Weekly Round Up: Cluster Bombs, CIA "Micro-Nuclear" Bombs & Bulgarian Nurses!

It’s been another chaotic week in global politics.

Palestine & Israel
The week started really with the release of the two Fox News journalists on Sunday. The two men claimed that they were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint. If this is the case then the their captures did the worst thing possible, not only scaring journalists to go into Palestine and report the suffering of the Palestinians but also bring negative impression on Islam. It was a moronic thing to do.

An item barely reported in the media in the last few weeks was the incidents where US charity workers, were being attacked and beaten up by US Jewish settlers and IDF officers for helping the Palestinians. So much for returning the returning the land back to the Palestinians!

Lebanon & Israel
1. With the fragile cease-fire taking place in the Lebanon, the UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland had warned that thousands of civilians were at risk in south Lebanon from at least 100,000 unexploded cluster bombs dropped by the IDF.

"What's shocking and I would say completely immoral is that 90 percent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict when we knew there would be a resolution, when we knew there would be an end," he said.

2. On his visit to the war region Kofi Annan had asked the Israeli government to immediately lift its sea and air blockade of Lebanon and withdraw its forces once 5,000 international troops are deployed, but Israel sidestepped the demands.

The Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said in Beirut that Lebanon "will be the last Arab country that could sign a peace agreement with Israel."

3. A Hezbollah minister in the Lebanese Cabinet said that the guerrilla group will not unconditionally release two Israeli soldiers whose capture set off the conflict, saying they would only be freed in a prisoner exchange.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah the leader of Hezbullah, said that Lebanon and the Lebanese people paid a heavy price for its actions. "If I had known that the operation to capture the soldiers would lead to this result," he said, "we would not have carried it out."

It’s time for everyone to kiss and make up. Peace in the Middle East - bring it on!

Iran, USA & The EU
1. As Iran ignored the UN deadline to stop its Nuclear Programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad challenged President Bush to a televised debate. Ahmadinejad condemned the U.S. and British roles in the world since World War Two. "I suggest holding a live TV debate with Mr. George W. Bush to talk about world affairs and the ways to solve those issues," he said.
"We think the special privileges that America and Britain are taking advantage of today are the origin of all disturbances in the world," Ahmadinejad said, adding the two countries abused their roles as permanent members of the Security Council. "Isn't it time that international relations are founded on democracy and equal rights of the nations?"

2. Before the deadline date, the US, particularly its ambassador to the UN, John Bolton has been threatening Iran with sanctions. He was thought to be in negotiation with US allies such as Britain and Japan to form its own coalition to freeze Iranian assets abroad and restrict trade.

"You don't need Security Council authority to impose sanctions, just as we have," he told the Los Angeles Times. Washington has not refused to rule out military action.

Fellow UN Security Council members Russia and China are opposed to economic sanctions.

3. After the deadline, The EU said that sanctions should not be immediately imposed against Iran over its refusal to suspend its nuclear programme.

Any action should wait until the outcome of a meeting between the EU's foreign affairs chief, Javier Solana, and Iran's leading nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, next week.

Other News

Turkey
Kurdish rebel group (Kurdistan Liberation Hawks (TAK)) has claimed responsibility for a bomb blast that killed three people and injured dozens in a Turkish tourist resort. Tourism is worth an annual $18 billion to Turkey.

It is understood that TAK was set up by former PKK guerrillas dissatisfied with the group's tactics. PKK guerrillas carry out attacks mainly against soldiers in the mountains of southeast Turkey from their bases in northern Iraq.

The Turkish government has remained silent on the attacks. The United States, the EU and Turkey consider it a terrorist organisation. The government has remained silent on the attacks.

Indonesia
Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir claims America's top spy agency was involved in the devastating 2002 Bali bombings. Bashir, who was convicted and imprisoned for having prior knowledge of the attacks that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, is also appealing for the lives of three convicted bombers to be spared.

In an interview tonight on ABC television's Foreign Correspondent, Bashir claims the device that killed most people in the Bali attack was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) "micro-nuclear" bomb. "The Bali bombing was actually masterminded by America. Well, not masterminded, but hijacked. They planned it (convicted bombers), but their plan was hijacked by America."

Libya
A Libyan prosecutor demanded the death penalty on Tuesday for five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor on trial for the second time on charges that they infected hundreds of children with the HIV virus.

A previous trial of the six, who have been detained since 1999, ended with their conviction on charges they intentionally infected 426 children with HIV when they worked in a hospital in Benghazi in the late 1990s.

In December 2005, the supreme court overturned the convictions, which had resulted in sentences of death by firing squad, and sent the case back to a lower court. The retrial began in May 2006.

Tripoli has suggested the nurses could go free if Bulgaria pays compensation to the children and their families, who have demanded 4.4 billion euros ($5.5 billion). Bulgaria has refused to pay, but has joined the United States, the EU and Libya in agreeing to back the creation of an aid fund The retrial was adjourned to Sept 5.

Can't wait for Next Week!