Today, we've got trouble in Turkey. The Turkish prime minister is sick, and unfortunately he's the only sensible bloke in the country, aside from the Harvard grad he appointed economics minister, who has been doing too good a job of making things accountable, transparent and business-friendly. NATO and the EU are worried that an Islamic party will come to power at the next elections. Historically, Turkey was the centre of the last Islamic empire, the Ottomans: currently, it serves as a moderating influence on other nutters in the region, and has friendly relations with Israel. Turkey became a secular country under a guy called Ataturk post WW1. If it becomes an Islamic country (which has laways been the EU's fear, and the reason why the Turks have not been allowed in the EU - oh, and that human rights problem they have), then that's trouble for Europe, as their friendly buffer will go.
America has joined the international war crimes tribunal, thanks to all thats holy, with a proviso that its troops get a temporary amnesty. I'm wondering if that has anything to do with the stories of summary executions of al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners that have been trickling out of Afghanistan. To be fair, the US has always been funny about joining such treaties: George Washington's words echo down the centuries.
A recent meeting between the US, the EU and Russia to talk about Israel and Palestine quickly broke down, because of US insistence that Arafat must go. Arafat has called for elections, in a smart move: while the Israelis and the Americans are pushing for him to go, the Palestinians will give them the finger by voting for him to stay.
Finally, in my part of the world, a big fire in an internet cafe which caused multiple deaths, one of hundreds of illegal (unlicensed) cafes in Beijing, resulted in a crackdown on them. Some have now been allowed to open, subject to strict controls. Makes me wonder who started the fire.
