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The diplomatic row between the United States and Israel is being fanned yet again as Israeli officials reject demands by Washington to withdraw plans for further settlements in the disputed East Jerusalem territory. “We must tell the American government that there are things we can do and things we cannot do,” says Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. “Freezing building in East Jerusalem is one of those things we cannot do.” Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel last week was meant to emphasize American commitment to Israel’s security in the face of a possible Iranian nuclear threat, while creating a supportive atmosphere for pending talks between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. However, relations between the United States and Israel were strained when, during Biden’s visit, Israeli officials made what they admitted was a poorly timed announcement to build 1,600 new Jewish housing units in East Jerusalem—an area contested by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed surprise over the building announcement and claimed not to have been aware of the plans, the Obama administration contended that Mr. Netanyahu should have been in control of the construction process by working side by side with Israel’s housing commission.  Top White House official David Axelrod, said in a television appearance that Netanyahu’s announcement during Vice President Biden’s visit to the region “seemed calculated to undermine” the kickoff to negotiations. Israeli officials vehemently disagreed with this accusation. The New York Times reported additional “anger over the public upbraiding of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the Obama administration.” Netanyahu, while rejecting Washington’s demands for a halt on continued building in East Jerusalem, added that the Israeli government never promised to modify its development of Jerusalem as part of the indirect peace talks. And he declined to withdraw last week’s announcement of these plans. In the Knesset this week, Mr. Netanyahu said, “No government of Israel for the last 40 years has agreed to place restrictions on building in Jerusalem.”

Riots broke out in the Uganda capital, Kampala, on Wednesday after a fire the previous night destroyed the mausolea that houses the sacred tombs of one of the country’s pre-colonial kingdoms. The kingdom in question, Buganda, encompasses Uganda’s largest modern-day ethnic group, and is a residue of a large political state that existed in the region prior to the incursion of colonial powers in the late-nineteenth century. At least two people were reported dead after members of the Ugandan military open-fired on a crowd that was attempting to block the country’s president, Yoweri Museveni, from entering the charred burial ground. While the origins of this fire are not known, many Baganda (the term used to denote the subjects of the ancient Buganda Kingdom) have assumed that the Ugandan government was somehow involved. According to local news reports, “Although there is no word yet on who set the sacred Baganda royal cemetery to fire, a vast majority of Baganda lay the blame squarely on Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni.  Many point out that Mr. Museveni has laid siege on Buganda since 2009, putting traveling restrictions on Kabaka [King] Mutebi … closing Radio Buganda, and persecuting many of the Kabaka’s officials.” Wednesday’s riots marked the second outbreak of sectarian violence to sweep Uganda’s capital over the past six months. Three days of rioting last September pitted the country’s military against scores of angry Buganda subjects. The number of fatalities in this previous set of riots has been a source of dispute between the Ugandan government and the Kingdom of Buganda–the government claiming 27 deaths and the kingdom claiming 42. Just last week, subjects of Buganda Kingdom threatened to refer their case against Museveni to the International Criminal Court, claiming the government used excessive force during last September’s riots. This referral could piggyback off the momentum generated by the court’s investigations of neighboring Kenya’s post-election violence in early 2008. The ICC’s review conference is scheduled to take place in Kampala in June.

Cardinal Sean Brady has indicated his intent to stay on as head of the Irish Roman Catholic church, despite recent calls for him to resign amid revelations that he actively abetted church authorities who concealed evidence about a sexually abusive priest from Irish police. According to Brady, “Yes, I knew that these were crimes. But I did not feel that it was my responsibility to denounce the actions of [abusive priest] Brendan Smyth to the police. Now I know with hindsight that I should have done more, but I thought at the time I was doing what I was required to do.” In 1975, when Brady was a bishop’s secretary, he was present at a meeting where church authorities had two of Father Smyth’s victims, ages 10 and 14, sign oaths of silence about their molestation. At the time, according to Brady, the church was conducting an internal investigation of Smyth, which eventually resulted in his expulsion from the priesthood. However, because church authorities failed to reveal their findings to Irish law enforcement, Smyth went on to abuse other children before finally being arrested in 1994. In 1997, Smyth pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 20 children in Ireland between 1958 and 1993, and is thought to have abused at least 70 more in Britain and the United States. In the wake of disclosure of the alleged cover-up, Cardinal Brady told parishioners in Armagh, Ireland this Sunday, “This week a painful episode from my own past has come before me. I have listened to reaction from people to my role in events 35 years ago. I want to say to anyone who has been hurt by any failure on my part that I apologize to you with all my heart. I also apologize to all those who feel I have let them down. Looking back, I am ashamed that I have not always upheld the values that I profess and believe in.” Pope Benedict XVI is expected to release a pastoral letter addressing the history of pedophilia by priests in Ireland.

