The week at a glance...International

last updated 8 January 2015

Kim kills ex: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un had his ex-girlfriend executed by firing squad last month, according to South Korean media. Hyon Song Wol and 11 members of her music troupe were killed for allegedly making a porn film. Kim reportedly dated singer Hyon for years until his father forced him to dump her a decade ago. He later married Hyon’s fellow band member, Ri Sol Ju. Meanwhile, former basketball star Dennis Rodman went to Pyongyang this week to visit Kim, whom he called “my friend, the marshal.” The family of American missionary Kenneth Bae, jailed in North Korea for proselytizing, said they hoped Rodman would persuade Kim to release him.

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What’s land worth? India is poised to adopt a land reform bill that mandates high compensation to farmers when developers take over their land. The bill, which already passed the lower house, requires developers to pay four times the market value of land in rural areas and twice the value in urban areas. It’s intended to compensate small-plot owners, who have historically been swindled when their land was seized under eminent domain. But business groups say the high payment required will effectively kill all development, whether public or private, just as the country is trying to industrialize. More than half of Indians work in agriculture, which accounts for just 16 percent of gross domestic product.

Islamabad

Untrusted friend: The U.S. watches its purported ally Pakistan more closely than many of its enemies, according to documents leaked to The Washington Post by ex–NSA contractor Edward Snowden. In recent years, U.S. surveillance of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and biological and chemical weapons sites has intensified, the documents show, and the CIA has doubts about the loyalty of sources it recruits there. “If the Americans are expanding their surveillance capabilities, it can only mean one thing,” said Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. “The mistrust now exceeds the trust.” Most alarmingly, the documents show that U.S. intelligence doesn’t know much about the security surrounding Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

Tehran

Suing the U.S.: Iran says it will sue the U.S. for overthrowing its democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, in 1953. Documents showing that the CIA was behind the coup were recently declassified, and the Iranian parliament passed a bill requiring the government to sue for monetary damages. Mossadegh had nationalized the oil industry, angering the British, who asked the CIA for help. The coup reinstated the autocratic rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was then deposed in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. International legal experts say there’s no legal venue where Iran could bring a suit because the two countries have no arbitration agreement.

Jerusalem

Missile test: An unannounced U.S.-Israeli missile test over the Mediterranean Sea this week caused a flurry of speculation in Syria and Russia that a U.S. attack had begun. Russian media first reported that Russian radar detected two ballistic objects, and some hours later Israel and the U.S. said it was a joint test of Israel’s missile defense system. Some Russian officials complained off the record that Israel should have warned Moscow ahead of time, given the tension around Syria. “In regular days the Russians would not see it,” said Arieh Herzog, former head of Israel’s missile defenses. “But right now they have probably many sensors looking at the region.”

Goma, Congo

War threatens to spread: U.N. and Congolese troops drove Rwandan-backed rebels out of a town in eastern Congo this week as Rwanda threatened to openly join the war. The ethnic Tutsi M23 movement—which Human Rights Watch accuses of executions, rapes, and forced recruitment of children—has been fighting Congolese troops around Goma over the last year, causing more than 100,000 people to flee. The rebels retreated once U.N. troops deployed helicopters and heavy artillery. Rwanda denied U.N. allegations that its troops were fighting alongside M23, but a government newspaper showed photos of troops massing on the border. “Rwandan troops are not in [Congo] yet,” Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said. “When they are, you will know.”