In a first, Saudi Arabia seeks death penalty for female rights activist, group says

LONDON — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has presented himself as a reformer, and under his leadership, the ultra-conservative Sunni kingdom has granted new rights to women, including the right to drive. But Saudi Arabia's move toward greater gender equality now appears to be extending into the realm of political repression, according to advocacy groups. For the first time, Saudi prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in a case against a female human rights activist, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday.

Israa al-Ghomgham was fighting discrimination against Saudi Arabia's Shiite Muslim minority when she was arrested in a 2015 night raid along with her husband. She and five others have been charged with things like "attempting to inflame public opinion," "filming protests and publishing on social media" and "providing moral support to rioters," HRW said in a statement. Al-Ghomgham and four of the others charged are facing execution.

Women have been executed before in Saudi Arabia for offenses like adultery or murder, but generally a woman arrested for activism would be held until a male guardian came and collected her, Begum said. She would be released once the man signed a pledge saying she would never repeat the offense.

"Saudi authorities have realized that women can and do undertake activism. Not just as women's rights activists … but as human rights activists," Begum continued.

While the case marks the first time the death penalty has been sought for a woman activist, it also indicates an increase in the severity of sentences meted out to activists generally, HRW said. In the past, people typically did not face execution for nonviolent offenses.

Firefly twinkles are a sweet reminder that they taste like trash, study says

washingtonpost.com - A biologist was studying bats in the tropics a few years ago and observed that the air was full of glowing, slow-flying insects. Jesse M. Barber was puzzled: How could an animal, which makes no evasive maneuvers of any sort, flash lights that ostensibly say “come eat me” still manage to thrive in a forest full of bats?

Barber, a biologist at Boise State University, knew that, although summery constellations of biochemical light are beautiful, fireflies do not flash for our pleasure. The insects cram a lot of information into their blinks — messages of life, death and reproduction. Along with his colleagues, Barber found evidence that firefly flashes contain more than a dating profile. It’s part warning, too: Don’t mess with this beetle.

The typical nocturnal insect goes out of its way to avoid a bat’s notice. Researchers in Barber’s lab call bats “sky wolves,” and though it’s a running joke, it is not far from reality. When providing milk to their pups, female little brown bats can eat their body weight in insects nightly, which means gobbling thousands of bugs.

These ferocious hunters exert an “incredible selective pressure on their prey,” Barber said. Insect species that can’t avoid or defend against bats are not long for this world.

In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, Barber and his colleagues introduced common eastern fireflies — Photinus pyralis— to a small group of big brown bats.

The researchers assumed that their bats had never seen a firefly before. “These bats are from the western United States, where there are essentially no fireflies,” Barber said. The only fireflies in that region do not produce light as adults.

The bats and fireflies coexisted in a dark room for one to four days. Each bat grabbed a firefly on the first day, then promptly spit it out. High-speed video cameras showed the bats eating scarab beetles and moths, but not fireflies.

The bats loathed the taste of fireflies. Barber said he’d never “seen a stronger negative reaction” to a chemically defended insect. The bats “salivate a bunch and they cough and shake their head and just generally completely despise us for giving them that prey.”

Walmart wants to take on Amazon with virtual reality shopping

qz.com - Walmart, the world’s biggest company, is better known for cheap tube socks than its technical wizardry. But the company has thousands of developers plugging away in an airport-sized building at its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, and has launched a tech incubator, Store No. 8, that is cooking up ways to combat rival Amazon.

One potential front in the retail battle is virtual-reality shopping. Walmart has applied for patents for intellectual property that creates a “virtual showroom,” according to Bloomberg. The technology would give home shoppers with VR headsets and gloves the ability to browse through a (presumably uncrowded and meticulously clean) virtual store, pick up merchandise, and instantly add it to a queue for home delivery.

In theory, the technology would appeal to those attracted to Walmart’s prices and want to handle merchandise before they buy, but who dread visiting its vast supercenters.

Walmart is already starting to thrive online. In 2016, the company spent $3.3 billion to acquire the e-commerce site Jet.com and its CEO Marc Lore (paywall), who was charged with revitalizing Walmart’s online sales. Walmart has also diversified its assortment of goods available online with purchases of companies like Bonobos and ModCloth E-commerce sales surged 40% from last year in the quarter ending June 30, and the company says it expects to finish the year up 40% from 2017. Industry analysts attribute the success to the overhauling of its website.

AliBaba, the giant Chinese e-commerce site, debuted VR shopping with its Buy+ in 2016, and there are hints that Amazon is exploring the concept. But any VR retail strategy will need much wider adoption of headsets and home technology to become viable.

Walmart has made other forays into virtual reality. It uses a VR set to help prepare employees for the crush of Black Friday shoppers, and in February, bought Spatialand, a small VR developer. At the time of the purchase, the company was coy about its intentions for the technology. Now we’re starting to see what Walmart has in mind. ContinueReading

How the Memory of India's Traumatic Partition Is Being Preserved Across Borders

TIME.com - Seventy-one years ago, a line drawn between India and Pakistan ushered in a bloody separation that left lasting scars on both sides of the border. Upon independence from the British Empire, the two states were demarcated along religious boundaries that proved much less clear than administrators anticipated. An effort is now underway to preserve this past while those who experienced it are still alive, so that future generations may better understand how their borderlands became so volatile.

