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Source: http://www.finlandforthought.net/2008/11/08/little-house-on-the-prairie-is-rated-r-in-finland/
Past news & new news, thus updated often A mixed salad of funny (tech/art/smart) things from the past and present.
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
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Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
A 10-year moratorium on capital punishment in Russia was set to come to an end in January. But members of the country's constitutional court have decided that, due to international agreements, the ban must stay in place.
As a member of the Council of Europe, which guarantees certain human rights, Russia is obliged to abolish the death sentence.
"This decision is final and may not be appealed," said Constitutional Court president Waleri Sorkin, adding that international agreements made any alternative "impossible."
Although the country has signed the European Human Rights Convention, this has yet to be ratified by the Duma, Russia's parliament.
Death penalty has public support
The possibility of a return to capital punishment has fuelled debate in the country during recent weeks. Leading politicians have declared themselves to be against its reintroduction, despite public support for the ultimate sentence.
Violence in the North Caucasus led to demands for terrorists to be executed. One poll showed that only one in four Russians are against capital punishment, with 56 percent in favor.
Members of the Duma are worried that if it ratifies the human rights convention, completely removing execution from Russia's penal code, voters will not be happy.
"We mustn't take up the ratification until we have a public consensus,” said State Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov.
Kremlin wants final ban
The Kremlin has said that it is in favor of a ban. "Society must be ready for the abolition of the death penalty. It's a long process," said Mikhail Krutov, President Dmitry Medvedev's envoy to the Constitutional Court.
Former president Vladimir Putin has called capital punishment "pointless and counterproductive."
Among those executed in 1996, when the death sentence was last carried out, was serial killer Andrei Chikatilo.
rc/AFP/dpa
Editor: Trinity Hartman
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
Min Tan
1 Guangdong Entomological Institute, Guangzhou, China, 2 School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom, 3 College of Life Sciences, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, China, 4 School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
Oral sex is widely used in human foreplay, but rarely documented in other animals. Fellatio has been recorded in bonobos Pan paniscus, but even then functions largely as play behaviour among juvenile males. The short-nosed fruit bat Cynopterus sphinx exhibits resource defence polygyny and one sexually active male often roosts with groups of females in tents made from leaves. Female bats often lick their mate's penis during dorsoventral copulation. The female lowers her head to lick the shaft or the base of the male's penis but does not lick the glans penis which has already penetrated the vagina. Males never withdrew their penis when it was licked by the mating partner. A positive relationship exists between the length of time that the female licked the male's penis during copulation and the duration of copulation. Furthermore, mating pairs spent significantly more time in copulation if the female licked her mate's penis than if fellatio was absent. Males also show postcopulatory genital grooming after intromission. At present, we do not know why genital licking occurs, and we present four non-mutually exclusive hypotheses that may explain the function of fellatio in C. sphinx.
Source: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0007595
Thanks to Liam.
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
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Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often
Posted via email from Past news & new news, thus updated often