Cairo
Mubarak to be charged: The new Egyptian authorities have seized the assets of former President Hosni Mubarak and his family as they prepare an investigation into corruption charges. “It’s important, even just symbolically,” said Hala Mustafa, editor of Democracy Review, an Egyptian quarterly. “It shows [the authorities] understand what happened here was a real revolution.” Opponents accuse Mubarak of diverting millions or billions of dollars from official coffers. Estimates of the Mubarak family’s wealth range from $1 billion to $70 billion. Experts say finding that money will be difficult, as most of it may be hidden in shell companies under assumed names. An Egyptian newspaper reported this week that Mubarak had left the country for chemotherapy treatments in Saudi Arabia. He is suffering from pancreatic and colon cancer.
Baghdad
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Who checks the women? The female inspectors who frisk women for suicide belts at Baghdad police checkpoints haven’t been paid in a year, raising new security concerns. The U.S. military set up the all-female units, known as the Daughters of Iraq, to combat a wave of female suicide bombers without violating the country’s strong taboo against men touching women. But since the Iraqi government took over administration of the program, the women haven’t been paid once, and some have quit. “They keep promising they’ll pay us next month, then next month,” Hind Jasim told The New York Times. “What keeps us here are their promises.” The lack of pay casts some doubt on the Iraqi government’s ability to provide security as the remaining 50,000 U.S. troops depart over the next 10 months.
Tehran
Dissidents missing: Rumors that Iran’s two main opposition leaders had been imprisoned sparked violent demonstrations in Tehran this week. Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, along with their wives, were put under house arrest last month after they called for an uprising. But last week a neighbor of the Karroubis told an opposition website that he saw them being hauled away from their home in the night; both couples are believed to be in prison. Hundreds of protesters shouted “Death to the dictator” and “Khamenei is a murderer” in reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but they were outnumbered by riot police wielding tear gas. The Iranian regime said the men had not been moved from their homes.
Islamabad, Pakistan
Christian lawmaker assassinated: Pakistan’s only Christian Cabinet member was gunned down this week in the second assassination of a top official who had opposed the country’s blasphemy law. Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti was in his government car outside his home when four gunmen sprayed it with bullets, then left Taliban literature behind. Bhatti had received many death threats and had asked for—but didn’t receive—a bulletproof car following the January assassination of Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer, who was killed by a bodyguard. Taseer led the unpopular movement to reform the law, which makes it a crime punishable by death to say anything even slightly critical of the Prophet Muhammad, the Koran, or Islam. Both men had defended Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to hang for blasphemy.
Delhi
Death for arsonists: An Indian court this week sentenced 11 Muslims to death and 20 to life in prison for setting a passenger train on fire in 2002. The blaze killed 59 Hindu pilgrims and sparked a wave of bloody reprisals across the state of Gujarat, where 1,000 Muslims were killed by Hindu mobs bent on revenge. Of the nearly 100 Muslims arrested and accused of participating in a conspiracy to burn the train, a court last month acquitted 63 for lack of evidence. Human-rights activists have long argued that the fire was not arson, but rather an accidental blaze started during a scuffle between Hindu nationalists and Muslims, and an in-depth analysis by leading Indian investigative newspaper Tehelka supports that theory. The defense said it would appeal. “The prosecution changed the conspiracy theory twice, and that is enough ground to challenge the verdict,” said one lawyer, I.M. Munshi.
Beijing
No strolling: Thousands of riot police swarmed China’s major cities this week to thwart an Internet call for “Jasmine Revolution” protests. Anonymous groups on Chinese and international websites called for Chinese citizens to show their support for democratic reforms not by marching or chanting, but merely by “strolling” past a certain site—a McDonald’s on Wangfujing Street in Beijing, and other sites in other cities. Foreign reporters who arrived to cover the strolls were beaten and detained. Over the past week, more than 100 prominent dissidents have been questioned and at least five detained on state-security charges that carry long prison sentences.
