-encapsulated thrips. In synchrotron X-ray tomography, charged particles are sent speeding through magnetic fields; these particles release high-energy light that can then pierce opaque materials to reveal three-dimensional, high-resolution images.
The images revealed various features of the pollen grains, together suggesting the grains came from a kind of cycad, or gingko, tree, the researchers said. Gingkos have separate male and female trees, with males producing small pollen cones and females bearing ovules at the ends of stalks that develop into seeds after pollination.
The researchers wondered what these pollen transporters would’ve gotten in return for their services so long ago. The benefit must have been the opportunity to pick up pollen food for the thrips’ larvae, said the researchers, adding that this benefit would have nudged the emergence of the ringed hairs specialized for pollen transport.
“Thrips might indeed turn out to be one of the first pollinator groups in geological history, long before evolution turned some of them into flower pollinators,” Soriano said.
High dioxin concentrations and mortality of embryos in eggs of Dutch songbirds
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
A new study of the Bargerveen Foundation shows that the eggs of meadow pipits and wheatears have high dioxin doses. These toxins may cause the embryonic abnormalities which the study found, but further research is needed.
The research has focused on two Dutch nature reserves: the North Holland Dune Reserve and Aekingerzand, a drift sand area in Drenthe. The dioxins in the eggs are probably from insects which get these toxins from the soil. The first results are published this week in the Vakblad voor Natuur, Bos en Landschap.
Because dioxins are spread through the air, the researchers expect that songbirds in many more places than previously thought are exposed to the consequences of dioxin poisoning.
Dioxins are mainly released from combustion processes, for example in industry and traffic.
The fact that the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet patrols the Persian Gulf from its base in Bahrain is often mentioned in discussions of why the Obama administration’s condemnation of the kingdom’s use of force against protesters over the past year has been relatively muted. What is less frequently mentioned is how closely the American military’s position in Bahrain — using it as a base to defend the kingdom and its oil-producing neighbors from potential foreign aggression while taking no position on the country’s treatment of citizens calling for democracy as criminals — parallels that maintained by Britain for much of the 19th and 20th centuries.
As Mr. Curtis explained in a fascinating post illustrated with several reports from the BBC archives, in 1956, the protesters were calling for the removal of Charles Belgrave, who had been recruited by the British foreign office to serve as the chief adviser to Bahrain’s king three decades earlier.
After noting that Mr. Belgrave was eventually succeeded as an adviser to Bahrain’s government on security matters by another British colonial administrator who also served for decades, Mr. Curtis argued that Bahrain’s “system of oppression, the rock against which the dreams of democracy are being dashed, was largely created by the British.”
Writing just months after a former assistant police commissioner of Scotland Yard, John Yates, was recruited to help Bahrain’s police force deal with continuing protests, Mr. Curtis wrote: “throughout most of the 20th century, British advisers to the Bahraini royal family, backed up by British military might, were central figures in the creation of a ruthless system that imprisoned and sometimes tortured any Bahraini citizen who even dared to suggest the idea of democracy.”
As The Lede reported in December, in addition to Mr. Yates, Bahrain’s interior ministry also hired John Timoney, an American adviser who was once a senior officer in New York, and later served as the police chief of Philadelphia, then Miami.
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