Death caused by a signal rocket--not an isolated case*

Fatalities related to sporting events are predominantly caused by blunt force injuries especially due to the emotional involvement of crowd, but occasionally other types of trauma are reported as well. A case of very rare trauma caused by shooting with a hand-held parachute signal rocket during a football match is presented. A 17-year-old football fan sustained fatal injuries, a combination of mechanical trauma caused by rocket penetration, as well as extensive thermal burning of the thoracic viscera. Analysis of the event was based on autopsy findings and evidence produced by medicolegal and ballistic experts. Improper use of a hand-held signal rocket, designed for marine distress signals, may cause serious injuries either mechanically, due to explosion, or as a result of thermal discharge. In the reported case, pattern of injuries is discussed, and medical finding corroborated to other available evidence. The presented case is a reminder that the forensic pathologist should be informed accordingly on the type and features of weapon suspected to produce injury, to be able to understand traumatic changes, and look for potential presence of foreign bodies at postmortem examination.     

The Rotten Carrot: US-Turkish Bargaining Failure over Iraq in 2003 and the Pitfalls of Social Embeddedness

Side-payments are commonly used in international relations to alter the foreign policies of states. Despite their frequent usage, however, our understanding is very limited as to why certain side-payment negotiations succeed, while others fail. This article tries to remedy this shortcoming. It argues that social embeddedness between actors involved in the negotiations has a major bearing on bargaining outcomes. Under ideal circumstances, social relationships can be used to reduce information asymmetries and increase trust. But in the presence of fractured social networks, social ties can foster information bias and distrust, ultimately increasing the likelihood of bargaining failure. The US-Turkish bargaining failure over the Iraq intervention in 2003 is used to illustrate and test this theory.     

Structural power and the China-EU-Western Balkans triangular relations

Asia Europe Journal - Narratives about the challenges of China’s growing involvement with Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) for the region and the EU are exponentially proliferating and have...     

Lethal Bentazone Intoxication – A Report of Two Cases

This study presents two cases of lethal bentazone poisonings, their clinical presentation, the course of the disease and the autopsy findings. The first is a 50‐year‐old male who had sprayed corn with a solution of bentazone and was admitted to the hospital with sweating, fever, nausea, vomiting of aqueous and hemorrhagic content, and bloody, watery stools. He was treated according to the symptoms including extracorporeal hemodialysis, but eventually suffered from multiorgan failure (acute respiratory failure, acute liver failure, coagulopathy, acute renal failure, metabolic acidosis, and gastrointestinal bleeding) and died 11.35 h after admittance. The cause of death was probable bentazone intoxication. The second case, also a male, aged 49 who committed suicide by ingesting a bentazone solution. He was transferred to the hospital prostrated and cyanotic and died 14.15 h after admittance despite all efforts by the hospital staff. The cause of death was acute bentazone intoxication.     

Powdered Activated Carbon: An Alternative Approach to Genomic DNA Purification

Forensic evidence samples are routinely found as stains on various substrates, which may contain substances known to inhibit polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The goal of this study was to evaluate post‐Chelex^®100 purification using powdered activated carbon (PAC). Mock crime scene DNA extracts were analyzed using quantitative PCR and short tandem repeat (STR) profiling to test the DNA recovery and inhibitor removal using PAC with those of the Amicon^®Ultra 100K. For extracted bloodstains on soil and wood substrates, PAC and Amicon^®Ultra 100K generated similar DNA yield and quality. Moreover, the two methods significantly decreased the concentration of humic substances and tannins compared to nonpurified extracts (p < 0.001). In instances where extracts contained indigo dye (bloodstains on denim), Amicon^®Ultra 100K performed better than PAC due to improved amplifiability. Efficient adsorption of humic substances and tannins, which are common inhibitors, indicates PAC's potential application in the purification of high‐template DNA extracts.     

From ideology to pragmatism

He is editor-in-chief of Praxis International. His books include In Search of Democracy in Socialism; Between Ideals and Reality;and, forthcoming From Marxism and Bolshevism to Gorbachev’s Perestroika.     

Of veto players and entity-voting: institutional gridlock in the Bosnian reform process

Entity-voting in the Bosnian Parliamentary Assembly is a veto mechanism in Bosnia's consociational institutional setting and an important reason for the country's orientation towards the political status quo. An empirical analysis of the number and nature of adopted and rejected draft laws during the legislative period 2006–2010, embedded in George Tsebelis's veto player approach, leads to the conclusion that the veto players in the parliament – either delegates from Republika Srpska or delegates from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina – have pushed the consociational system of checks and balances to its extremes. Entity-voting enables the veto players to “hijack” the parliament for their exclusionary ethnic interests and discourages cooperation and compromise between the veto players. Significant legislation, which in the present article is defined as legislation relevant for the European Partnership, faces severe obstacles to getting passed. In the light of these findings, the article discusses three policy implications: institutional redesign, a change of the actors, and an active role of the European Union for providing the actors with a realistically achievable goal which they equally share. This should reset the current calculus of self-interest and encourage cooperation between the veto players.     

Tending the “oasis of socialism.” Transnational political mobilization of Yugoslav economic emigrants in the FR Germany in the late 1960s and 1970s

The article examines the development of the Yugoslav state's policy of transnational political engagement of Yugoslav citizens on temporary work in the FR Germany during the late 1960s and 1970s. This politicization of labor migrations was shaped by the interplay of the internal turmoil in the Yugoslav federation and the conditions peculiar to West Germany of the time. The change of the state's perception of external migrations is being examined through the extension of the agitation apparatus of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia onto the territory of the FR Germany and the mobilization of economic emigrants against the “hostile” political emigrants residing in that country. The main goal of these measures was to maintain the emigrants' transnational links to their homeland and ensure that their political standing was kept in line with the official Yugoslav ideological tenets until the time of the prospective return migration cycle. The extraterritorial character of these measures, coupled with the specific position of Yugoslavia within the Cold War diplomacy, led to a peculiar ideological interplay and shifting web of cooperation and confrontation between various actors.