Shock waves ripped through the U.S. State Department in the aftermath of a shootout in Mexico that left a U.S. consulate official and her husband dead. The shootings, which happened in Cuidad Juarez, just across Mexico’s border with Texas, were attributed to a surge in drug-related violence along the trafficking routes between Mexico and the United States. According to the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta S. Jacobson:  “We take very seriously when our employees are harmed, whether the intention was to harm U.S. employees or not. The question of whether this represents some ratcheting up of the drug war will depend on the reason behind the killings.” On Sunday, FBI agents were sent to Cuidad Juarez to assist State Department officials and the Mexican government in the investigation. This latest spate of drug-related violence comes in the midst of ongoing efforts on the part of Mexican federal authorities to break the country’s drug syndicates. In December 2006, the newly elected Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, made the decision to employ the country’s military in the fight against these gangs, amid growing evidence that local police forces, state bureaucrats, and even federal anti-drug officials had been co-opted by narcotics traffickers. Yet, while Calderón has insisted that the uptick in drug-related violence is a sign of the government’s success in putting pressure on the country’s criminal gangs, others disagree. Former Mexican foreign minister, Jorge Castañeda, said recently, “The Mexican drug war is costly, unwinnable, and predicated on dangerous myths.” Castañeda went onto argue that if President Calderón is serious about pursuing his current strategy of military deployment as a weapon in the drug wars, Mexico would need substantially more military assistance from the United States—much more than the Mexican government finds politically tenable.

For an in-depth look at Mexico’s drug wars, be sure to check out the forthcoming  Spring issue of World Policy Journal, which includes an article by Tomas Kellner and Francesco Pipitone, “Inside Mexico’s Drug War.”

In the wake of a damning report by United Nations Human Rights Council on the causes of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations, together with the United States, formally accused Congo’s military of responsibility for much of the rampant sexual violence in the region. According to the report, which was written by a UN group of experts on Congo: “In North Kivu, an assistance provider for victims of sexual violence recorded 3,106 cases between January and July 2009; half of these cases were perpetrated by FARDC [Congolese military] members.” This report on Congo—the second published by the UN in four months—comes in the wake of a December 2009 UN resolution to cease cooperating with Congolese troops amid allegations that the UN, by supporting Congo’s beleaguered army, was indirectly assisting in the perpetration of violence in the region. Until recently, the UN’s humanitarian mission in Congo coordinated many of its activities with Congo’s army.  Over the course of the past year, the UN mission has come under increased scrutiny for its perceived failure to secure Congo’s population centers from a series of massacres that were deemed by external observers to be within the UN’s ability to stave off. The current revelations surrounding the actions of certain brigades within Congo’s military only adds to the criticism of UN activity in the country. In late December 2009, the UN resolved to extend its mission in Congo through May 31, 2010.

For a detailed look at the security crisis in eastern Congo, see World Policy Journal’s online exclusive, “Buying War: Why a Kimberley Process for Congolese “conflict minerals” won’t achieve what its supporters hope.”

The recently signed ceasefire agreement between the government of Sudan and one of Darfur’s main rebel factions may be jeopardized, as other rebel groups enter the fray, sparring with the government over negotiations. On February 23, 2009, the Sudanese government established a framework for peace with one of Darfur’s prominent rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Among the issues addressed were questions surrounding the return of internally displaced persons to their homes and the integration of Darfur rebel fighters into the ranks of the Sudanese military. During Khartoum’s negotiations with JEM, however, other Darfur rebels held separate talks with the government, much to the chagrin of the leaders within JEM, who had originally hoped to unite Darfur’s myriad rebel factions under a single front. As many international observers have noted, much of the political statelmate that continues to plague Darfur has been a result of the factionalism that exists within the region’s military and political leadership.

