A closely watched anti-terrorism case came to a close in London last week. In it, British prosecutors charged that 8 British Muslims had planned to disguise liquid explosives as soft drinks, smuggle them onto 7 airliners, and detonate them while the planes flew from London to North America.

The evidence included bomb making equipment, flight schedules on memory sticks, martyrdom videos and a tape of the conspirators at a safe house. But ringleader Abdulla Ahmed Ali claimed his group planned to carry out a lesser stunt, perhaps detonating small devices at harmless locations, perhaps at Heathrow airport.

The jury didn’t believe Ali, but they couldn’t be sure what he was up to. They convicted 3 men of conspiracy to “murder persons unknown,” a lesser charge. They could not reach a verdict on 4 others and acquitted the last one, who was alleged to have been an advisor from al-Qaeda.

In picking up the pieces, some noted that the case was processed per routine through the British criminal justice system. To them, the disappointing result proves that prosecuting the war on terror requires extra-legal processes such as military tribunals and changed rules regarding pre-trial detention periods and rights to privacy and council.

To others, the British police had moved in too quickly. Had they waited a bit longer, they would have had purchased airline tickets and completed bombs-in short, better evidence.

Every year millions of people get a flu shot. The next year they get another flu shot, and then another one and so on. People have to get flu shots every year because the flu vaccine targets proteins on the outer shell of the flu virus, and since the genetic code for these proteins mutates frequently, the proteins change frequently. It’s a shell game, so to speak (ahem).

What if we develop a new flu vaccine that targets something that doesn’t change so much from year to year? In that case, all we need is get the flu shot once. It would last pretty much forever!

Researchers at Oxford University are beginning human trials of this very thing. The experimental flu vaccine targets viral proteins that are expressed after the flu virus invades human cells. These proteins rarely change, and interestingly (if you’re an immunologist) they trigger a cell-mediated immune response rather than an antibody-mediated response.

Exciting stuff, but this is not happening any time soon. Since human safety trials are just beginning, we’re talking a minimum 4-8 years before any universal flu vaccine could make it to market.

Ukraine won 27 medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, good for 10th place overall. It’s the same size as France and has a population of 46 million. It shares a long border with Russia. Pipelines coursing through the country ferry natural gas from Russia to Western Europe.

Like the Republic of Georgia, Ukraine gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and like the Republic of Georgia, Ukraine features a pro-Western government.

As I mentioned here, here and here, it’s not good to be like the Republic of Georgia these days.

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Russia and the US have ramped up the rhetoric over Georgia, a small country on Russia’s southern border that Russian ground forces invaded last month and still occupy.

The flare-up began two days ago, when Russian President Dmitri Medvedev referred to US-backed Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili as a “political corpse.”

Yesterday, the Bush administration proposed giving $1billion in economic and humanitarian aid to Georgia. Today, Dick Cheney shook hands with Saakashvili in Tbilisi and described Russia’s smack down of Georgia as, “an illegitimate, unilateral attempt to change (Georgia’s) borders by force that has been universally condemned by the free world.”

Cheney subsequently expressed US support for Georgia’s petition to enter NATO. That will not sit well in Moscow.

The US position on Georgia seems quite reasoned and nuanced. My worry is that, apart from occasional bellicose exchanges between the two Cold War foes, Russia and the US are not talking all that much.

This would be a huge mistake. It is essential that we have ongoing, multi-layered communications with countries like this. Unfortunately this has not been the Bush-Cheney way, and McCain has a definite inclination to posture in similar fashion.  

We want to believe the Big O will get this right.

Much to the dismay of 100,000 people who demonstrated in Tbilisi yesterday for a strong response from the West, the EU’s four hour crisis meeting yielded no more than a wag of the finger toward Russia in response to its cake walk through Georgia last month.

Specifically, the EU warned Russia that if it doesn’t start honoring the cease fire agreement it recently signed with Georgia, the EU will cancel meetings that had been set aside to negotiate an economic partnership with Russia.

Big Vlad

Talk about a mountain giving birth to a mouse! For his part, Vlad “The Impaler” Putin shuttled to Uzbekistan yesterday to announce he had signed a deal that will increase Russia’s control over Central Asian energy exports to Europe. Russia already supplies the EU with 40% of its natural gas and a third of its oil.

The US candidates for president need to stop firing spitballs at each other over who got things right on the day Russian tanks rolled into Georgia. Then, they need to start explaining how they’re going to deal with the long term challenges that this resurgent, ornery country presents.

Forgive the Europeans for being perhaps not quite so riveted by the unfolding situation in Louisana. It’s just that the EU is holding an emergency summit today for the purposes of crafting a response to the trampling of Georgia by Russia last month.

Britain and Poland are expected to call for a tough response. Angela Merkel’s coalition government is badly split on the issue, so Germany is a wild card. Other countries such as Italy and Spain prefer a more conciliatory approach.

Even as it lashes the south, Gustav has created an eye in the US political hurricane. We have a short time when it’s not politics as usual. We share fear and hope for folks in harm’s way and we want to see how the candidates react to the situtation. We also hope the candidates don’t take their eyes off the ball when it comes to critial developments outside the country.