International law and the Gaza Freedom Flotilla: Is Israel in violation of international law?

The state of Israel, it seems, knows no limits, not moral ones, and not legal ones either. By attacking and seizing ships on the high seas (outside of its territorial waters), Israel has proved once again that it is not worthy of membership in the global community of states, as it is not capable or not willing to follow even the most elementary rules of international law.(0)

The first summit of the BRIC Group (Brazil, Russia, India, China), will take place in mid-June 2009, in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

According to Wikipedia, the term BRIC is an acronym, which

The case originated in an application (no. 4158/05) against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by two British nationals, Mr Kevin Gillan and Ms Pennie Quinton (“the applicants”) on 26 January 2005. The completed application form was filed on 30 April 2007.

The applicants alleged that the powers of stop and search used against them by the police breached their rights under Articles 5, 8, 10 and 11 of the Convention.

The Court agreed.

See excerpts of the decision below.

Martin Morris This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it reported on Monday, 21 September 2009 in the Arabian Business this news item from Iran:

"Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the replacement of the US dollar by the euro in calculating the value of the country's Oil Stabilisation Fund (OSF).

The commander in chief of the United States armed forces recieved today the Nobel peace medal and man-of-peace certficiate in Oslo. Must be a joke, you would say.

Well, it does sound like a joke, or at least, sounds like a bizarr news item in ight of last weeks news: The man just sent 30,000 more US soldiers to Afghanistan, bringing total number of the occupation force there to 100,000 man and woman. The winnr also managed to persuade other countries to send troops there, raising another 10,000 soldeirs in a week. He could easily qualify for getting the prize of best worrior:

He is the commander in chief of yet another war, down in Iraq, waged and perpetrated based on lies and propoganda about weapons of "mass destruction" that were never found until this day. That other war has resulted so far in the destruction en mass of the lives of millions of people. If that is not enough, then it should also be noted that he is the commander in chief of the global war on terror, waged against all the terrorists of this world (whomever that means) since 2001, following the demolition of the 2 towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

And yet, he has been awarded the most prestigous peace prize on this earth, meant to celebrate the courage and dedication of the most outstanding men and women, who fought for peace and justice, and made them happen.

The selecting committe, of course, was aware of all of the above. We were told that it made a calculated decision, intended to exploit the potential in the man, thereby "pushing him" to making real peace one day in the future.

But what prize will he be given after he actually makes the peace, actually pulls out all soldiers from these occupied countires, and actually apologizes for all life lost due to these wars? 

Nothing left to win but the wars. And he gave his soldiers 18 more months to do it.  Yes we can? Inshallah.