The world at a glance . . . International

last updated 8 January 2015

Moscow

Historical correctness: Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has established a presidential commission with the aim of “counteracting attempts to falsify history so as to undermine the interests of Russia.” The commission—composed of security agents, Kremlin spin doctors, and bureaucrats, along with three government historians—will report to the president any domestic or foreign examples of “false” accounts of history. The formation of the commission is seen as a response to the wave of new history books in former Soviet Bloc countries that portray the fall of the Soviet Union as the “liberation” of Eastern Europe.

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A milder Pelosi: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi largely avoided talking of human rights on her trip to China this week, concentrating instead on climate change. Pelosi has been a strong critic of China’s human-rights violations. In 1991, she raised a banner over Tiananmen Square to protest the massacre of democracy activists there two years earlier, and last year, she urged President Bush to boycott the opening of the Beijing Olympics. But Pelosi’s trip this week was intended to lay the groundwork for agreement on a global treaty to cap carbon emissions, and she made only a perfunctory mention of human rights. “I think that this climate-change crisis is a game changer in U.S.-China relations,” Pelosi said.

Yangon, Myanmar

Setback for activist: The Myanmar junta has brought a new case against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to prevent her from being released from house arrest. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been held under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years; her current, six-year sentence was to end this week. But the junta charged her with violating her detention when she allowed an American to visit her. Suu Kyi, 63, testified this week that the American, John Yettaw, swam across a lake to her home, and that she let him stay overnight because he suffered from leg cramps. Yettaw’s wife, Betty, said he wanted to interview Suu Kyi for a book he’s writing on forgiveness. “I don’t think he could have foreseen that it was going to be such a mess,” she said.

Komodo Island, Indonesia

When dragons attack: Komodo dragons, the world’s largest lizards, have been attacking humans with increasing frequency, villagers report. In the past two years, the venomous, 10-foot-long reptiles have killed two people and injured several others. Some experts believe the dragons are becoming more aggressive out of hunger, as poaching reduces the population of the deer they eat. A park ranger was recently sitting in his office in Komodo National Park when a dragon appeared and chomped into his leg. “I’ve spent half my life working with Komodos,” he said, “and have never seen anything like it.” Villagers are seeking permission to feed the dragons, hoping to keep them satiated and docile. Indonesia is the only place that the reptiles are found in the wild.

Jalandhar, India

Sikh riots: Riots broke out across India’s Punjab region this week after a Sikh leader was killed in Austria. Guru Sant Rama Nand, a leader of the Ravidass sect of Sikhism, was gunned down in a Viennese temple, where he had gone as a guest preacher. Another Ravidass leader was also shot but survived. The gunmen were believed to be Sikhs from a different sect. Word of the assassination quickly reached India via text messages, and Ravidass Sikhs—who are mostly members of India’s lowest class, known as untouchables—rampaged through the streets, burning cars, buses, and businesses. “Sikhism preaches tolerance and harmony,” said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself a Sikh. “I appeal to all the people to abjure violence and maintain peace.”

Nairobi, Kenya

Mourning ‘Taju’: One of the world’s leading pan-Africanists, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, died this week at age 53 in a car crash in Kenya. A Nigerian political scientist, Abdul-Raheem was head of the Global Pan-African Movement, based in Uganda; director of Justice Africa, a group based in London; and deputy director of the U.N.’s Africa Millennium Campaign. He was a frequent contributor to newspapers all over the continent, arguing for African unity with humor and passion. “Taju’s death is a very big blow to the pan-African movement,” said Kahinda Otafiire, Ugandan trade minister and a close friend. “He was an all-rounder—concerned about the welfare of all Africans and an unrelenting critic of bad governance on the continent.”