The Radcliffe Line came into effect at midnight on Aug. 15, 1947, marking the dissolution of the British Raj and dividing the provinces of Assam, Bengal and Punjab into two new nations determined by areas of Hindu and Muslim majority: then known as the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan, of which Bangladesh was a part. Mixed religious communities began a desperate months-long scramble across newly drawn borders to reside with their own kind; Muslims on the Indian side attempted to cross into Pakistan, while Hindus and Sikhs fled the other way. More than 14 million people crossed in both directions, resulting in what is generally regarded as the largest mass migration in human history.

Blue light from mobile phones and computers can cause irreversible damage to eyes: Scientific Reports study

- Blue light from devices such as smartphones and computers can cause irreversible damage to the eyes, a study in the United States has found.

The study, which was published in July by researchers from the University of Toledo (UT) in Ohio, found that blue light from digital devices could cause diseases such as loss of central vision and night blindness.

One of the researchers of the project, Dr Ajith Karunarathne, told the UT website that humans are continuously exposed to blue light because the eye's cornea and lens cannot block or reflect it.

"It's no secret that blue light harms our vision by damaging the eye's retina," she said.

"Our experiments explain how this happens, and we hope this leads to therapies that slow macular degeneration, such as a new kind of eye drop."

The study was published in Scientific Reports, a free online journal from the publishers of Nature. Nature is a science journal that was first published in 1869.

Yemen war: Saudi-led air strike on bus kills 29 children

BBC - At least 29 children have been killed and 30 wounded in a Saudi-led coalition air strike in Yemen, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.

The children were travelling on a bus that was hit at a market in Dahyan, in the northern province of Saada.

The health ministry run by the rebel Houthi movement put the death toll at 43, and said 61 people were wounded.

The coalition, which is backing Yemen's government in a war with the Houthis, said its actions were "legitimate".

It insists it never deliberately targets civilians, but human rights groups have accused it of bombing markets, schools, hospitals and residential areas.

Meanwhile the new UN special envoy to Yemen, former British diplomat Martin Griffiths, is planning to invite the warring parties to Geneva in September to discuss a framework for negotiations.

Florida suspect "udder" arrest after herd of cows chases her into custody

cbsnews.com - A woman accused of stealing a car in Florida had more than just the cops pursuing her. When she got out of the vehicle to flee the scene on foot, she found herself in a pasture in Seminole County, where a herd of cows joined the chase.

Aerial footage from the Seminole County Sheriff's Office helicopter shows the driver of a stolen SUV crash into a stop sign, then get out and begin running. A passenger got out and ran into another pasture, while a second person stayed in the vehicle and was later arrested, CBS Orlando affiliate WKMG-TV reports.

The driver, identified as Jamie Young, ditched the car, but couldn't ditch the cops. Investigators watched her every move from the helicopter, including her romp around a field with about 20 cows.

"Actually, a large group of cows is following her for a good visual," the chopper pilot tells the police officers pursuing Young on the ground. As the pilot tracked the woman and cows, he radioed the law enforcement officers below some details. "Looks like they may attack her," the pilot describes. "Keep going southeast. She's pretty far into the field now. If you see the large group of cows, they're literally following her and chasing her."

The aerial footage shows the cattle in hot pursuit, as the bovine investigators took matters into their own hooves. At one point, a cow gets so close to Young, it looks like it might gore her, but then it backs off. The animals herd her across the field, where she appears to jump over a fence to escape them.

The woman fled the field and hid in a bush, where officers caught her and put her "udder" arrest.

Saudi Cabinet reaffirms rejection of Canadian interference in Kingdom's internal affairs

JEDDAH: The Saudi Cabinet has reaffirmed its “absolute rejection” of the Canadian government’s stance in the diplomatic row between the two countries.

Saudi Arabia ordered the Canadian ambassador to leave the Kingdom and froze all new trade and investment with the country after accusing Canada of interfering in its internal affairs.

The move came in response to Canadian statements demanding the release of what Canada called “civil society and women’s rights activists”.

The Council of Ministers said: “The Canadian government’s position was not based on true information or events regarding what it called the detained civil activists,” the Saudi Press agency reported on Tuesday.

It reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s stance to abiding by international conventions, principles and norms that respect the sovereignty of each state and refrain to interfere in the internal matters of other countries.

Jordan became the latest country to back Saudi Arabia's position in the dispute, after Bahrain Egypt and the GCC. Jordan's foreign ministry said it stood by Saudi Arabia in its right to implement laws and protect national security.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet said it is was closely following the efforts of governmental and civil bodies serving Hajj pilgrims, and the preparations they are offering to facilitate the process of pilgrimage to worshippers.

The Cabinet also said it sends its sincere condolences to the Indonesian government and people and to the families of the earthquake victims that hit Lombok island this week. ContinueReading

Brazil's Workers Party names jailed leader Lula as presidential nominee

SAO PAULO, Brazil — The Workers’ Party in Brazil officially named jailed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Saturday as its nominee for the country's top job in October's election.