In NATO’s ongoing offensive against the Taliban, a coalition of Afghan and NATO forces captured the town of Marjah, in southern Afghanistan, on Tuesday. Marjah, which is thought to be the seat of the Taliban’s shadow government in Helmand province, is also located in a region of the country known as Afghanistan’s heroin capital. The takeover of Marjah is part of Operation Moshtarak, the single largest NATO operation in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001. Moshtarak, which means “together” in the Afghan language of Dari, is designed to target Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan, with the goal of disrupting the group’s governing headquarters and poppy economy. Previous operations against Taliban fighters had dubious rates of success, especially after NATO forces left the area, because of the inability of the coalition to protect the territory captured in battle. However, current U.S. efforts have focused on training Afghan troops to maintain a coalition presence after NATO forces leave an area. In addition to the NATO-Afghan offensive in Helmand province, a secret joint operation between American and Pakistani intelligence operatives succeeded in apprehending the Afghan Taliban’s top military commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Karachi, Pakistan last week. While the New York Times reportedly received news of Baradar’s capture shortly after it happened, White House officials requested that the paper refrain from immediately reporting the capture, for fear of disrupting early intelligence gathering efforts. While some American officials believed that Pakistani intelligence officers were aware of Baradar’s whereabouts for some time, reports suggest that Pakistan was motivated to act after feeling sidelined in American and Afghan efforts. “You cannot say that we are important allies and then you are negotiating with people whom we are hunting and you don’t include us,” said an unnamed Pakistani intelligence officer.

A court in Ukraine temporarily suspended the results of the country’s February 7 presidential election after agreeing to consider a complaint lodged by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a main contender in the race who was narrowly defeated by the purported winner, Viktor Yanukovich. While the country’s election commission certified the results of last week’s vote, Tymoshenko refused to concede defeat, charging her opponent with electoral fraud, despite the contention of international election observers that the vote was free and fair. According to Tymoshenko, the polls were marred by “systemic, fundamental, and general falsifications,” which necessitated a full recount. Viktor Yanukovich’s win in this year’s race was a buoyant comeback after his participation in the country’s 2004 elections. He initially won that vote, too, but a court overturned those election results after charges of fraud were substantiated. The country’s current sitting president, Viktor Yushchenko—who, along with Tymoshenko, led Ukraine’s Orange Revolution—went on to assume the highest office in the land. While President Yushchenko was a contender for reelection in this year’s race, he was defeated in an early round of voting. The court reviewing the current allegations of fraud against Yanukovich will reportedly hand down its decision by the end of this week.

In the aftermath of an assassination of a senior Hamas figure in the United Arab Emirates last month, Hamas is accusing the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad of the murder. The assassination, which took place on January 20 in the UAE capital of Dubai, killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas commander who was suspected of traveling to Dubai to purchase weapons for his fighters. In response to accusations of Mossad activity on foreign soil, Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said on Wednesday, “There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad, and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief.” However, Lieberman also acknowledged that Israel has a “policy of ambiguity” when it comes to disclosing state intelligence matters. The case took on an additional level of intrigue this week, after officials in Dubai released the names, photos, and passport numbers of 11 of the purported assassins, all of whom seemed to have traveled to the UAE on falsified European passports from Britain, Ireland, France, and Germany. Even more odd is the fact that the falsified passports seem to coincide with the European passport information of at least five Israeli citizens who hold dual passports. However, while the names and passport numbers matched those of the unsuspecting Israeli citizens, the photos did not. According to once such individual, a British-born repairman living in Israel, “I don’t know who a person calls when his identity is stolen,” he said. “I’m waiting for someone from the British or Israeli government to contact me and give me answers. I don’t understand how something like this could happen.”

The ominous consequences of the Greek debt crisis continued to reverberate throughout the Eurozone Monday, as a meeting of EU finance ministers focused entirely on Greece’s mounting fiscal debt. While Greece continues to insist on its ability to stabilize its own economy and slash its budget deficit—which bloated this year to three times the permitted level under EU rules—others worry about Greece’s effect on the euro, which fell to a nine-month low against the dollar on Friday. In an effort to shore up confidence Monday, Greece’s finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, assured his EU counterparts that “We are trying to change the course of the Titanic, [but] it cannot be done in a day. … We are beginning to show that step by step, we are following words with action. If additional fiscal measures are needed, we will take them.” The chief economist at the European Central Bank, Jurgen Stark, concurred with this sentiment, announcing this past Friday that “the country must and will make it.” In related news, much ink has been spilled over the past week about the role of Wall Street banks as facilitators of the crisis in Greece, at least insofar as they devised creative accounting mechanisms and currency swaps that allowed Greece to conceal its liabilities from the European Union’s statistics agency. Once Greece shrinks its budget deficit, the country has a second high hurdle to clear: a debt-to-GDP ratio of 113 percent—a number made all the more ominous in light of the deals the government cut with Goldman Sacks that pledged large amounts of the country’s future revenue to the bank, in exchange for loans that financed previous budget shortfalls.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki

