The Supreme Administrative Court in Ukraine has ordered that the lawyer defending the former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko should be stripped of the seat he has in parliament. It means Serhiy Vlasenko loses his parliamentary immunity and can himself be prosecuted. Mr Vlasenko leads the legal team representing Ms Tymoshenko who is in prison for exceeding her authority while in office and is facing further charges of tax evasion and a contract murder. She said her lawyer had highlighted the absurdity of her judicial harassment.
French scientists believe they have come a step closer to understanding how the Vikings were able to navigate across the sea well before the invention of the magnetic compass. A crystal found in the wreckage of a British ship in the English Channel is believed to be what was referred as a “sunstone” in ancient Norse literature. It’s thought the crystal was used to pinpoint the sun’s position. Here’s Hugh Schofield.
An oblong crystal the size of a cigarette packet was found on a ship next to a pair of dividers, suggesting that it was part of the navigational equipment. It’s now been shown that the crystal is of Iceland spar, a form of calcite, which is known for its property of diffracting light into two separate rays. Testing a similar crystal, the team of scientists from Rennes University in France shows that by rotating it you can find the point where the two beams converge and that indicates the direction of the sun. It works on cloudy days and when the sun has set.