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Bulgarian Medics Free
Five Bulgarian nurses (who the BBC rather insensitively calls "HIV medics") have been released from prison in Libya and flown directly to Bulgaria, where President Georgi Parvanov ordered than an immediate pardon be set into motion for the medics.
Palestinian Doctor Ashraf al-Hazouz was granted Bulgarian citizenship last month.
The nurses were convicted along with Doctor al-Hazouz of deliberately infecting Libyan children with the HIV virus via blood transfusions. They were tortured to obtain confessions, which led to death sentences for all (twice). A European Union external affairs commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, had negotiated with the Libyan authorities for several years to secure the nurses' release; she was joined in a high-profile campaign earlier this month by France's first lady Cécilia Sarkozy.
438 children were infected with blood containing the HIV virus; 56 have died. Mme Sarkozy has reportedly offered to fly some of the children to Paris for treatment.
There are broader costs to the release, too. President Sarkozy claims that there has been no financial compensation to Libya, though the families of the children were reportedly compensated with around $1 million per child.
The BBC reports that a deal has been struck between the EU and Tripoli, designed to lead to "a new page" in EU-Libyan relations. The Guardian notes that this will include putting Libya on the same footing for aid and investment as other Mediterranean nations. Middle Eastern editor Ian Black notes in a column that Colonel Muammar Gadafy's stratrgy - which he calls "a masterstroke" - follows a similar pattern to other Libyan actions in the past, of "trying to make up for past errors or crimes and then reaping the benefits."
Black puts the release of the medics alongside Libya's arms shipments to the terrorist IRA, but then passing details of the weapons to Britain; surrendering the Lockerbie bombing suspects after prolonged negotiations which followed the 1988 slaughter; and assisting George W Bush in the war on terror despite having been a notable sponsor of terror during the 1970s and 1980s.
Gadafy also handed over his nuclear weapons programme to the US following the invasion of Iraq.
After decades as an international pariah, Gadafy seems determined to join the international community and improve relations with the west. For its part, the west is keen to have Gadafy on board, not least because the Colonel's rehabilitation indicates a path to respectability that is always open to other nations, notably Iran.
However, some counsel caution when dealing with the regime. In the Times, Rosemary Righter warns Gadafy's game "stinks" and describes the nurses as political prisoners who had been subject to appalling torture including rape. International observers noted that the HIV infections had begun before the six accused arrived in Libya.
Righter warns that the price for the release of the prisoners could mean the return of one of the Lockerbie bombers - a charge EU officials deny.
Also, there are cracks in the Europeans' united front on Libya. France's first lady Cécilia Sarkozy flew into Tripoli earlier this month for a much-publicised visit designed to speed the release of the prisoners. Mme Sarkozy's visit was heavily publicised, leading to whispers from EU sources that Mme Ferrero-Waldner's years-long effort to secure the release was being over-taken by Mme Sarkozy's star turn. Mme Ferrero-Waldner was reportedly "furious" upon reading about Sarkozy's intervention.
French Socialists reacted angrily, too. According to The Times, the Socialist Party spokesman accused the Sarkozys of trying to "steal the EU's victory" to win credit in France.
