Complex Suicide by Self‐stabbing and Drowning: A Case Report and a Review of Literature

Sharp force injuries and drowning are methods exceptionally combined in complex suicides. We report a challenging case of complex suicide by self‐stabbing and drowning that illustrates the difficulty in discriminating between homicide and suicide in such circumstances of death. The corpse of a young man was found submerged in a river, stabbed nine times with two wounds that had penetrated the thorax and had caused lung injuries and a hemopneumothorax. The postmortem and histological examinations were consistent with a death caused by drowning, but the manner of death still remained undetermined. Police investigation finally concluded to a suicide, although no suicide note had been left and the victim had no underlying diagnosed mental disorder. The parameters that may help distinguish suicide from homicide at the autopsy should be interpreted in light of a thorough forensic investigation to determine the exact manner of death in such a case.     

Suicide by pencil

We report an unusual suicide, committed with a common pencil. A 72-year-old male inflicted himself a penetrating thoracic wound while being hospitalized for a hip prosthesis operation. Although the patient was immediately operated, the cardiac injury appeared to be fatal. Cases of suicidal penetrating wounds of the anterior chest wall are rare and they are mostly inflicted by knives, glass fragments, or other sharp instruments. The potential danger of a pencil should be taken into consideration, especially in psychiatric hospitals and imprisonment facilities. We examined the legislation in Italy and Finland concerning the regulation of privacy in special care institutions.     

Broadcasting agitainment: a new media strategy of Putin’s third presidency

This article argues that accounts of the Russian media system that tend to view the time from Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in 2000 as a single homogenous period do not capture major qualitative shifts in state-controlled media coverage. By analyzing the output of Russia’s two main television channels during Putin’s third presidential term, we identify a range of distinctly new features that amount to a new media strategy. This involves a significant increase in the coverage of political issues through the replacement of infotainment with what we term agitainment—an ideologically inflected content that, through adapting global media formats to local needs, attempts to appeal to less engaged and even sceptical viewers. Despite the tightening of political control over the media following the annexation of Crimea, the new strategy paradoxically has strengthened the constitutive role played by the state-controlled broadcasters in the articulation of official discourse.     

LEGAL IMPLEMENTATION OF PARENT EDUCATION PROGRAMS FOR DIVORCING AND SEPARATING PARENTS

This article traces the legislation permitting or mandating the use of parent education for divorcing and separating parents in state courts. Explored are State mandatory and discretionary programs, local court rules, voluntary programs, and some of the constitutional issues that are raised.     

现代和未来战争及军事行动的内容、本质与定义问题

许多研究者在确定现代和未来战争本质之后提出了“非接触”战争和军事行动的说法,然而,有关现在和未来战争及军事行动的本质与定义问题仍然存在着不同意见。战争概念的主要元素是斗争、对抗和暴力。各种战争都是复杂的社会政治现象,它包含了各种斗争类型的总和,显然,参战双方都必然要有某种接触。这种接触是通过自然、信息和其他领域的远距离作用手段实现的。因此,关于战争或各领域内各种暴力的定义中使用“非接触”这一术语并不恰当,甚至对于信息战争亦是如此。表达作战主体之间没有直接接触可以使用“远距离”这一术语。按照空间范围,军事行动可分为几个层面：战术层面、灵活战术层面、战役层面、战略战役层面和战略层面的远距离军事行动。根据从军事行动发起地点到同受影响对象通过影响手段发生直接接触的地点之间的距离,建议将远距离军事行动分为：战术距离、灵活战术距离、作战距离、战略作战距离和战略距离的远距离军事行动。     

L'Etat social suisse face aux nouveaux risques sociaux: Genèse et déterminants de l'adoption du programme d'impulsion pour les structures de garde pour enfants bas age

In this article we highlight the factors and the mechanisms that influence decision making processes in the adoption of new social policies in Switzerland, on the basis of a recent example: the introduction in 2002 of a federal subsidy for new child care facilities. The article begins with a discussion of various hypotheses, inspired from the social policy literature. It then reviews the policymaking process that lead to the adoption of the new programme. In the final discussion, several factors are identified as co‐responsible for the success of the initiative: the convergence of interest of employers and the libertarian left, the favourable economic situation in the 2000 and early 2001 which facilitated the opening of a “window of opportunity”. The fact that the success of this initiative is related to a fairly large number of favourable factors, suggests that the adoption of this kind of measures will remain a politically difficult exercise.     

Media Ownership and News Coverage of International Conflict

How do differences in ownership of media enterprises shape news coverage of international conflict? We examine this relationship using a new dataset of 591,532 articles on US-led multinational military operations in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, published by 2,505 newspapers in 116 countries. We find that ownership chains exert a homogenizing effect on the content of newspapers’ coverage of foreign policy, resulting in coverage across co-owned papers that is more similar in scope (what they cover), focus (how much “hard” relative to “soft” news they offer), and diversity (the breadth of topics they include in their coverage of a given issue) relative to coverage across papers that are not co-owned. However, we also find that competitive market pressures can mitigate these homogenizing effects, and incentivize co-owned outlets to differentiate their coverage. Restrictions on press freedom have the opposite impact, increasing the similarity of coverage within ownership chains.