Weekly Round up: Terror plots, Sex scandals and Mathematics that don’t add up!

Slightly later than anticipated, but worth the wait...

UK
Summer Holiday
The UK prime minister has just returned from his holiday in Barbados but whilst he was there the Barbadian Prime Minister had in fact done the reverse and came to sunny Birmingham for his honeymoon. I know which destination I’d choose!

Terror Plot
12 people have been charged, of which eight are accused of conspiracy to murder and preparing to commit an act of terrorism. Prosecutors say the plot involved smuggling liquid components of explosives aboard aircraft.

Investigators have found bombing-making chemicals, including hydrogen peroxide and electrical components during their searches, said Peter Clarke, chief of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist department.

Debate on integration
Ruth Kelly (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) has admitted that the Government has begun to question whether the long-standing policy of multiculturalism has encouraged some immigrant communities to shut themselves off from British life. A new Commission on Integration and Cohesion yesterday in the wake of last year's July 7 bombings in London, and one of its principal tasks will be to examine extremism.

As stated in previous posts they should look at the UK's foreign policy. Once this is corrected they can then tackle institutional racism, followed by under-investment of ethnic minorities in the U.K. (particularly looking at jobs and education). These are the items that need to be dealt, and funded - so starting dealing with these issues!

Europe
Airport/ Airline Crisis
More chaos at Airports around the world, firstly 12 men were detained in the Netherlands after a US Northwest Airlines flight had a security alert. They have all been released without charge; the Netherlands provided no formal apologies to India.

UN troops in Lebanon/ Israel boarder
European nations have pledged up to 7,000 troops to form the core of a beefed-up peacekeeping mission in Lebanon capable of enforcing the fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah.

The commitments account for more than half the extra soldiers needed to bring the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) up to a maximum mandated strength of 15,000, from its current count 2,000. Prior to the announcement Israel was reluctant of Islamic countries representing the majority of UNIFIL troops.

Middle East
Sex scandal in Israel
As soon as the ceasefire was announced in Lebanon, Israel’s president was locked in a sex scandal, the justice minister quit over a purported stolen kiss, the prime minister is haunted by a property deal and the country's top general is under fire for stock trading – It make you wonder If the length of the war had anything to do with their scandals.

Nuclear Submarines Purchased
Israel purchased 2 nuclear submarines from Germany. With the current standing regarding Iran’s nuclear programme it is obscured that the international community has authorised this sale. Surely now, all other countries will be more keen to get their own nuclear weapons, should we not be encouraging countries to disarm? What kind of message are we sending to the so-called “axis of evil” countries? What use are nuclear weapons against terrorists that don’t belong to any peculiar state? – Whom are you going to bomb?

Israel Soldier killed in the Lebanon
An IDF solider was killed and three other injured accidentally when they walked into a minefield in southern Lebanon near the Shaba Farms. It is known that the Israeli army had planted the minefield years ago to prevent terrorists from infiltrating, and military officials said it was possible that the mines shifted in the ground due to changes in weather and terrain. Another possibility is that the company made navigational mistakes during its routine return from Lebanon to Israel and accidentally ended up inside the minefield.

USA
Review of Casualty reports
The US Army is reviewing casualty reports on American soldiers killed in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere since 2001, due to a response to complaints that it has not always given families accurate information.

The step follows high-profile mistakes in telling families the circumstances of soldiers' deaths.
The best-known is that of Cpl. Pat Tillman, the one-time NFL star from San Jose, Calif., who quit football to join the U.S. Army Rangers and was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April 2004. Tillman's family was originally told he had been killed by enemy fire. Five weeks later, they learned he was shot dead by fellow Rangers after an ambush.

That would mean the review would cover some 2,000 reports. Nearly 1,800 Army soldiers have died in Iraq since 2003. More than 230 have died in Afghanistan, according to an Associated Press.

Future President of US celebrates Israeli war crimes
This news piece escaped my attention. It happened last month but is worth a full review (if requested).

New York’s Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton gave a speech to a rally staged by Zionist organizations last month. When Lebanon and its civilians were being bombed ruthlessly by the Israelis, she made the following comments:

“We will stand with Israel because Israel is standing up for American values as well as Israeli ones,” the New York Democrat proclaimed at the New York City rally.

Clinton also declared: “I want us here in New York to imagine, if extremist terrorists were launching rocket attacks across the Mexican or Canadian border, would we stand by or would we defend America against these attacks from extremists?”

Yeah right, I can see the US bombing apartment buildings in Montreal, demolish Toronto’s international airport, incinerate entire Canadian families in their homes and on the highways, and turn the population of southern Ontario into refugees!


Other news
With all the terrible news happening around the world, I though I’d report a nice story (although it is quite bizarre)

This doesn’t add up…
Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman, a Russian mathematician has done the unthinkable by solving the famous Poincaré conjecture, which has been regarded for one hundred years as one of the most important (and most difficult) open problems in mathematics.


But the genius has refused the world highest honour “The Fields Medal” and refused its £530,000 prize.

He went on to say that the prize "was completely irrelevant for me. Everybody understood that if the proof is correct then no other recognition is needed."