Delegates of the left-leaning party confirmed da Silva, who served two terms as Brazil's president between 2003 and 2010, with enthusiastic approval at a convention in Sao Paulo.

The former president is likely to be barred by Brazil's electoral court, though.

Since April, the former president has been jailed on a corruption conviction, but he denies any wrongdoing and claims he is being politically persecuted.

Da Silva leads polls for the office by a large margin, and surveys show voters would lend their support to another Workers' Party candidate if he cannot participate.

The party is not expected to name his running mate until Monday.

Bangladeshi Students Bring Dhaka to a Standstill With Protests Over Road Safety

TIME - Protesting high school students have blocked major intersections in Bangladesh’s congested capital Dhaka for five straight days, choking traffic and vandalizing vehicles as they demonstrate against a bus accident that killed two teens.

Authorities have urged an end to the protests, as the students’ outrage paralyzes the city of 18 million. Police have reportedly fired tear gas and blanks in an effort to disperse the crowds, and on Thursday, protests turned violent with several reported assaults.

Marches and sit-ins along main thoroughfares have rendered Dhaka’s daily gridlock impassable. The U.S. and Australia embassies warned of significant delays and disruptions.

Students marched through city streets demanding to see people’s driving licenses and parading through the streets chanting “we want justice.” The government shut down high schools, according to Agence France-Presse, and officials promised the teens their road safety concerns would be considered.

But students showed no signs of abandoning their demonstration.

“They should have taken our demands seriously, but they didn’t,” Imran Ahmed, a protesting student, told AFP.

The protest began Sunday after a bus racing for passengers reportedly struck a group of waiting college students, killing two and injuring several others.

Dhaka’s buses are notoriously unregulated and accident-prone. Operated by competing private companies, the coaches race to get to waiting passengers first.

Research from the National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways found that more than 4,200 people were killed in road accidents last year, with most of the fatalities caused by reckless drivers. ContinueReading

Bermuda Triangle mystery 'solved,' scientists say

- Massive waves - and not aliens or other mysterious forces - are to blame for the disappearance of ships in the area known as the Bermuda Triangle, scientists said.

Experts at the University of Southampton said 100 feet "rogue waves" are to blame for the high number of boats that have sunk in the 270,271 square mile area between Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. The claims were first made on the British documentary "The Bermuda Triangle Enigma."

Rogue waves - larges unexpected surges that occur near the surface of the ocean - are naturally occurring phenomena that were first observed in 1997 off the coast of South Africa.

On the documentary, the scientists built a model of the USS Cyclops, which disappeared in 1918, claiming 300 lives. The scientists said the size of the boat, along with its flat base, made it easily overcome by the water and size of a rogue wave.

The disappearance of the Cyclops remains the U.S. Navy's single loss of life not directly involving combat. Theories on its disappearance include an attack by a German submarine or sinking in an unexpected storm.

The rogue wave theory is just the latest to explain the mysterious disappearance of boats in the triangle area. It does not answer questions on the disappearance of airplanes in the area, the first of which was reported in 1945.

Ancient Maya civilisation was destroyed by massive drought, scientists find

- An enormous drought that swept across Mexico around 1,000 years ago triggered the demise of one of the world’s greatest ancient civilisations.

Scientists studying the climate at the time of the ancient Mayafound that rainfall fell by up to 70 per cent at the time the region's city states were abandoned.

The downfall of this great society has been the source of much debate, and the idea that drought brought about its downfall has been mooted for years.

Now, a team of international researchers has managed to calculate the conditions on the Yucatan Peninsula at the time of the decline using sediment samples from a local lake.

"The role of climate change in the collapse of Classic Maya civilisation is somewhat controversial, partly because previous records are limited to qualitative reconstructions, for example whether conditions were wetter or drier," said Nick Evans, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge.

"Our study represents a substantial advance as it provides statistically robust estimates of rainfall and humidity levels during the Maya downfall."

Classic Maya civilisation refers to a period from 250 to 800 AD, when the enormous stone monuments for which the region is known were constructed.

However, towards the end of this period a mysterious event led to their limestone cities being abandoned.

The Maya people survived to the present day across the region, but by the time the first Europeans encountered them their power was considerably depleted.

Suggested triggers for this collapse have included war, invasion and the loss of trade routes.

In the new research, published in the journal Science, Mr Evans and his team built on work from the 1990s that suggested extreme drought was linked with the economic and political changes of the time.

They analysed water trapped within crystals of a mineral called gypsum, found in Lake Chichancanab, to work out precise values for changes in rainfall and humidity hundreds of years ago.

During droughts, more water would have evaporated from the lake, and because the lighter isotopes – or chemical variants – of water evaporate faster, a higher proportion of heavier ones indicates drought.

"This method is highly accurate and is almost like measuring the water itself," explained Mr Evans.

The scientists can now use this data to predict the impact of droughts on agriculture in the region, and work out how a changing climate led to the end of the Classic Maya.