Moscow
Russia honors American spy: Russia has posthumously given its highest award to George Koval, an American who stole the secrets of the atomic bomb and gave them to the Soviets. While U.S. officials have long known about Koval’s treachery, his role is just now coming to public light. His family emigrated from Iowa to Siberia during the Great Depression, when he was a teenager. Trained as a physicist and recruited by the KGB, he was sent back to the U.S. to spy in 1940. The Americans drafted him into the Army, and he ended up working on the Manhattan Project. The Soviets had the bomb by 1949. Historians say Koval, who returned to Russia after the war, may have been one of the most important spies of the 20th century. He died in Moscow in 2006. The Russian announcement said Koval “helped speed up considerably the time it took for the Soviet Union to develop an atomic bomb of its own.”
Krasnodar, Russia
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Hideous oil spill: A Russian oil tanker split in half during a fierce storm this week, killing 23 sailors and spilling 1,300 tons of sticky, heavy oil into the Black Sea. Because the Volganeft-139 went down in the narrow Kerch Strait, which links the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea, much of the oil will hit coastlines where wildlife breeds. At least 30,000 seabirds are already coated in oil and dying. Analysts said such an accident had been bound to happen because Russia uses river tankers to transport oil to the Black Sea. Seaworthy tankers can’t navigate the Volga or Don rivers, but river tankers are no match for the hurricane-force winds and 20-foot waves of Black Sea storms. The storm that wrecked the Volganeft-139 sank 10 other smaller ships as well, some carrying sulfur and scrap metal.
Baghdad
Appeal for amnesty: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki this week called on the U.S. to release many of the 25,000 Iraqis held in U.S. military prisons. Most detainees in U.S.-run prisons have never been formally charged. There is no point in continuing to hold “misguided” people who had cooperated with insurgent groups, al-Maliki said, but who did not commit “major” crimes such as murder or planting bombs. U.S. officials had no immediate response. Al-Maliki’s proposal came as Baghdad was growing calmer. Insurgent attacks have dropped sharply in recent months, and thousands of families have returned to their homes.
Gaza
Hamas attacks Fatah: Shooting live ammo and tear gas, Hamas forces violently broke up a huge rally of Fatah supporters on the third anniversary of the death of Palestinian leader and Fatah founder Yasser Arafat. Six people were killed, and 75 wounded. At least 250,000 people had gathered in Gaza City’s Katiba Square, for the largest Fatah rally since the Islamist faction Hamas took over Gaza by force in June. “This heinous crime is decisive evidence that the coup leadership of Hamas is using blind force and the most bloody and brutal techniques against our people in Gaza,” said President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. Hamas said some Fatah members at the rally had been armed, but Western reporters said the only weapons they saw were in Hamas hands.
Manila
Congressman assassinated: A Muslim congressman was killed this week by a bomb that exploded in an entrance to the Philippines’ House of Representatives. Wahab Akbar represented the island of Basilan, home to the Abu Sayyaf, a militant Muslim group that wants to secede from the mostly Catholic Philippines. Akbar angered the group several years ago, when he was governor of Basilan, by launching offensives against it. Police said Akbar appeared to be the specific target of the blast, which also killed a chauffeur. “We will not be cowed by terrorists,” said House Speaker Jose de Venecia.
Kabul
War heats up: Militants killed six U.S. troops in an ambush in Afghanistan this week, the deadliest single attack on troops in what is now the deadliest year since the 2001 invasion that ousted the Taliban. At least 101 U.S. soldiers have been killed this year, surpassing the 2005 high of 93. Insurgent attacks—including ambushes, suicide bombings, and roadside bombs—have surged in the past two years, as Taliban and al Qaida forces have regrouped in the mountainous region along the Pakistani border. More than 5,800 Afghans, including militants, were killed this year—also a record high since 2001. Insurgents have carried out more than 130 suicide attacks so far this year.
