Nairobi, Kenya
Elected, and wanted: The International Criminal Court says it won’t drop charges against President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta. Kenya’s richest man and the son of the country’s first president, Kenyatta is wanted for allegedly inciting the ethnic violence that killed some 1,200 people after the 2007 election. “While we are all aware of political developments in Kenya, these have no influence, at all, on the decisions that I make,” said prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in The Hague, Netherlands. Some analysts believe that the idea that Kenyatta was being targeted by the West may have helped win him votes. Still, he barely cleared the 50 percent hurdle required for victory, and rival Raila Odinga has asked for a recount.
Cairo
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Activist disinvited: The U.S. State Department has rescinded an award for pioneering Egyptian activist Samira Ibrahim because of her anti-Semitic tweets. Ibrahim broke a taboo by speaking out about her abuse by Egyptian soldiers, who arrested her and other female protesters in Tahrir Square in 2011 and subjected them to intrusive “virginity tests.” She was to be among this year’s winners of the department’s International Women of Courage Award until a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum official drew attention to her Twitter feed, in which she praised Hitler and attacks on Israelis. After initially claiming that her Twitter account had been hacked, Ibrahim later boasted that she refused to apologize “to the Zionist lobby in America.”
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
A dearth of executioners: Saudi Arabia may have to stop beheading the condemned because of a lack of skilled swordsmen who can act as executioners. An unnamed official told Al Youm newspaper that swordsmen “are not readily available everywhere, and on some occasions, executions were marred by confusion as the executioner was late.” The delay, he said, prompted people to spread false rumors through social media that the accused had been pardoned. A government committee studying execution alternatives has rejected a proposal to use lethal injections, but this week it ruled that execution by firing squad would not violate Islamic law.
Kabul
Karzai’s accusation: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has accused the U.S. of colluding with the Taliban. The bizarre allegation came during Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s first visit to Afghanistan, a tour marred by two suicide bombings that killed at least 18 people. Karzai said the Taliban bombers were killing civilians “in service to America,” to convince Afghans that foreign forces should stay beyond 2014, when most NATO troops are due to withdraw. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, NATO’s commander in Afghanistan, called the charge “categorically false,” and others pointed out that the Taliban want foreign troops to leave, not stay. Karzai has made several anti-American statements in recent weeks. “He wants to be remembered as the guy who kicked out the foreigners,” said media magnate Saad Mohseni. Hagel’s laconic reaction: “These are complicated issues.”
New Delhi
Rape suspect dead: One of the six men accused of a notorious gang rape in Delhi has been found dead, hanged in the prison cell he shared with three other inmates. Prison officials called the death a suicide, but the family of Ram Singh said they believe he was murdered, and the government ordered an investigation. Two other suspects have begged to be transferred from their prison, saying they have been repeatedly raped and beaten by guards and other inmates. “My clients are very terrified,” said their lawyer, A.P. Singh. “They said yesterday before the open court, ‘Shoot me, but don’t send me back to Tihar Jail.’” The men are accused of the savage rape and disembowelment in December of a 23-year-old student, who was able to give evidence to police before she died.
Shanghai
Drink up: Shanghai officials are telling residents not to worry about the thousands of dead pigs rotting in the river that feeds their water supply. Disgusting photos of bloated pig carcasses along the Huangpu River have appeared in many Chinese papers and websites in recent days. The pigs have been dying in droves of an unspecified epidemic, and rather than bury them, many farmers opt to chuck the corpses into the nearest river. “They are everywhere, and they smell very bad,” a resident of one upstream village told China Central Television. Jiaxing Daily reported that some corpses were missing their hind legs. “What if they were cooked in a restaurant?” it said.
Tokyo
Radiation lingers: On the second anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear reactor, thousands of protesters demonstrated in Tokyo this week against nuclear power. All of Japan’s 50 remaining reactors were shut down after the accident, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, elected in December, wants to bring them back on line with new safeguards. The Fukushima plant, though, has been written off: It is still contaminating hundreds of thousands of gallons of groundwater a day. “It will take 30 to 40 years to remove the melted nuclear fuel to safe storage,” said Fukushima manager Takeshi Takahashi. “During that process, we must never again release radioactive materials.”
