Tripoli, Libya
Leader sues Brits: A top Libyan rebel leader is suing the British government and MI6 for their role in the rendition and alleged torture of him and his wife. Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, head of the Tripoli Military Council and a former leader of the militant Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, was an anti-Qaddafi dissident who tried to get asylum in Britain in 2004, but the British turned him and his wife over to the U.S. instead. Belhaj says they were tortured in a secret U.S. prison and then handed over to Libya, where they were detained and tortured for six more years. The British arranged that transfer: In a 2004 letter to the head of Libyan intelligence, an MI6 director said transferring Belhaj “was the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over the years.”
Baghdad
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Maliki makes his move: Less than a week after the last U.S. troops left Iraq, Shiite and Sunni politicians turned on one another. First, the secular, mostly Sunni Iraqiya political bloc pulled out of parliament to protest Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s insistence on centralizing power and refusal to allow Sunnis more autonomy. Maliki struck back by calling for the ouster of Deputy Prime Minister Salih al-Mutlaq, a Sunni who has accused him of creating a new dictatorship. More ominously, Maliki ordered the arrest of the Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, on charges of running a death squad, saying that Hashimi’s bodyguards had confessed. “This is terrifying, to bring fabricated confessions,” said Iraqiya leader Iyad Allawi. “It reminds me personally of what Saddam Hussein used to do.”
Idlib, Syria
Crackdown continues: More than 100 people were killed in Syria on a single day this week, in one of the bloodiest days of the ongoing revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. Troops machine-gunned soldiers who were trying to desert from an army base in Idlib, killing at least 60, while dozens of civilians were killed in crackdowns elsewhere. The violence came the very day Assad’s regime signed an agreement to accept Arab League monitors into the country to oversee its withdrawal of troops from the streets. The next day, Assad ordered the death penalty for anyone distributing weapons to “terrorists”—i.e., protesters or army deserters.
Mindanao, Philippines
Deadly flooding: Nearly 1,000 people drowned or were crushed in their sleep in the Philippines last week when flash floods and landslides swept through two southern cities. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated, and President Benigno Aquino III declared a state of national calamity. Leo Jasareno, director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, said illegal mining that denuded mountaintops had contributed to the disaster. Survivors said they saw processed logs smash into buildings, evidence that illegal sawmills were operating in the area. Aquino has ordered an investigation.
Sakhalin Island, Russia
Oil rig sinks: Some 50 workers froze to death or drowned this week when a Russian oil rig sank in icy waters. The floating platform was being towed back to a Sakhalin Island port in a winter storm when it capsized. Ivan Mishnev, one of 14 hospitalized survivors, said he swam away from the platform and saw it sink. “I was afraid I’d be sucked down,” he said. Rescuers didn’t expect to find other survivors, because the water temperature was 34 degrees, cold enough to kill anyone in it for longer than half an hour. Relatives of the dead said the state-owned oil company had ordered the rig moved through 18-foot swells against the captain’s wishes.
Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan
Police brutality: Hundreds of people protested in Kazakhstan this week against a violent police crackdown on striking oil workers. Workers angry over unpaid wages had been staging a sit-in for months in a central square in the western town of Zhanaozen. When officials began putting up holiday decorations in the square, the workers clashed with police, and police opened fire on them. A subsequent protest in a nearby city prompted another police barrage. Officials said 14 people were killed in the incidents, while activists said the toll was at least triple that. Protesters this week began carrying signs saying “Don’t Shoot the People.”
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