The week at a glance ... International

Lilongwe, Malawi

Gay couple freed: Two gay men who had recently been sentenced to 14 years of hard labor for “gross indecency and unnatural acts” have been pardoned and freed. Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga were convicted last month after publicly celebrating their engagement; their convictions sparked an international outcry. An embarrassed President Bingu wa Mutharika reluctantly pardoned the men after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paid a personal visit to the country. “These two gay boys were wrong, totally wrong,” Mutharika said. “However, they are pardoned.” But the government’s minister for gender affairs, Patricia Kaliati, said Malawi would not consider overturning its ban on homosexuality and would rearrest the two men if they “continue doing that.”

Tehran, Iran

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Stockpiling nuclear fuel: International inspectors declared this week that Iran has now produced enough nuclear fuel to make two nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency report is expected to bolster the Obama administration’s case for new sanctions against Iran and further diminish prospects for a deal, recently revived by Turkey and Brazil, in which Iran would send a portion of its nuclear stockpile out of the country. When Iran agreed last year to ship nuclear material abroad in return for highly enriched fuel rods for nonmilitary purposes, the White House said the deal would put off the day that Iran has enough fuel to make even a single weapon. But Iran delayed for months, and the new IAEA report found that if Iran now shipped the agreed-upon amount of material out of the country, it would retain enough for a weapon.

North Waziristan, Pakistan

Another No. 3 down: A U.S. drone strike has killed al Qaida’s third in command, the group confirmed this week. Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, an Egyptian, was one of the terrorist group’s founders, and had recently risen to become chief operational leader, behind only Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. “He was key to al Qaida’s command and control,” said one U.S. intelligence official. Al-Yazid spent time in an Egyptian prison for conspiring in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He is believed to have opposed the 9/11 hijackings on the grounds that they would provoke a strong U.S. reaction. Over the past decade, U.S. forces have killed several militants serving as al Qaida’s No. 3.

Beijing

Potatoes to replace rice: The Chinese government has begun pouring money into potato cultivation in an effort to feed its burgeoning population. Over the next 20 years, China’s population is expected to hit the 1.5 billion mark, which will require an additional 100 million tons of food each year. But its supplies of arable land and fresh water are shrinking, casualties of rapidly expanding cities. Potatoes, which demand much less water than rice and yield far more calories per acre, are seen as the answer, if only people can be persuaded to eat them. They’re currently popular mostly in the form of potato chips, in flavors like “cool cucumber” and “spicy prawn.”

Tokyo

Prime minister out: Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama stepped down this week after just nine months in office, amid a storm of criticism over his decision to allow a U.S. military base to remain on the island of Okinawa. The Futenma base is widely detested in Japan because of the noise and pollution it generates and because Marines there have committed several high-profile crimes, including rapes of Okinawan girls. Hatoyama, who won last year’s election in a landslide, had promised to move the base off the island or even out of Japan altogether. He reneged on that promise last week, saying U.S. officials had persuaded him there was no other suitable place for a base that both countries need. It was the last straw for voters already angry at Hatoyama’s failure to deliver on other pledges, including abolishing highway tolls and paying bonuses to families with children. He was also sullied by a party fundraising scandal.

Sydney

Suing to save the whales: Australia is suing Japan in international court to try to stop the annual slaughter of whales. “We want to see an end to whales being killed in the name of science in the Southern Ocean,” said Environment Protection Minister Peter Garrett. Japan has long exploited a loophole in the worldwide ban on commercial whaling to harvest hundreds of whales for what it calls research purposes. The whale meat is then sold to restaurants in Japan, where it’s considered a delicacy. But even if the lawsuit succeeds in closing the loophole, the whale harvest might continue: The International Whaling Commission is considering granting Japan an exemption from the ban on commercial whaling.