Nukes, murderers and Turks: Three Kings News roundup

Three Kings is logging on from back home in Kansas this week as a part of a two-week vacation back in the mother country.

Here’s some of the recent news that caught my eye:

1.) RUSSIA-  The number one story has got to the that Russia is will be firing up Iran’s first nuclear reactor, although it’s not nearly as alarming as it sounds. First off, Russia will move all plutonium that could be weaponized back to Russian territory as a part of the deal, and just because the Russians are forging ahead with this deal doesn’t necessarily mean they are abandoning the U.S. on sanctions.

Russian officials, who are also concerned about Iran’s nuclear progress, had long appeared to use the plant’s construction schedule and the drawn-out start-up process as leverage with Iran’s leaders and in wider Russian diplomacy in the Middle East. Often, delays for ostensibly technical reasons have come just days after Russian leaders made statements critical of Iran.

2.) TURKEY – Der Speigel is reporting that photos obtained by German journalists, politicians and activists purportedly provide evidence Turkey has used chemical weapons against Kurdish rebels in its restive Eastern regions.

It would be difficult to exceed the horror shown in the photos, which feature burned, maimed and scorched body parts. The victims are scarcely even recognizable as human beings. Turkish-Kurdish human rights activists believe the people in the photos are eight members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) underground movement, who are thought to have been killed in September 2009. [...]

German politicians and human rights experts are now demanding an investigation into the incident. “The latest findings are so spectacular that the Turkish side urgently needs to explain things,” said Claudia Roth, the co-chair of Germany’s Green Party. “It is impossible to understand why an autopsy of the PKK fighters was ordered but the results kept under seal.”

The politician said there had been repeated “mysterious incidents of this type that are crying out for an independent investigation.” Roth demanded that Turkey issue an official statement on the possible use of chemical weapons “in order to nullify further allegations.”

3.) INGUSHETIA, RUSSIA – Why do such bad things happen to such good people? Earlier this month, Ibragim Evloev, former deputy head of security of the Autonomous Republic of Ingushetia in the Russian North Caucasus was gunned down in a cafe. In August 2008, Evloev shot opposition politician and journalist Magomed Evloev (no relation) in the head in the back of a police car shortly after arresting him at the Nazran airport. According to the official police version the whole thing was an accident. After initially being sentenced to two years in prison for the obvious assassination, he was pardoned and released three months later. I guess some things do work themselves out in the North Caucasus.