Moscow
Smear backfires: An attempt by supporters of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to discredit a blogger who has been leading anti-Putin protests failed spectacularly this week. A pro-Kremlin newspaper published a doctored photo purporting to show blogger Alexei Navalny laughing with Boris Berezovsky, a fugitive billionaire widely hated in Russia. But Navalny put the original photo—which shows him with another man—up on his blog, and the image quickly went viral. Russians began posting doctored images of Navalny with an alien, with a robot, with Stalin, and even with Putin. “The general effect of all these actions led to more people learning that Putin and his team are just swindlers and fraudsters,” Navalny said.
Beijing
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Officials drive Porsches: The Chinese government spends millions on luxury cars for officials, and Chinese citizens are getting angry. Thousands of Communist Party officials drive $100,000 Audis, while police race around in Porsche SUVs and military officers drive $560,000 Bentleys. At a microblog site called Anti–Official Cars Extravagance, launched last summer, people have been posting photos of the luxury government cars being used for personal business, along with sarcastic comments. “Why does the military need sports cars?” one commenter wrote. “Will it help them run faster when there’s a war?” Bloggers have noted that the same government won’t spend money on schoolbuses; 21 kindergartners recently died in the crash of a van that was designed for nine passengers but was packed with 62 children.
Islamabad, Pakistan
Musharraf to return: Stunning his countrymen, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said this week that he would return to Pakistan this month to run for office. Musharraf, who led Pakistan’s military government from 1999 until he was forced to resign by a pro-democracy movement in 2008, has been living in exile in Dubai. Prosecutors said that if he returned he would be arrested for abetting or arranging the 2007 killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Musharraf is accused of intentionally failing to provide security for Bhutto. “We look forward to him coming back and facing the law for the deeds he has committed,” said opposition lawmaker Ahsan Iqbal. “He has twice abrogated the constitution, he has put Balochistan on fire, demolished the judiciary, and censored the media, and under his rule Pakistan became a haven for suicide bombers.”
North Waziristan, Pakistan
Drone strikes resume: After a six-week lull, the U.S. resumed drone attacks inside Pakistan this week with a strike that killed four Islamist militants, three of them Arabs, near the Afghan border. The U.S. military had halted drone strikes in November, after an errant strike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan responded to that incident by closing U.S. supply routes into Afghanistan and demanding the closure of a drone airbase. The lull in drone attacks, The New York Times reported, had helped al Qaida and several Pakistani militant organizations to regroup, and step up attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Persian Gulf, near Iran
Americans rescue Iranians: Even as Iran was warning the U.S. to stay away from its waters, American sailors swooped in to rescue Iranian crews—twice. Last week, sailors from the Navy destroyer USS Kidd stormed an Iranian dhow and freed 13 Iranian fishermen who had been held hostage onboard by Somali pirates for a month and a half. The sailors detained the Somalis, gave the Iranians food, and refueled their boat so they could return home. And this week, a Coast Guard vessel patrolling the Persian Gulf responded to a distress call from an Iranian cargo ship that had a fire in its engine room. American sailors gave the six Iranian crewmen a halal meal and blankets and then transferred them to an Iranian coast guard vessel. U.S. ships carry halal meals “to provide to Muslim mariners in distress,” the Navy said.
Damascus, Syria
A vast conspiracy: In a rare live broadcast, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that the 10-month uprising in his country was the work of a foreign conspiracy. His first speech to the nation in six months was a litany of complaints and threats. Assad blamed “outsiders,” “terrorists,” and even the Arab League for the continuing protests, and said he would use “an iron fist” to suppress them. That fist is already in evidence: At least 5,500 people have been killed since March, including at least 400 people in the past two weeks. An Arab League monitoring mission, in place since late December, has failed to stem the bloody crackdown. At least one monitor quit the mission in disgust, saying it was “a farce.”
Johannesburg
University stampede: One woman died this week and several people were injured in a stampede by students seeking admission to the University of Johannesburg. Thousands of students and parents camped out by the university gates the day before admissions began, hoping to get one of fewer than 1,000 remaining spots. When the gates began to open, the crowd rushed. “They were pushing and pushing,” said Katleho Mphatsoe, one of the hopefuls. “Even the gates fell over.” South Africa has far too few universities to serve the demand for higher education. After the stampede, Education Minister Blade Nzimande urged students to consider technical colleges instead.
