Moscow
USAID booted: President Vladimir Putin has kicked the U.S. Agency for International Development out of Russia. The government agency, which funds health projects and human rights programs across the world, drew the Kremlin’s ire for its funding of Golos, the independent election-monitoring group that documented extensive fraud in the recent Russian parliamentary and presidential elections. Putin also alleged that the U.S. government used USAID to orchestrate the vast protest movement against him. His announcement of USAID’s closure came just days after another demonstration against him in Moscow drew tens of thousands of people.
Beijing
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Fury at Japan: Thousands of people attacked Japanese-owned shops and factories in cities across China this week and hurled paint bombs at the Japanese Embassy during mass protests against Japan’s recent purchase of islands claimed by Beijing. The uninhabited East China Sea islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are near important sea lanes and fishing grounds. They have been in Japanese hands for most of the past century, and last week the Japanese government bought them from a private Japanese owner. The incident ended the seclusion of Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping, who hadn’t been seen for weeks as he recuperated from a back injury. In a meeting with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Xi said, “Japan should rein in its behavior and stop any words and acts that undermine China’s sovereignty.”
Marau, Solomon Islands
Topless is the norm: The Duchess of Cambridge has a sense of humor. The former Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William, was still reeling from the publication by a French magazine of topless photos of her (see Best columns: Europe) when she was greeted by bare-chested tribeswomen on her royal tour. The duchess blushed and laughed as the women, clad only in traditional grass skirts, placed a garland around her neck. The royal family has won an injunction against Closer magazine, which may not continue to sell or reprint images taken of the couple sunbathing at a private château in France. But the photos had already appeared in two other newspapers as well as numerous websites.
Tal Abyad, Syria
Fighting on the borders: The Syrian civil war threatened to spill across the Turkish and Lebanese borders this week. Rebels attacked Syrian soldiers and then retreated into Lebanon, and Syrian forces pursued them with helicopters and planes firing missiles, although Lebanese officials said no missiles landed in Lebanese territory. Shortly afterward, rebels captured a Syrian government border post just a mile from Turkey, pulling down the Syrian flag and allowing Syrian civilians to cross into Turkey. Amnesty International reported that “indiscriminate air bombardments and artillery strikes by the Syrian army were killing, maiming, and terrorizing” Syrian civilians in the northwestern region near Turkey.
Kampala, Uganda
Jailed for a play: Ugandan authorities have arrested a British theater producer for staging a play about a gay Ugandan businessman in several small theaters in Kampala last month. David Cecil, a straight father of two, put on the tragicomic play, in which the man’s mother tries to cure him of homosexuality and his employees eventually hack him to death. Cecil faces up to two years in prison if convicted. Homosexual acts are illegal in Uganda, where a bill proposing the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” has been sitting in committee for two years. Authorities said they were considering bringing charges against the Ugandan actors as well.
