Hello, I'm Laura Lynch.

Good evening. I'm Dara McLeod.

This is As It Happens.

Tonight:

The defense cannot rest. An Iranian lawyer who defended a woman sentenced to death by stoning flees his country, and seeks asylum in Turkey.

On with the chauvinism. France announces the latest in a series of anti-immigrant reforms -- this time, one that will see foreign-born criminals stripped of their citizenship.

Someday his prints will come. And when they do, Steve McCurry's will be the last photographs ever developed using the late, lamented Kodachrome film.

Between a hawk and a hard place. Residents of Moose Jaw thought two irritating birds of prey had flown the coop for good. They were wrong.

For Bobby Hebb, it was mostly "Sunny". The late singer-songwriter composed hundreds of songs -- but one 1966 hit shone brightest.

And...get mad because you can't get even. Scientists shatter humankind's dreams of achieving a smooth full-body tan -- and they blame our bothersome bottoms.

As It Happens, the Thursday edition. Radio whose cheeks are burning with shame.

When Iranian lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei agreed to take on the case of Sakine Mohammedi Ashtiani, he was well aware of the risks.

His client is the mother of two who is accused of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning. Her case has made headlines around the world this summer. Because of this international pressure, her scheduled execution last month was temporarily halted. But her fate remains uncertain.

After he took on her case, it wasn't long before Mr. Mostafaei was interrogated by Iranian authorities. Fearing for his safety, he fled Iran and last week he was smuggled into neighbouring Turkey. Mr. Mostafaei has since been arrested there on immigration charges. He's hoping to be granted asylum.

Back in Tehran, the situation has gotten worse. His family has also become a target. Mr. Mostafaei's wife, along with two other relatives, were arrested by Iranian officials.

Earlier today, we reached Mohammad Mostafaei at the detention centre where he's being held.

His case is being closely watched by Drewery Dyke, an Iran researcher with Amnesty International. We reached Mr. Dyke in London.

It might have given consumers those nice bright colours and even the greens of summer -- but after digital photography took over, even Paul Simon couldn't stop them from taking Kodachrome away. So, in 2009, facing lagging sales, Eastman Kodak discontinued the production of the beloved colour reversal film.

Back in 1984, photojournalist Steve McCurry used Kodachrome to shoot a portrait called "Afghan Girl" -- a stunning photograph of a green-eyed young woman he met in a refugee camp in Pakistan. The image, which later appeared on the cover of National Geographic, became a symbol of the Soviet/Afghan conflict.

Last month, Mr. McCurry used Kodachrome once more, when he shot Kodak's final roll of the film. We reached the photographer in New York City.

Dateline: Bucharest.There were a few tense hours in the Romanian capital yesterday -- and serious concern for the health of President Traian Basescu.

It had been a week since national polls showed that President Basescu's popularity was waning. His government's austerity measures have been greeted by severe cutbacks in support from the Romanian public. But just because voters like him a little less, it doesn't mean they weren't worried when their president was rushed to hospital on Wednesday. Camera crews surrounded the hospital to find out about his condition. The entire country descended into panicky speculation. One political rival hinted that the president might be working too hard, and burning out.

But those concerns were allayed soon enough -- although, over time, new ones have emerged.

Not long after his medical emergency, President Basescu made a surprise appearance on national television. The problem had occurred, he explained, after his regular morning swim. He had been speaking to a minister over the telephone, when he had an ear-cleaning accident. Or, as he put it, he inserted "a cotton bud in my ear the wrong way."

There was a collective sigh of relief -- followed by stifled snorts and guffaws.

Further details on the incident have yet to be disclosed. But even his brief explanation raised questions that remain unanswered. Questions like, "How do you ram a Q-Tip in your ear 'the wrong way'? Do you mean you tried to put it in vertically, instead of horizontally?" -- and "Seriously, what did you do with the Q-Tip?"

It also creates some worries about the president's ability to multi-task.

It's too early to tell what this incident will do to President Basescu's approval ratings. But if they were waning before, it's unlikely that his failed de-waxing will cause them to wax.

That was Mr. Dynamite himself, the late James Brown, introducing a classic song he was about to perform. The song is called "Sunny", and Mr. Brown was one of countless artists who heard genius in it. Over the years, it was also covered by Frank Sinatra, Marvin Gaye, Ella Fitzgerald, Dusty Springfield, and Stevie Wonder -- among many others.

"Sunny" was written by a man named Bobby Hebb in 1966, in response to the killing of his brother outside a nightclub in Nashville, Tennessee. Its lyrics pay tribute to someone whose smile eased the singer's pain, "when his life was filled with rain."

Singer-songwriter Bobby Hebb died this week of lung cancer. He was seventy-two.

He began his musical career as a trumpet player in a Navy Jazz band, but his talents were soon recognised by country singer Roy Acuff, who employed Mr. Hebb as part of his backing band. As a result, Mr. Hebb became one of the first black musicians to play the esteemed country music venue the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. But he wouldn't be part of anyone's backing band for long: he was a prolific songwriter, turning out hundreds and hundreds of tunes. And when "Sunny" became an enormous hit in the summer of '66, he became a star. When he toured the United States with The Beatles, he got equal billing.

