Saudis postpone blogger’s flogging
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Saudi authorities on Friday postponed the second round of public flogging of a blogger convicted of insulting Islam after a doctor concluded that his wounds from the first 50 lashes had not yet healed, a leading human rights group said.
Amnesty International said authorities delayed administering the 50 new lashes to Raif Badawi, which were set to take place after midday prayers. The group said Badawi was taken to a prison clinic in the morning for a check-up and that the doctor found that “he would not be able to withstand another round of lashes at this time.”
According to the group, the doctor recommended Badawi’s flogging be postponed for a week.
Badawi was sentenced in May to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for criticizing Saudi Arabia’s powerful clerics and ridiculing the country’s morality police on a liberal blog he founded.
Missing Mars lander isn’t lost after all
LONDON – It turns out the Beagle has landed after all, but it never called home.
The gone-but-not-forgotten spacecraft Beagle-2 went AWOL on Christmas Day 2003 when it was supposed to land on Mars and start transmitting data back to Earth.
Instead, the British-built craft went dark. After several months, it was declared lost presumed to have been destroyed during its approach or while trying to land on the red planet.
On Friday, more than 11 years later, European Space Agency officials reported that the Beagle-2 had been found, finally thanks to extensive detective work based on new photos taken by the high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The photos show the craft landed safely on Mars and partially deployed but was unable to fully deploy and start communicating.
Fighting heats up again in Ukraine
KIEV, Ukraine – Ukraine peace talks failed Friday as hostilities intensified between government forces and Russian-backed separatists in the east.
The escalation in fighting has centered on the airport of the rebel stronghold, Donetsk, where rebel militia have renewed efforts to dislodge government troops. Separatists say they have almost total control over the civilian terminal, but Ukrainian troops say they still hold parts of the building.
Representatives from Ukraine and Russia, separatist envoys and officials of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe had been set to meet Friday in Minsk, Belarus, to discuss firming up a cease-fire.
Rebel envoy Denis Pushilin, speaking in Minsk, blamed Ukrainians for the worsening situation and said Kiev should have dispatched envoys capable of taking decisions to the talks.
Associated Press