The coalition government that brought stability to Kenya in the aftermath of the 2007 post-election riots revealed additional fissures this past week, as a series of ministerial level suspensions caused the country’s president and prime minister to lock horns in a heated political war of pronouncements. On Sunday, Kenya’s prime minister, Raila Odinga, suspended the country’s ministers of agriculture and education for three months after a report suggested the possible involvement of both ministers in two corruption scandals whose investigations are ongoing.  (The minister of agriculture belongs to Odinga’s political party, while the minister of education belongs to President Mwai Kibaki’s.) Less than two hours after the prime minister announced the suspensions, however, President Kabaki reversed Odinga decision, claiming that the prime minister had no authority to suspend cabinet-level positions. “The legal provisions on which the prime minister acted do not confer him the authority to cause a minister to vacate his or her office,” Kibaki said on Monday. In response to Kabaki’s reversal, the political party to which Odinga belongs, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), called on the African Union and the former secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, to help mediate the political stalemate. On Monday, the ODM released a statement saying, “the Prime Minister as the leader of ODM has declared a dispute between the coalition partners and seeks the immediate intervention of the African union, in particular the Office of the Eminent African Personalities chaired by His Excellency Dr Kofi Annan, to convene a meeting to discuss the current crisis….” After Kenya’s disputed 2007 elections, in which both Kabaki and Odinga declared victory, Kofi Annan was part of a mediation team that devised the government’s current power sharing agreement. Odinga’s attempts to suspend the country’s agriculture and education ministers came after Kibaki announced a string of lower level suspensions this past Saturday evening, which included the permanent secretary in Odinga’s office, and the Odinga’s chief of staff.

The U.S. Department of Transportation signaled its willingness to grant American Airlines and British Airways immunity from U.S. antitrust legislation this Saturday, clearing the way for the two carriers to share revenue and coordinate flight marketing and route scheduling. While previous attempts to tighten the alliance between the two airlines were thwarted by U.S. regulators, this current proposal passed DOT muster by convincing the U.S. government that such an agreement would be a boon to passengers in the form of lower airfare costs. Not everyone agrees, however. Virgin Atlantic founder, Sir Richard Branson, had this to say: “The U.S. Department of Justice, who are the experts in competition issues, called for strict remedies to protect the public interest, because the alliance will blatantly harm competition and the consumer. The Department of Transportation has chosen to stick two fingers up at them. Millions of transatlantic travellers will be adversely affected if the alliance receives final approval. In my personal opinion, this draft decision is a real kick in the teeth for consumers and they will be paying the price for it for years to come.”

Political tensions in Sri Lanka escalated this Wednesday as protesters took to the streets in the capital city of Colombo in response to President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decision on Tuesday to dissolve parliament and the arrest of his defeated presidential opponent, Gen. Sarath Fonseka. A correspondent for al Jazeera who was stationed in Colombo observed: “When they [the opposition] were assembling, basically, there was a counter-demonstration that was put together by pro-government supporters. There was a lot of tension between both groups and clashes broke out. Subsequently, the pro-government supporters have dispersed, but the opposition protesters remain.” In the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s January 26 election, which saw the incumbent, Rajapaksa, defeat his main challenger, Fonseka, by over 18 percentage points, a war of words erupted. Fonseka accused Rajapaksa of election tampering, while Rajapaksa accused Fonseka of plotting to overthrow his government in a coup. The dissolution of parliament and the arrest of Fonseka, however, threaten to push the small island nation into a full-scale political crisis. “We will keep agitating, because there is no basis for his [Fonseka’s] arrest,” said opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. “We demand his release immediately.” Rajapaksa and Fonseka were political allies in the government’s recent closure of its violent, decades-long civil war with Tamil separatists in the north. However, the alliance between the two men ruptured during a particularly intense presidential campaign, with some observers questioning whether the military’s strong show of support for Fonseka posed a threat to Rajapaksa’s rule.

The presidential crisis that threatened to stall the bureaucracy of Africa’s most populous nation may finally be coming to a close, as Nigeria’s vice-president, Jonathan Goodluck, assumed the responsibilities of the government’s highest office yesterday. “The circumstances in which I find myself assuming office today as acting president of our country are uncommon, sober, and reflective,” Goodluck said during a speech that aired on Nigerian television Tuesday evening. For the past 79 days, Nigeria’s president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, has been out of the country receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. Yar’Adua left Nigeria’s capital, Lagos, without temporarily handing over power to his VP, which had the effect of stalling all manner of business—from approving the government’s FY 2010 budget, to attending to the security crisis that befell Nigeria in the aftermath of the attempted Christmas day bombing of a U.S.-bound flight, which was undertaken by a Nigerian national. In mid-January, Yar’Adua released a brief recording that aired on BBC and Nigerian radio, in which he assured the public that he was alive and well, and would return to Nigeria as soon as his doctors permitted. But with the growing need for government business to once again resume at full capacity (and an increasingly worried citizenry), judges and lawmakers in Lagos this past week paved the way for Goodluck to take over the reins of power. In his speech to the nation, which lasted approximately five minutes, Goodluck acknowledged the difficulties of the past several months, but urged all Nigerians to join together in attending to the business of the country. “The events of the recent past have put to the test, our collective resolve as a democratic nation,” Goodluck said. “I am delighted to note that our nation has demonstrated resilience and unity of purpose. Today affords us time to reconnect with ourselves and overcome any suspicions, hurts and doubts, which had occurred.”

