The week at a glance...International

Marrakesh, Morocco

Child sex-abuse scandal: Morocco has launched an inquiry into allegations that a former French Cabinet minister had sex with Moroccan child prostitutes. The allegation surfaced during one of many recent TV debates about French politicians and sex in the wake of the arrest on assault charges of former IMF leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Former Education Minister Luc Ferry said he knew of plenty of such crimes, including one involving an unnamed colleague who, he said, had been “caught in Marrakesh in an orgy with small boys” but had been quickly released and flown back to France in a cover-up. Ferry refused to name the man, saying he had no proof. The French weekly L’Express reported that former Culture Minister Jack Lang was considering filing a lawsuit against Ferry for slander. Morocco is said to be a favorite destination for European pedophiles.

South Kordofan, Sudan

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Thousands flee fighting: Just weeks before oil-rich south Sudan formally declares independence from the north, the north Sudanese army bombed the border region, causing thousands to flee. Northern forces targeted pro-southern groups in South Kordofan, the only oil-producing state the north will have after secession. Some 60,000 people are estimated to have fled South Kordofan, and another 100,000 have been displaced from Abyei, a disputed area seized by northern forces last month. President Obama warned that if the north didn’t end the violence, it wouldn’t attain its long-sought goal of being removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terror. “Now is the time for Sudanese leaders to show the courage and vision that true leadership demands,” he said. “Now is the time for Sudanese leaders, north and south, to choose peace.”

Cairo

American arrested as spy: Egyptian authorities have arrested an Israeli-American law student on suspicion of spying for Israel. Ilan Grapel, 27, had a grant from Emory University to volunteer for the summer with a group that helps refugees in Cairo. “There is no chance he’s a spy,” said his mother, Irene Grapel. “Law students don’t have time to be spies.” Egypt’s military authorities said that Grapel had been at the protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February, trying to incite demonstrators to attack the military and to whip up strife between Christians and Muslims. Israel said Grapel served as a paratrooper in the Israeli army during the 2006 Lebanon war but was not a spy. Anti-Israeli sentiment has been growing in Egypt since the protests, which the Mubarak regime blamed on Israeli infiltrators.

Zinjibar, Yemen

Al Qaida stronghold: Islamist militants linked to al Qaida are capitalizing on the power vacuum left by the departure from Yemen last week of wounded President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Militants have taken over at least two southern towns in the past few weeks, including Zinjibar, a port city near a vital oil-shipping lane. After being pounded by government shelling and gunfire, Zinjibar now lacks electricity and water, and thousands of residents have fled. The militants “want to create an Islamic emirate,” local journalist Mohammed al-Shuhairi told The Washington Post. “I have lived through wars here in 1978, 1986, and 1994. But I have never seen anything as bad as this.” The U.S. said this week it would now open a CIA drone operation against the militants.

Ankara, Turkey

Erdogan wins again: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a third term this week, as Turkey’s ruling pro-Islamic party swept to victory in parliamentary elections. Buoyed by a growing economy, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) took 50 percent of the vote, its largest share yet. But it fell short of the two-thirds majority that would enable it to automatically push through Erdogan’s plans to draft a new constitution and shift the country to a presidential system. “Our nation delivered to us a call for consensus and dialogue in making this new constitution,” Erdogan said. Supporters credit Erdogan with curbing the power of the military to meddle in politics and bringing Turkey closer to EU membership. Critics fault him for infringing on civil liberties and jailing journalists.

Islamabad, Pakistan

With friends like these: The relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. soured further this week when Pakistan arrested five citizens for allegedly giving information to the CIA about Osama bin Laden’s hideout. The government denied reports that those arrested included a Pakistani army major who had recorded the license plates of cars visiting bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad. The arrests came amid renewed suspicions that someone in Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, has been leaking information to militants. Twice since bin Laden’s killing, U.S. officials say, they gave Pakistani authorities specific locations of insurgent bomb factories so that the Pakistanis, rather than U.S. drones, could attack them. Both times, Pakistani troops found the sites abandoned by the time they arrived. Outgoing CIA director Leon Panetta was in Pakistan this week to discuss the countries’ intelligence ties.

Zengcheng, China

Protests everywhere: A rash of unrelated violent protests has sent armored cars into Chinese cities and prompted the government to shut down the Internet in some places. This week migrant workers rampaged through Zengcheng, in the south of the country, after security guards beat a pregnant street vendor. Thousands of people rioted last week in the central Chinese city of Lichuan after a bureaucrat who had led a local fight against corruption was apparently beaten to death in police custody. The protest wave started last month in Inner Mongolia, when ethnic Mongols rioted after a nomad was killed by a Han Chinese truck driver. The Communist Party newspaper Global Times dismissed in an editorial any suggestion that the protests could spark an Arab Spring–like movement. “China is not a nation where public anger collectively seeks to topple the existing order,” it said. “It is time to debunk this ludicrous lie.”

Fukushima, Japan

Radiation detectors: Thousands of schoolchildren in Fukushima will be given radiation monitors to wear round the clock, officials said this week. The city lies outside the 12-mile no-go zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant, and the fixed monitors in place show acceptable radiation levels, but residents are still concerned. The birth of an albino rabbit with no ears, reported by a local rabbit breeder a few weeks ago, renewed fears about radiation released into the atmosphere. “The distribution of dosimeters will help ease parents’ worries if they confirm that their children’s exposure does not pose health risks,” said Masazo Kikuchi of the Fukushima school board.