Moscow
Opposition leader released: Russia’s flexible justice system was on display last week when the country’s most prominent opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was convicted of embezzlement—and then abruptly released. The authorities brought the dubious charges in a bid to sideline Navalny, who gained fame as a blogger by exposing massive corruption in state-run companies and then helped spur protests against stolen elections. But his sentencing to five years in prison prompted thousands to protest what they called a show trial. The state prosecutor then ordered Navalny released so he could run for mayor of Moscow this fall—possibly to give the election a veneer of legitimacy. “I could be arrested before the elections, after the elections,” he said. “But if you constantly think about this, then you will never be able to achieve anything.”
Moscow
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Snowden still stuck: U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden will stay in Russia awhile longer, his Russian lawyer said this week. The NSA contractor who leaked evidence of a massive, worldwide U.S. surveillance program has been stuck in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for more than a month because the U.S. revoked his passport. Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua have all said they would grant him political asylum, but he can’t travel to those countries until he gets temporary Russian asylum, which has not been issued, despite Russian reports to the contrary. And according to Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden believes it is unsafe to attempt to travel to Latin America anytime soon because the U.S. may try to nab him. “Currently, his final country of destination is Russia,” Kucherena said.
Pyongyang, North Korea
Big party: North Korea staged a huge celebration for the 60th anniversary of the Korean armistice this week, even though it still considers itself on war footing with South Korea. Pyongyang casts the cease-fire that ended the Korean War as a great victory, which it intermittently marks with Olympic-style games and propagandistic pageants. North Korea may have decided to hold this year’s games—one of the country’s few tourist attractions—to gain foreign currency, which is in short supply since it shut down a joint venture with Seoul earlier this year. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly invited foreign reporters to interview him at the games, for a fee of $1 million per audience.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Blaming the rape victim: The United Arab Emirates’ antiquated rape laws drew international condemnation after a Norwegian woman who reported being raped in Dubai was jailed for adultery. Marte Deborah Dalelv, 24, went to police to report being raped by a co-worker. She was promptly arrested, convicted of having extramarital sex and drinking alcohol, and sentenced to 16 months in prison—three months more than her attacker got on the same charges. After the case came to the world’s attention last week, Dubai authorities pardoned Dalelv—but also her attacker, and the country hasn’t changed its laws. A rape conviction in the UAE requires a confession by the rapist or the testimony of four adult male witnesses. “The fight for human rights for all continues,” said Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.
Baghdad
Abu Ghraib breakout: Al Qaida–linked militants freed some 500 prisoners from Abu Ghraib prison this week, adding to fears that Iraq is heading for civil war. Suicide bombers in bomb-laden cars blasted open the prison’s front gate, allowing gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades to pour in. The escapees include some of the terror network’s top Iraqi leaders on death row. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a new Sunni group resulting from the merger in April of al Qaida militants in Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility and said it intended to overthrow the Shiite-led Iraqi government. The last two weeks in Iraq have been horrifically violent, with some 250 people killed in bombings and gun battles.
Cairo
Where’s Mursi? Clashes between supporters and opponents of ousted President Mohammed Mursi worsened in Cairo this week. At least a dozen people, mostly Islamists, were killed in running battles that Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood said were started by “Interior Ministry thugs.” The Brotherhood said it would not stop protesting until the former president was released. But Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who replaced Mursi’s government with an interim administration, called on all Egyptians to demonstrate against the Islamist protesters. “Give me a mandate and an order to confront possible violence and terrorism,” he said. Mursi’s family, meanwhile, said they hadn’t seen him since the military deposed him three weeks ago, and the U.S. called for his release.
