MUAMMAR GADDAFI, HUMANITARIAN

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor jailed by Libya since 1999 -- on very shaky evidence -- for supposedly infecting 438 Libyan children with HIV, have been released and returned to Europe. Instead of being outraged at the long and apparently unjust detention, Europeans are grateful:

"The president of the French republic and the European Commission President welcome this humanitarian gesture by Libya and its highest leader and commit to doing all they can to help children with AIDS," said the statement released in Brussels.

This kidnapping ends with the payment of an atypical ransom:

A Libyan close to the negotiations told Reuters that EU countries had agreed to provide medical assistance for the children and to help upgrade a hospital in Benghazi, Libya's second city and the town where the infections first appeared in the 1990s.

The EU had also agreed to improve its ties with Libya and build a partnership that would include free trade, the source said.

No word yet on any possible investigation of claims the detainees were tortured.

Editing note: The nurses were originally shown above as Belgian.