Tripoli, Libya
Qaddafi threatens Europe: Increasingly beleaguered Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi threatened last week to attack Europe unless NATO stops bombing his country. “We are capable of throwing ourselves on Europe like swarms of locusts or bees,” he said. “We could attack your homes, your offices, your families.” The warning came days after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Qaddafi and his top aides for crimes against humanity. Meanwhile, the Air Force Times reported that the U.S. continues to fly many combat missions over Libya, in contrast to the Obama administration’s assertion that the U.S.’s role is minimal and confined mostly to support. The U.S. has flown nearly 3,500 sorties over Libya since operations began March 19, including more than 800
strike sorties.
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Suez, Egypt
Riots over police impunity: Families of people killed during the Egyptian revolution rioted in Suez this week over a decision to release on bail seven police officers implicated in the deadly crackdown. The case against the seven, charged with killing 17 protesters in the coastal city of Suez, is one of the first to be brought in the wake of the popular revolt that drove President Hosni Mubarak from power in February. More than 850 people were killed and some 6,000 injured during the 18-day uprising. Frustrated by the slow pace of justice, thousands of people protested last week in Cairo, demanding the ouster of Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak’s longtime defense minister, who now heads the new military government.
Beirut
Hezbollah indicted: The U.N. tribunal investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri has indicted four members of Hezbollah, the Islamist militant and political group backed by Syria and Iran. The tribunal said the four must be arrested within 30 days, but that is unlikely. “Not in 30 days, not in 30 years or 300 years will they be able to arrest anybody,” said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. He said the men had “an honorable history in the resistance” against Israel and called the tribunal an Israeli plot. Hariri was killed along with 22 others in a 2005 bombing in Beirut. His death led to mass protests that forced Syrian troops to leave Lebanon after three decades of occupation.
Thiruvananthapuram, India
Fortune in temple: A stunning hoard of treasure—possibly the largest in the world—was discovered in the vaults of a Hindu temple in Kerala state last week, including bags of diamonds, other gems, and gold coins worth at least $22 billion. The vaults of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple were opened after a local lawyer asked for an audit to settle allegations that temple funds were being mismanaged. The temple is run by a trust controlled by descendants of the royal family of Travancore, which once ruled the area and is believed to have donated much of the treasure over the centuries as offerings to the god Vishnu. After a brief dispute over ownership, India’s Supreme Court this week ordered that the trove be preserved in a museum.
Bangkok
Female prime minister: The sister of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra won an outright majority in parliamentary elections this week to become the country’s first female prime minister. Yingluck Shinawatra said she planned to invite other parties into a coalition to broaden her mandate even further and ease concerns that violence could erupt over the fate of her brother, exiled since a 2006 coup. The election is a victory for Thaksin supporters, known as Red Shirts, and a setback for the country’s ruling elite, who had toppled him because they saw him as a threat to the monarchy. Clashes between pro- and anti-Thaksin crowds have unsettled the country for most of the past decade; analysts are hopeful that Yingluck’s new coalition government can bridge the gap.
Fukushima, Japan
Reactors at risk? The nuclear plant at Fukushima may have been catastrophically damaged by the March earthquake itself, not the tsunami that followed, The Atlantic reported last week. Japanese authorities have maintained that the danger arose when the tsunami wiped out the reactors’ backup generators. That would indicate that nuclear plants away from the coasts are safe from such a disaster. But workers at Fukushima told The Atlantic that the plant’s cooling pipes buckled and burst long before the tidal wave hit—which would mean that all plants in earthquake-prone Japan are at risk. “They are using a number of antiquated reactors that have the same systematic problems,” said nuclear expert Katsunobu Onda, “the same wear and tear on the piping.”
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