Istanbul
Internet blocked: Police fired water cannons and tear gas this week to break up a huge protest against a new law that restricts Internet freedom. The law allows the government to block any website it wants without a court order, and requires service providers to store user data and hand it over to the government on demand. Critics say the new law is aimed at squelching coverage of a corruption scandal that implicates Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Tens of thousands of websites were already banned under Turkey’s existing Internet laws. “What we have now is censorship,” said political scientist Kerem Altiparmak. “This law is something more—it’s just terrible.” Erdogan supporters said opposition to the new law is “immoral” and comes from the “porn lobby.”
Homs, Syria
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Some escape: A few hundred civilians, most of them thin and sick, were evacuated from the besieged city of Homs this week after the U.N. brokered a temporary cease-fire. Refugees said they were living on only grass and olives and enduring daily shelling and gun battles. “These shrubs and grass that we’re eating cause illnesses, such as indigestion and fever,” said resident Baibars Altalawy. “There are families, women, elderly, injured people, and a lot of the elderly are in need of medicines.” President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have cut off Homs for a year and a half, and the city has run out of food, medicine, and fuel. The warring sides met in Geneva this week but made no progress toward peace.
Samarra, Iraq
Suicide bombing fail: A terrorist commander teaching a class on suicide bombing accidentally blew himself up this week along with his 21 pupils. The explosion took place in a rural area of Salahuddin province north of Baghdad, at a training camp for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a militant group once affiliated with al Qaida. Many Iraqis took a grim pleasure in the news. “This is God showing justice,” said Baghdad resident Raad Hashim. Iraq is enduring its worst violence in five years as fighting rages between militant groups and government-allied forces.
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Anti-drone activist disappears: Pakistan’s most prominent anti-drone campaigner was snatched from his home last week by a dozen men in police uniforms, but the government says it doesn’t know which of its many police and intelligence forces has him. Kareem Khan came to prominence in 2010 when he sued the Pakistani government for approving the U.S. drone strikes that killed his son and brother. The lawsuit angered the U.S. because it publicized the name of the CIA station chief in Islamabad, who had to leave the country. Many in Pakistan believe that Khan, who was about to leave the country to testify before the European Parliament, was abducted by military intelligence. Under pressure from the Pakistani government, the Obama administration has scaled back the drone program; the last strike was in December.
Kalagarh, India
Man-eating tiger: Hunters riding elephants are trying to track a tiger that strayed out of a national park in northern India six weeks ago and has since killed 10 people. The man-eater, believed to be a 4-year-old female, has been nicknamed the Mysterious Queen. She has traveled some 150 miles, crossing highways and rivers, killing every few days and leaving mauled, partially eaten bodies behind. “Once they become man--eaters they become invisible, very cunning, just like ghosts,” said Belinda Wright of India’s Wildlife Protection Society. India is home to more than half of the world’s 3,200 tigers, which have no remaining natural habitat outside of wildlife reserves.
Nanjing, China
Taiwan talks: High officials from Taiwan and China have held their first official talks in 65 years. Representatives met for four days in Nanjing, which was the capital of Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China until Mao Zedong’s Communists routed the Nationalists in 1949, sending them fleeing to Taiwan. China considers Taiwan part of its territory, and relations were often extremely tense until the 2008 election of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, who favors closer ties. Since then, trade has doubled and tourism between the two countries has soared. “Before today’s meeting, it was hard to imagine that cross-Strait relations could get to this point,” said Wang Yu-chi, head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council.
Tokyo
No Beethoven: A popular Japanese composer celebrated as a deaf genius has admitted that he faked his deafness and didn’t write his symphonies. Mamoru Samuragochi was outed as a fraud last week by his ghostwriter, who came forward because a Japanese men’s figure skater had chosen to skate to a Samuragochi sonatina at the Sochi Olympics. “I could not bear the thought of skater Daisuke Takahashi being seen by the world as a co-conspirator in our crime,” said Takashi Niigaki, the man who actually composed the works attributed to Samuragochi. A humiliated Samuragochi said he was partly deaf, but not as deaf as he pretended, and that he had not written two popular works attributed to him: the soundtrack for the video game Resident Evil and the famous Hiroshima Symphony No. 1.