Mr. Hebb was never able to quite replicate the success of his first big single. He did get a Grammy for co-writing Lou Rawls' 1971 hit, "A Natural Man", and a Hebb original, "Love, Love, Love" became a huge hit in Britain's burgeoning Northern Soul scene. And he remained actively involved in music throughout his life.

But of course, Bobby Hebb will always be most fondly remembered for this piece of musical sunshine. Here he is, with "Sunny".

We're about to step aside so that you can hear the news. But As It Happens will return in about six minutes -- with these stories.

Strangers in an increasingly strange land. The summer gets hotter for foreign-born residents of France, with a new law that would strip non-natives of their status if they commit crimes.

Getting to the crocs of the matter. Sure, the recently discovered "cat crocodile"'s bite was bad -- but it was its chewing that really made the difference.

The hawk-y season begins -- but no one wants it to. The worst neighbours you ever had are nothing compared to the dive-bombing raptors of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Stay tuned. I'm LL.

And I'm DM.

It's been a long, hot summer in France -- particularly if you live there, but you weren't born there.

First, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the dismantling of three hundred illegal Roma camps. Then, French police staged a forceful raid on an immigrant squat in a suburb of Paris -- a video of which shows pregnant women and children being dragged across concrete. And now the Ministry of Immigration has announced new legislation that would strip foreign-born citizens of their French nationality if they've committed a crime. The controversial bill will be presented in September.

Matthieu Tardis is a Policy Officer with France Terre Asile, an organization that provides assistance to refugees and migrants. We reached him in Paris.

They're baaaaaaaack.

Last summer, the residents of the 1000 block of Henry Street in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, had a bit of a problem -- two, in fact. A pair of Swainson's hawks shacked up in the neighbourhood and their aggressive behaviour wasn't just harrying residents -- Canada Post suspended service after mail carriers were repeatedly harrassed by the swooping raptors. Well, last fall, when the hawks flew south, residents were granted a reprieve... but much to their chagrin, it was only temporary.

Pamela Peterson lives on Henry Street in Moose Jaw. We reached her at home.

Usually, when scientists turn up an ancient species of crocodile, there is much attention paid to its fearsome bite. Well, this case is a little different -- and a little less scary. Because the latest specimen unearthed is remarkable for its fearsome...chew.

Unearthed in Tanzania, this hundred-and-five-year-old reptile had mammal-like teeth. And its fancy chewing ability distinguishes it from all other crocs. It's been dubbed Pakasuchas kapilimai -- the first part of which literally means "cat crocodile".

Patrick O'Connor was the lead researcher on a study on the creature, published in the journal, Nature, this week. We reached him in Athens, Ohio.

It wasn't that long ago that heliophiles would routinely head out to the backyard, cover their deck chairs in tinfoil, douse themselves in baby oil, and -- with the help of a therapeutic wine cooler -- doze off for a couple of hours in the mid-day sun. And when they awoke, they would have achieved the particular shade of mahogany they had yearned for. Of course, they would have tan lines, where their string bikini or their "I'm With Stupid" T-shirt had been -- but what could they do? With all those gawking neighbours, they couldn't very well sun-tan au naturel.

Then, with the advent of the tanning salon, it seemed, the full-body, tan-line-free tan seemed within our grasp. In a private tanning bed, would-be George Hamiltons experienced many a nude awakening -- but somehow, their tans still weren't a hundred per cent even. Would any human ever win the coveted gold in bronzing?

No. For two reasons. First of all, tanning is now one of the most dangerous activities in which any human can engage. If you told a friend you were heading into the Florida Everglades to eat raw chicken and throw cut-rate firecrackers at random alligators, the first thing he would say would be, "Make sure to take at least a 50 SPF." The sun's warming rays -- or, if you're an indoor tanning enthusiast, UV rays -- are no longer our friends.

But the second problem with the full-body tan is that, according to scientists at the University of Edinburgh, it's a physical impossibility.

In a study published in the journal "Experimental Dermatology", these scientists report that they enlisted a hundred volunteers to undergo six tanning sessions each. Then, they examined the skin in two bodily areas: the back, and the buttock. It just says "the buttock" here. It doesn't specify which buttock.

Anyway, they found that, after receiving the same exposure, the eager back was much more tanned than the reluctant buttock. Meaning that different parts deal with the sun's UVB radiation differently. Meaning that getting all your constituent parts to reach the same skin tone is impossible, until they invent the tanning-bed equivalent of the Large Hadron Collider. And also meaning that you shouldn't push the buttock to join in the browning. If your behind is lagging behind, it's just trying to protect itself.

You might find fault with this study. One possible quibble: a study on tanning was conducted in Edinburgh. Which is sort of like conducting a study on haggis in Miami. Regardless, the conclusion is important: you don't have to leave the sun completely behind, but you may as well leave your behind completely out of the sun.