Human Rights and Antiterrorism: A Positive Legal Duty to Infringe Freedom From Torture?

In law freedom from torture and ill-treatment is “absolute,” meaning that a state cannot infringe the right for purposes that would seem legitimate such as the protection of national security. However, with the growth in international terrorism, particularly suicide violence, should the freedom remain without limitation? This article considers legitimizing torture by reference to the “positive” legal obligation the right imposes on states to prevent harm to individuals by third parties such as terrorists. Assuming such a legal argument could be made out, it is questioned whether adopting such measures of interrogation would in fact outweigh the negative consequences that would inevitably follow from reversing accepted international standards for the protection of, say, detainees from ill-treatment in state custody

Towards a Determination of Definitive Parameters for the Long Period Cepheid S Vulpeculae

A new compilation of UBV data for stars near the Cepheid S Vul incorporates BV observations from APASS and NOMAD to augment UBV observations published previously. A reddening analysis yields mean colour excesses and distance moduli for two main groups of stars in the field: the sparse cluster Turner 1 and an anonymous background group of BA stars. The former appears to be 1.07+-0.12 kpc distant and reddened by E(B-V)=0.45+-0.05, with an age of 10^9 yrs. The previously overlooked latter group is 3.48+-0.19 kpc distant and reddened by E(B-V)=0.78+-0.02, with an age of 1.3x10^7 yrs. Parameters inferred for S Vul under the assumption that it belongs to the distant group, as also argued by 2MASS data, are all consistent with similar results for other cluster Cepheids and Cepheid-like supergiants.Comment: Accepted for publication (Odessa Astronomical Publications

An Eclectic View of our Milky Way Galaxy

The nature of our Milky Way Galaxy is reexamined from an eclectic point of view. Evidence for a central bar, for example, is not reflected in the distribution of RR Lyrae variables in the central bulge [4,5], and it is not clear if either a 2-armed or 4-armed spiral pattern is appropriate for the spiral arms. Radial velocity mapping of the Galaxy using radio H I, H II, or CO observations is compromised by the assumptions adopted for simple Galactic rotation. The Sun's local standard of rest (LSR) velocity is $\sim 14$ km s$^{-1}$ rather than 20 km s$^{-1}$, the local circular velocity is $251 \pm 9$ km s$^{-1}$ rather than 220 km s$^{-1}$, and young groups of stars exhibit a 10--20 km s$^{-1}$ "kick" relative to what is expected from Galactic rotation. By implication, the same may be true for star-forming gas clouds affected by the Galaxy's spiral density wave, raising concerns about their use for mapping spiral arms. Proper motion data in conjunction with the newly-estimated velocity components for the Sun's motion imply a distance to the Galactic centre of $R_0=8.34\pm0.27$ kpc, consistent with recent estimates which average $8.24\pm0.09$ kpc. A cosinusoidal Galactic potential is not ruled out by observations of open star clusters. The planetary nebula cluster Bica 6, for example, has a near-escape orbit for a Newtonian potential, but a near-normal orbit in a cosinusoidal potential field. The nearby cluster Collinder 464 also displays unusually large tidal effects consistent with those expected for a cosinusoidal potential. A standard Newtonian version of the Virial Theorem for star clusters yields very reasonable masses ($\sim 3 \times 10^{11}M_{\odot}$ and $\sim 4 \times 10^{11}M_{\odot}$) for the Milky Way and M31 subgroups of the Local Group, respectively. A cosinusoidal relation should yield identical results.Comment: To appear in the CJ

Freedom From Torture in the "War on Terror": Is it Absolute?

Freedom from torture is regarded as “absolute,” meaning that a state cannot infringe the right for purposes which would seem legitimate such as the protection of national security. Indeed, the freedom is viewed as “non-derogable”; that is, infringements are not permitted even in special circumstances such as times of war or public emergency. Is it right, however, with the growth in international terrorism post-9/11, particularly suicide violence, that the freedom should remain without limitation? Perhaps the torture of terror suspects might provide state authorities with intelligence so that acts of atrocity can be averted? To go on and construct a possible argument justifying ill-treatment against a detainee this article questions whether in fact freedom from torture can be categorised as absolute

Spatially Resolved Chemistry in Nearby Galaxies II. The Nuclear Bar in Maffei 2

We present 2" - 10" imaging of eleven transitions from nine molecular species across the nuclear bar in Maffei 2. The data were obtained with the BIMA and OVRO interferometers. The ten detected transitions are compared with existing CO isotopologues, HCN, CS and millimeter continuum data. Dramatic spatial variations among the mapped species are observed across the nuclear bar. A principle component analysis is performed to characterize correlations between the transitions, star formation and molecular column density. The analysis reveals that HCN, HNC, HCO+ and 3 mm continuum are tightly correlated, indicating a direct connection to massive star formation. We find two main morphologically distinct chemical groups, CH3OH, SiO and HNCO comprising the grain chemistry molecules, versus HCN, HNC, HCO+ and C2H, molecules strong in the presence of star formation. The grain chemistry molecules, HNCO, CH3OH and SiO, trace hydrodynamical bar shocks. The near constancy of the HNCO/CH3OH, SiO/CH3OH and SiO/HNCO ratios argue that shock properties are uniform across the nucleus. HCN/HCO+, HCN/HNC, HCN/CS and HCN/CO ratios are explained primarily by variations in density. High HCO+/N2H+ ratios are correlated with the C2H line, suggesting that this ratio may be a powerful new dense photon-dominated region (PDR) probe in external galaxies. C2H reveals a molecular outflow along the minor axis. The morphology and kinematics of the outflow are consistent with an outflow age of 6-7 Myrs.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures; Accepted to the Astrophysical Journa