‘Customary internet-ional law’: Creating a body of customary law for cyberspace. Part 1: Developing rules for transitioning custom into law

The shift in socio-economic transactions from realspace to cyberspace through the emergence of electronic communications and digital formats has led to a disjuncture between the law and practices relating to electronic transactions. The speed at which information technology has developed require a faster, more reactive and automatic response from the law that is not currently met by the existing law-making framework. This paper suggests the development of special rules to enable Internet custom to form legal norms to fulfill this objective.     

Evaluation of Skin Surface as an Alternative Source of Reference DNA Samples: A Pilot Study

An acceptable area for collecting DNA reference sample is a part of the forensic DNA analysis development. The aim of this study was to evaluate skin surface cells (SSC) as an alternate source of reference DNA sample. From each volunteer (n = 10), six samples from skin surface areas (forearm and fingertips) and two traditional samples (blood and buccal cells) were collected. Genomic DNA was extracted and quantified then genotyped using standard techniques. The highest DNA concentration of SSC samples was collected using the tape/forearm method of collection (2.1 ng/μL). Cotton swabs moistened with ethanol yielded higher quantities of DNA than swabs moistened with salicylic acid, and it gave the highest percentage of full STR profiles (97%). This study supports the use of SSC as a noninvasive sampling technique and as a extremely useful source of DNA reference samples among certain cultures where the use of buccal swabs can be considered socially unacceptable.     

SHAIKH HASINA'S VISIT TO INDIA AND THE FUTURE OF INDO-BANGLADESH RELATIONS

Shaikh Hasina's crushing victory in the December 2008 Bangladesh elections opened a new chapter in her country's relations with Delhi. India had long wanted improvements in cooperation against terrorism and better access to the states of North East India, Bangladesh needed better cooperation over water resources and the trade imbalance. Shaikh Hasina's swift action against insurgent groups trying to operate against India from Bangladesh territory laid the foundations for her very successful visit to India in early 2010 which in turn set the framework for a better future relationship. But in the light of the hostility of many in Bangladesh to improved relations with India, the author examines the options for Indian policy makers. He concludes that the emphasis should be on achieving progress in areas outside security, where progress would be irreversible, while recognising that a real transformation of the relationship would be possible if Shaikh Hasina was able to win the next elections and secure a further term in office.     

Constructing the Nation’s Enemy: Hindutva,popular culture and the Muslim ‘other’ in Bollywood cinema

This paper aims to investigate how in contemporary India the process of ‘othering’ of the Muslim minority has been the product of politically motivated and manipulated majoritarian cultural assertiveness, reflected in the Hindu right’s clamour to underline the significance of drawing the geographic and cultural boundaries of what its ideologues call the Hindu nation. Situating cinema as a crucial distribution source of popular culture, the paper contends that Bollywood cinema has exhibited an overt bias towards producing films that capitulate to this radical nationalist discourse professed by the Hindutva ideologues. Making a discourse analysis of selected films produced by Bollywood since the 1990s, the premise of this contention is interrogated by examining how Hindi cinema’s portrayal of the image of Muslims has been carried out in a pejorative manner which stems from the strong grounding of its stories in a Hindu majoritarian setting. The paper concludes by arguing that, with such a penchant, Bollywood cinema has actively engaged in the politics of nationalism engendered by the right-wing neo-fundamentalist Hindutva movement.     

China's reform,internal trade and marketing

Abstract

This article analyses Macau's casinos as an example for accumulation by dispossession, in which they serve to transfer wealth from Mainland China to Macau and the casinos' foreign investors. They also represent a model for economic development and this model has migrated to Singapore, where it also operates as a form of accumulation by dispossession. By requiring citizens to pay an entrance fee, Singapore's casinos explicitly appropriate other people's money. The efficacy for the use of casinos as economic development is interrogated here because Macau's casino experience has emerged as a model for economic development in Asia beyond simply Singapore.     

Film Reviews

Relying on experimental methodology, we find that positive and negative reports of specific aspects of the economy influence the audience's assessments of political responsibility for the state of the economy. In addition, whether the president actively attempts to take credit (in the case of positive economic news) or attempts to avoid blame (in the case of negative economic news) also influences assessments. Finally, we find that effects are largely dependent on individual levels of partisanship.     

Identification of Tool Marks of a Sickle on a Telephone Cable

Linkage of a cutting tool (a sickle) with a telephone cable of 100 pairs of copper wires is reported in a case of theft of a telephone cable. Telephone cables contain numerous insulated copper wires of small diameter inside an outer covering and are stolen for the relatively precious copper. The cutting pattern of the cable can only point to the type of the tool but because of the large number of copper wires, it is practically difficult to make a definite linkage with the tool used to cut the cable by comparing the tool marks. The present work reports the successful attempt of the authors in establishing a definite linkage of a stolen telephone cable with a sickle recovered from the suspects. Spot microchemical test was performed for detection of copper on the blade of the sickle, and then tool mark comparison was performed to link the tool marks on the metal strip inside the outer covering of the cable to the blade of the sickle.     

A Requiem for American Counterinsurgency

Counterinsurgency as an operational method employed by the American military to achieve policy aims at a reasonable cost in blood and treasure has failed miserably. The idea that it has worked should be buried in the ground with a requiem stating that counterinsurgency is dead. Unfortunately, a large group of writers over many years have constructed a deeply flawed narrative that suggests that it is alive and well and continues to shape and influence American foreign policy toward and activist use of American military force in the world's troubled spots.     

U.S.-Russian Strategic Arms Reductions: Nonlinear Challenges,Practical Opportunities

The Obama Administration's desire to push forward with strategic nuclear arms reductions during the President's second term requires the navigation of numerous shoals and reefs. U.S. and Russian negotiators will have to overcome both political and military obstacles to accomplish post-New START reductions in long-range nuclear weapons. For example, efforts to reduce offensive nuclear weapons are complicated by U.S. and NATO plans for missile defenses deployed in Europe and by exigencies in U.S. and Russian domestic politics. In addition, the military-technical aspects of cyber war and nuclear deterrence can no longer be treated, analytically or practically, as isolated compartments. This article considers several aspects of the relationships among possible post-START offensive force reductions, advanced conventional weapons including missile defenses, and emerging cyber capabilities.