The Jewish Home n
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The Week prince convicted of murdering a Saudi citizen.” In a message about the case to Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, Prince Salman said: “Sharia [Islamic law] shall be applied to all without exception.” His message followed a statement from the victim’s father that he was not ready to pardon the killer and he was not happy with the amount offered as blood money. Generally, the families of murder victims are encouraged by authorities to accept blood money instead of insisting on execution. Crown Prince Salman was quoted as saying: “There is no difference between big and small, rich and poor ... Nobody is allowed to interfere with the judiciary’s decision. This is the tradition of this state. We are committed to following the sharia.” The kingdom, which follows a strict version of sharia, has been criticized in the West for its high number of executions, inconsistencies in the application of the law, and its use of public beheading to carry out death sentences. Saudi Arabia had executed at least 47 people as of May 2013, according to Amnesty
International’s website, compared to 82 in all of 2011 and a similar number in 2012. Members of the ruling family are rarely known to be executed. One of the most prominent cases was Faisal bin Musaid al Saud, who assassinated his uncle, King Faisal, in 1975. Even so, the family is estimated to number several thousand. While members receive monthly stipends, and the most senior princes command great wealth and political power, only a few in the family hold nationally important government posts.
Russian Ship Stuck in Antarctica Awaits Rescue A Russian ship occupied by 74 scientists, tourists and crew onboard, has been trapped in Antarctica since last Tuesday. The ship, MV Akademik Shokalskiy, is stuck about 100 nautical miles east of the French base Dumont
In News d’Urville. Packed ice prevents the ship from moving through the frozen waters.
The first attempted rescue was by a Chinese icebreaker, but unfortunately it failed to free them and was forced to stop just six-and-a-half nautical miles away from the trapped vessel. “The Chinese vessel unfortunately encountered some heavy ice that it’s not capable of breaking through,” AMSA spokeswoman Andrea Hayward-Maher told AFP. “The rescue...unfortunately has stalled.” In a second attempt, an Australian icebreaker embarked on a journey to free the ship on Saturday. Australia’s Antarctic resupply ship Aurora Australis has the highest icebreaking rating of the three vessels originally asked to respond.
“We all know that there’s a possibility of this becoming quite a protracted sit and wait,” said Andrew Peacock, a passenger onboard the Akademik Shokalskiy, speaking to AFP via satellite phone. “I think people are just looking at that next step when that second icebreaker arrives. We really are just hoping that the...two powerful icebreaker ships will provide the breakage of ice that we need,” added Peacock. Murray Doyle, captain of the Aurora, said his ship was “option B” but is hopeful because it has the ability to cut through ice up to 1.35 meters thick. He explained that attempting to break through ice that is too thick is like “like driving your car into a brick wall.” AMSA said on Saturday that it is assessing all options in regards to rescuing the ship which is approximately 1500 nautical miles south of the southern Australian city of Hobart. “A helicopter-equipped Chinese-flagged vessel remains in the vicinity to assist if necessary,” it said in a statement. Scientists onboard the ship have been carrying out the same scientific experiments of Sir Douglas Mawson.