The Teddy Terror Pardoned

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has agreed to pardon Gillian Gibbons, sentenced to 15 days in prison for allowing a child to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Apparently, two Muslim members of Britain’s House of Lords flew to Sudan to negotiate her release.

This comes after news that even her 15 day sentence was deemed unsatisfactory to the public, whose chants of “death” indicated a harsher preference. One can’t help but wonder if public reaction might be outraged even further by this step.

But for the time being the news is good and we wish Gillian a safe and swift trip home. The president of Sudan has done a good thing, and I agree with UK PM Gordon Brown when he says, "common sense has prevailed.''

Annapolis

Smiling Three-Way

I read an excellent article here, it explained the background and progress of Annapolis efficiently. Essentially, nothing really happened, they all planned to continue to negotiate and be done in a year.

This time next year, if negotiations over the key areas of dispute pan out, there could be a Palestinian state. That would mean reduced violence in Jerusalem and the rest of Israel, decreased terrorism, and increased chance for world peace.

The only problem is that this was the reaction of Palestinians,

The agreements of government officials are only a strong as their popular support. If the Palestinian people do not want peace, it will never happen. We stand at a crossroads. It seems as though the West and the Middle East are either headed for short term reconciliation or long term conflict. The results of this latest push for peace may indicate the thrust of our new common direction. Lets hope everything falls into place