Officials in Iran are preparing for possible protests on Wednesday as the country celebrates 31 years of the Islamic Republic, marking the anniversary of the overthrow the U.S.-backed shah on February 11, 1979. Earlier this week, Iranian authorities arrested several individuals whom they claim were preparing to disrupt the official festivities in Tehran. “We are closely watching the activities of the sedition movement, and several people who were preparing to disrupt the February 11 rallies were arrested,” said Tehran’s police chief, Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam. No details of the backgrounds or identities of those in custody were offered. Opposition leaders have reportedly encouraged their supporters to attend all government rallies “silently, but as strongly as before,” while warning supporters to avoid provoking government authorities in ways that could lead to violent clashes. Meanwhile, Iranian authorities released public statements about their intent to continue enriching stockpiles of uranium. While the government assured domestic and international audiences that such enrichment was for medical research only, the announcement prompted President Obama to formally seek strong sanctions against the republic. “What we are going to be working on over the next several weeks is developing a significant regime of sanctions that will indicate to them [the Iranian government] how isolated they are from the international community as a whole,” Obama said Tuesday. “Despite the posturing that the nuclear power is only for civilian use…they in fact continue to pursue a course that would lead to weaponization, and that is not acceptable to the international community.” He also noted that the United States would be joined by Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany in sanctions negotiations. Obama’s mention of China was particularly significant, given Beijing’s previous reluctance to restrict trade with the Islamic Republic. Currently, China is Iran’s largest trading partner.

A breakthrough agreement between Britain and Northern Ireland will see the province take control of its own justice system. After months of deadlocked negotiations, Prime Ministers Gordon Brown of Britain and Brian Cowen of Ireland announced the plan at a joint press conference Friday alongside the leaders of the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Catholic republican group, Sinn Fein, who share power in Northern Ireland’s Stormont Assembly. The “Agreement at Hillsborough Castle” calls for policing and justice in Northern Island to shift from Parliament to the Assembly by April 12, the same day by which the political rivals of Ireland’s power-sharing government are expected to choose a justice minister. The agreement combines Sinn Fein’s demands for Irish control over the department with the DUP’s calls for increased oversight of often violent loyalist parades. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton applauded the hard-won agreement, saying: “This has not been an easy road. There were plenty of bumps along the way. I have been in regular contact with the parties since my trip to Belfast in October, and I know that at times the path forward was far from clear.” Clinton also took the opportunity to invite DUP head Peter Robinson and Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness to Washington to discuss American investment in Northern Island. While more politically stable, the country is battling an economic downturn, with over 8000 manufacturing jobs lost in the last year, some due to American companies pulling out of the region.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda has announced he will set up a new quality control committee after the recall of more than eight million cars worldwide due to floor mat and gas pedal problems. In a press conference in Nagoya, Japan, on Friday, Toyoda said the company will address reported braking problems with the much lauded, planet-saving Prius hybrid car (there have been 200 reports of brake problems with the 2010 Toyota Prius in the United States)—but stopped short of announcing the recall of some 270,000 cars, which some analysts were expecting. Toyoda, who had been conspicuously silent to date, made the appearance to allay worries, and said, “I’d like to offer a heartfelt apology for causing so much trouble to so many of our customers.” The announcement came after Toyota Motor Corp. reported a net income of $1.68 billion for the last three months of 2009, up from a loss of about $1.82 billion one year earlier.

