Around the World

Date: 06 August 2005 00:30:57

Image from ABC News	60 years ago today the atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. Around 140,000 people died either instantly or in the blast's aftermath. As this BBC story explains, historians will never agree on whether it was necessary to end the war, and I can't say either, it being 60 years after the event and my having no great knowledge on military strategy nor the events of World War II. But I do wonder if we have learnt anything. We create more and more hideous weapons. I truly do doubt and wonder if we have learnt anything. Lord, have mercy!
Reports are in from the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) that a third of young children in Burma are chronically malnourished, and many receive little or no education. WFP executive director James Morris says that government control of the economy and movement of people is to blame for the inability of the people of Burma to feed themselves, despiite Burma producing a surplus rice crop last year. And the horrific food-shortage situation brought about by drought and plagues of locust in Niger continues. Lord, have mercy!	Image from BBC News
Image from BBC News	130 people have been klled in three days of violence in Sudan after a helicopter crash which killed souther Sudanese leader John Garang. Lord, have mercy!
In an echo of the 2000 Kursk tragedy, during military exercises a Russian submarine's propellor got entangled in fishing nets. Seven crew members are on-board. The Russian Navy is now attempting to drag the sub to safety. And, unlike with the Kursk, Britain, the US and Japan have been asked for assistance. Lord, have mercy!	Image from ABC News
Image from NASA	And above the earth, NASA's space shuttle Discovery is preparing to come home after NASA decided it was safe. Lord, have mercy!