The week at a glance ... International

Moscow

New gas war: Europe was facing a shortage of natural gas this week after Russia cut supplies to Belarus over a payment dispute. Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom says Belarus owes it $200 million. Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, though, charges Gazprom with failing to pay $260 million in fees for transporting gas on to Europe, and he has threatened to retaliate by shutting off his country’s pipeline. Since the Russian cutoff is hitting during the summer, most European countries are expected to cope with the shortage without major cuts in service. In a similar dispute last year between Gazprom and Ukraine, a gas shutoff left millions of European homes without heat during a brutal winter.

Karasu, Uzbekistan

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Humanitarian crisis: Tens of thousands of ethnic Uzbeks who fled recent fighting in southern Kyrgyzstan are living in appalling conditions in refugee camps in Uzbekistan, U.N. officials said this week. Some 90 percent of the refugees are women and children, as most able-bodied men stayed behind to protect their homes from the Kyrgyz militias that were setting fire to Uzbek property. Many of the children are becoming dehydrated in the baking heat of the camps, where water is in short supply. “We have great concern about water and sanitation,” said UNICEF official John Budd. “There is one toilet per 120 people.”

Hong Kong

Battle over legacies: Chinese officials have stopped the publication in Hong Kong of former Prime Minister Li Peng’s diary, in which he blames the late leader Deng Xiaoping for the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Li himself has long been considered responsible for ordering the bloody crackdown on protesters. The memoir, already banned on the Chinese mainland, was due to arrive in Hong Kong bookstores this week. But at the last minute Hong Kong publisher Bao Pu stopped a print run, saying that government officials had threatened him with prosecution for copyright infringement. Still, excerpts of the manuscript have been leaked online—possibly by those trying to rehabilitate Li’s legacy.

Kabul

U.S. funds Taliban: U.S. tax money is indirectly funding the Taliban, a congressional investigation revealed this week. The Pentagon pays private security contractors—mostly Afghan companies—millions of dollars a year to provide armed guards to protect supply convoys. But the House inquiry found that some contractors are actually using the money to bribe the Taliban not to attack convoys, while others are subcontracting the jobs out to local warlords. Said Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.), who heads the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs: “This arrangement has fueled a vast protection racket run by a shadowy network of warlords, strongmen, commanders, corrupt Afghan officials, and perhaps others.”

Durban, South Africa

Female condom with teeth: South African women are trying out a new anti-rape device—a female condom lined with hooks. The Rape-aXe, which is inserted like a tampon, has rows of hooks, which attach to a man’s penis during penetration; he can’t get it off without a doctor’s help. “If he tries to remove it, it will clasp even tighter,” said the designer, Dr. Sonnet Ehlers. “However, it doesn’t break the skin, and there’s no danger of fluid exposure.” Ehlers is distributing thousands of the devices to South African women in cities hosting World Cup games. South Africa has the highest rate of rape in the world. A 2009 report by the nation’s Medical Research Council found that 28 percent of South African men surveyed had committed rape.

Yangadou, Republic of Congo

Deadly crash: A chartered jet crashed in the Congo jungle this week, killing the entire board of directors of one of Australia’s top mining firms, including one of Australia’s richest men. Billionaire Ken Talbot and the other Sundance Resources board members were heading to an iron mine when their turboprop went down for unknown reasons, killing all 11 people aboard. Talbot, 59, was a trucker’s son who built a mining empire from scratch. The founder and former chief executive of Macarthur Coal, he resigned from that company in June 2008 amid allegations he bribed a Queensland government minister. His trial was set to start in August.