At least 32 people are dead after the third attack in a week struck pilgrims at a major religious ceremony south of Baghdad. In Friday’s twin car bombing, a suicide attacker exploded a car bomb moments after another car bomb detonated near a crowded highway just east one of three main entrances to Kerbala, a city 50 miles south of Baghdad where Shiite pilgrims have been celebrating the holy day of Arbaeen. The attack came shortly after noon and the area was also struck by two mortar rounds following the first explosions; more than 70 people were wounded and the death toll is expected to rise. It follows similar attacks on the festival on Wednesday, when a motorcycle bomb exploded near the site of Friday’s detonation, killing dozens, and Monday, when a suicide bomber killed at least 54 pilgrims north of Baghdad. Advisor to the Iraqi Council of Ministers Saad al-Muttalabi has blamed Al Qaeda and former Baathists. Al Jazeera reports that around 30,000 troops and police have been deployed to protect Shiite pilgrims from further attacks, but the large numbers of worshipers and difficulty securing the roads and city have made Kerbala a prime target for suspected Sunni militants.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a roadside bomb attack Wednesday morning that left three American soldiers and three Pakistani schoolgirls dead, while wounding at least 45 others. The attack occurred during the opening ceremony of a girls’ school in the Lower Dir district of Pakistan’s federally administered tribal areas. According to a statement released by the American embassy in Islamabad, “The Americans were U.S. military personnel in Pakistan to conduct training at the invitation of the Pakistan Frontier Corps. They were in Lower Dir to attend the inauguration ceremony of a school for girls that had recently been renovated with U.S. humanitarian assistance.” A Taliban spokesman said that the bombing was a response to recent American drone attacks in the region, one of which is thought to have killed Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. “It’s revenge for the bomb blasts carried out by Blackwater in Pakistan,” the spokesman said, referring to the American private military contractor that now goes by the name Xe Services—a corporate re-branding necessitated in the wake of a September 2007 firefight by employees in Iraq that left at least a dozen civilians dead. Xe was a subcontractor to the CIA for loading bombs on drones, but that contract was canceled in December. (Xe, however, still provides “security and support” services.) The company has become a notorious symbol of U.S. involvement in the country, stoking suspicion and anti-American sentiment among many prominent Pakistanis. In the aftermath of the December 30 suicide attack that killed 8 CIA operatives in Afghanistan, the United States has increased its drone activity in Pakistan’s federally administered tribal areas, a region from which many U.S. intelligence officials believe Afghan insurgents draw their support.

Following last week’s presidential elections, Sri Lanka’s election commissioner attempted to quell growing allegations of voter fraud and disenfranchisement by affirming his certainty that there was no vote rigging. However, the commissioner expressed his dissatisfaction with the tenor of the campaign in the run-up to the vote. “I am not satisfied with what has happened in the campaign period,” the commissioner told reporters on Wednesday. “But I stand by the voting process and the results.” The commissioner’s assessment jives with the opinion of a team of election observers from the Commonwealth Secretariat, who deemed the election itself to have “proceeded reasonably well in most areas,” but complained about a “compromised pre-election environment” in which state organs incited violence and disregarded legal provisions. The election results were skewed heavily in favor of Sri Lanka’s incumbent, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who took 58 percent of the vote; his main challenger, retired army chief Sarath Fonseka, polled 40 percent. Previously, Fonseka and Rajapaksa had been allies, but tensions strained during the campaign and a reconciliation now seems unlikely. On Monday, President Rajapaksa sought to purge the country’s military of several senior officers, saying they were a “direct threat to national security” after last week’s elections. Fonseka and others allege that Rajapaksa’s move was a retaliatory measure to punish those factions within the country’s military that had supported Fonseka’s presidential bid.

An appeals chamber at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands issued a decision on Wednesday ordering the court’s pretrial judges to reconsider their rejection of the genocide charges against Sudanese President Omar al Bashir. The Appeals Chamber revised an earlier ruling by ICC pretrial judges who, in March 2009, issued an arrest warrant for Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, but rejected charges of genocide. Today, appeals judges asserted that the court’s Pre-Trial I Chamber used an “erroneous standard of proof” in rejecting the genocide charges, and directed the court “to decide anew, on the basis of the correct standard of proof, whether a warrant of arrest in respect of the crime of genocide should be issued.” The ICC, which was established in 2002, made headlines last year when it sought to apprehend Bashir, a sitting head of state, for violence committed by the Sudanese government against three ethnic groups in western Sudan. Regarding the question of genocide, the legal standard in question concerns the issue of “genocidal intent,” which, in order to secure a conviction, ICC prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt. The ICC’s Appeals Chamber argued that, for the purposes of issuing an arrest warrant, pre-trial judges should have applied a weaker standard of proof. Among experts and concerned analysts of Darfur, however, there remains significant controversy as to whether the initial warrant was a positive step in alleviating the ongoing crisis. The reconsideration as to whether Bashir should stand trial on genocide charges should only reignite the debate.

