More problems in the Holy Land

Unfortunately, a spat of violence has struck both Israel and Palestine in the past few days, with four Israelis killed during a suicide bombing at a check point between Israel and the Gaza Strip. An important difference between this attack and other previous is that the bomber was female. Up to this point Hamas has never used females in their terror campaigns so this this could signal a need to change security tactics for the Israelis. On the other side of the coin, a British peace activist that was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier back in April has died after being left in a vegetative state by the incident, bringing further attention to the problems of civilian casualties during IDF missions.

Israel itself is apparently having some issues with the relationship between the judicial and legislative branches of government, with both parties claiming that the other has infringed on their constitutional duties. Some Islamic countries are currently working through some judicial/constitutional problems too. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayat Allah Ali Khamenei asked recently for a review of candidates who have been banned from parliamentary elections and Afghanistan's Supreme Court complained about the state television station, which recently showed a woman singing during a program. Apparently the court believes that such footage violates Islamic principles, but this could serve as a test case to see if women can be accorded equal rights in a semi-secular Muslim country.

Finally, in the spirit of 'you did it, so we can too,' China has decided to impose tariffs on the import of steel from five East Asian countries, almost echoing the sentiments of the Bush administration when it imposed similar tariffs at the beginning of the presidential term. The Bush tariffs were repealed last month after they were found to be illegal by the WTO, but their existence highlighted some of the problems with free trade agreements between countries of unequal economic development.