At least 15 people are dead and many more injured after Somali insurgents attacked government forces and peacekeepers in Mogadishu on Friday. Al-Shabaab (“the youth”), the African Islamist group with ties to Al Qaeda, attacked seven locations in the capital city, targeting government forces attempting to retake the capital and the UN-backed African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM). The attacks began at 2am local time and involved heavy artillery and automatic weapons. At “Kilometer Four,” an oft-targeted junction linking the Mogadishu port and airport, AMISOM troops used tanks to fend off Al-Shabaab. A spokesman for what many consider Al-Qaeda’s African proxy says two of its militants were among the dead; witnesses say it was the worst fighting they have seen for months and casualties are expected to rise. The attack comes shortly before the one-year anniversary of President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed’s government, which has struggled to maintain control over the country since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Recent reports say Al-Shabaab, which is also allied to Somali pirate groups, has been recruiting directly from U.K. campuses including the London School of Economics, Imperial College, and King’s College London. The group is said to control much of southern Somalia, including Mogadishu, where it imposes its own brand of Sharia law.

Despite his acquittal, former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is not yet in the clear—the Paris prosecutor is seeking a new trial, appealing the dismissal of charges that de Villepin was part of a conspiracy to smear political rival, President Nicolas Sarkozy. The prosecutor, Jean-Claude Marin, told Europe 1 Radio on Friday that he would be filing an appeal against the decision to acquit de Villepin of all wrongdoing in what has become known as the “Clearstream scandal.” Under French law, the appeal will mean a full retrial in about a year’s time. The scandal stems from an anonymous set of forged listings sent to an investigative judge in 2004 falsely showing President Sarkozy had received kickbacks—to accounts at the Luxembourg-based bank Clearstream—for the sale of six French frigates to Taiwan in 1991. De Villepin was cleared of wrongdoing in the forgery on Thursday and has accused Sarkozy of using the trial to tar a political rival. Regarding Marin’s intention to appeal the verdict, de Villepin said Friday the retrial shows Sarkozy will not bury the feud. The Times reports de Villepin saying, “The decision is a political decision and what it shows is that Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the Republic, prefers to continue in his relentlessness and hatred instead of assuming the responsibilities of his office.”

Peru says the remaining travelers trapped near the Machu Picchu ruins will be evacuated today following last weekend’s mudslides, the nation’s worst in almost 20 years. Al Jazeera reports that over 3000 travelers to the mountainous region were trapped by the heaviest rains in 15 years, which killed up to 10 people, swept homes away, and destroyed an important railroad, the only land route into and out of the area. Trapped for five days, tourists and locals say they slept outdoors and ate from communal pots; they accused local hotels and restaurants of hiking up their prices. Tourism Minister Martin Perez said clear skies helped a fleet of helicopters—including six from the U.S.—evacuate 1,402 people on Thursday. Only 800 travelers remain in the area. The evacuations, which began Monday, took the oldest and youngest first.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair defended his decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003, claiming Friday that the threat of weapons of mass destruction was impossible to ignore. Blair, the sixty-ninth witness in the U.K.’s Chilton Inquiry—the third and widest-reaching investigation the nation has made into the Iraq war—told the five-member panel and others gathered at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center: “I would not have done Iraq if I had not thought it was right. Full stop. It is a decision I would take again.” The former PM said the Sept. 11 attacks had made real the threat of weapons of mass destruction, but claimed he told George W. Bush that Britain wanted all diplomatic options exhausted before any invasion was undertaken. Outside the hearing, hundreds of protesters gathered, chanting “Blair Lied, thousands died!” and wearing “Jail Tony” t-shirts. Many called on Blair to be arrested for war crimes. Britain withdrew its military from Iraq in 2009.

International talks are being held in London to discuss how to handle Yemen’s growing instability and long-term problems that foster Islamic extremism. Twenty-one world leaders, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and representatives from the EU, UN, World Bank, and IMF are attending, hosted by Britain’s prime minister, Gordon Brown, with the goal of preventing Yemen from becoming a failed state. The meeting marks the one-month anniversary of the failed Christmas Day airplane bomb, which drew the world’s attention to Yemen’s Al Qaeda problem. Yemen’s domestic issues, as reported by the New York Times, are severe: 42 percent of the Yemeni population lives on less than $2 a day, the official illiteracy rate is 45 percent, less than half of those between the ages of 15 and 24 are employed—and outside of major cities, water, electricity, and health services are scarce. Aid cannot be easily provided in Yemen, where a corrupt and unproductive government bureaucracy and the remoteness of populations hamper the delivery of assistance. Compounding the problem, there is sporadic war in the north spurred by rebel Shiites and a growing secessionist movement developing in the south. Undeterred, Yemen’s government has promised “urgent political and economic reform to help fight Al Qaeda.” Britain’s Foreign Office minister, Ivan Lewis, likewise expressed a note of optimism: “We want to see Yemen’s neighbors make a more significant contribution and we want the international community to come together and recognize that supporting the government of Yemen is crucial to the stability of the world.”

To read more about the growing secessionist movement in Southern Yemen, see World Policy Journal’s online feature, the Big Question: “How Big is the Threat of Yemen’s Southern Secessionist Movement?”

The fraught relationship between North and South Korea escalated today for the second time in three months when the two nations exchanged artillery fire along their disputed sea border. Reportedly, North Korea fired dozens of shells into the water near the sea border (known as the Northern Limit Line, an UN-established boundary accepted by the South but contested by the North) as part of an annual military drill. The South Korean military responded with 100 warning shots from anti-aircraft guns. Hours later, the North Korean navy fired another round of shots towards the Northern Limit Line; Pyongyang warned in advance of the second barrage. Analysts believe the fire exchange is another act of provocation but will not escalate any further. Today’s clash came amidst signals from Pyongyang about its desire to return to the Six-Party Talks between the Koreas, China, Japan, Russia, and the United States that aim to stand down its nuclear weapons program.

Sri Lankans went to the polls this Tuesday in the country’s first presidential election since the close of its bloody civil war in May 2009. While the country’s incumbent president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, was declared winner of the contest with a 17-point lead over his main contender, reports of voting irregularities—including assaults at polling stations—marred Rajapaksa’s victory. (As of yet, the names and party affiliations of the alleged culprits have not been made public.) Rajapaksa’s main presidential challenger, former army commander Gen. Sarath Fonseka, responded to allegations of voting irregularities by saying: “We ask him [Sri Lanka’s election commissioner] to declare null and void the results. We have asked him not to release the results as we are going to go to the courts. Our strength is people and their franchise has been disregarded.” Until recently, Rajapaksa and Fonseka were political allies, having both worked together in the fight against Sri Lanka’s northern insurgent group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. However, the political alliance between the two men fell apart over the course of the past several months, as the presidential campaign became particularly intense. In the hours after the election, government troops surrounded a hotel in which Fonseka’s campaign had gathered, with the intent of arresting several military officials who had assisted the former general with his campaign. Fonseka has alleged that Rajapaksa was using government troops to intimidate his supporters, but a spokesman for the incumbent claimed that Fonseka’s large gathering of military figures and attachés posed a coup threat. Regarding the demographic complexities of the vote, preliminary election polling predicted Fonseka had secured a majority of the Tamil ballots, though both Rajapaksa and Fonseka have been accused of war crimes for their involvement in putting down the long-standing Tamil insurgency in the north.

Honduras installed a new president today, formally ending the interim presidency of Roberto Micheletti, who held office since the June 2009 military coup that overthrew Manuel Zelaya. Honduras’s new president, Porfirio Lobo, a member of the center-right leaning National Party, has promised to pursue national reconciliation in the aftermath of Zelaya’s ouster. The first step in this plan, according to Lobo, will be to formally escort the left-leaning Zelaya out of the country. Zelaya—who has been holed up in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa over the past five months—has apparently agreed to the request and will travel to the Dominican Republic as a political refugee. Currently, there is an outstanding warrant for Zelaya’s arrest, although President Lobo has signaled an interest in granting amnesty to the former leader. In a recent statement, Zelaya said: “I have an invitation…to go to the Dominican Republic and I will accept…obviously with the approval of the new government.” Lobo, for his part, is eager to have Zelaya removed from his virtual prison within the Brazilian embassy: “Can you imagine starting a government with a president imprisoned in an embassy? It wouldn’t be fair.”

For more details on the politics and controversy surrounding the Honduran Coup of 2009, see World Policy Journal’s online feature, The Big Question: “Will the Honduran coup have broader implications for democracy in Central America?”

Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali, was executed by hanging in Iraq this morning. Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein and notorious enforcer in his regime, had been sentenced to death four times for multiple, separate crimes against humanity. His first sentence came down in June 2007 for participation in a February-August 1988 military campaign against ethnic Kurds. He was sentenced to death again in December 2008 for his role in crushing the Shia revolt at the end of the 1991 Gulf War. His third death sentence was handed down in March 2009, for the ethnic cleansing of Shia Muslims in Sadr City, a district of Baghdad. Finally, this January, Majid was sentenced to death for ordering the infamous gas attack against Halabja, a Kurdish town, in 1988. In what was termed an act of genocide, an estimated 5,000 people died in Halabja as Iraqi jets sprayed a mixture of lethal chemicals on the town for five hours. (This attack earned Majid his nickname, Chemical Ali.) Majid was sentenced to death by the Iraqi High Tribunal, a committee set up to try former members of Hussein’s Ba’athist regime and which sentenced Saddam to execution in 2006.

All 90 passengers on board an Ethiopian Airlines plane are believed to be dead after crashing into the Mediterranean. The Boeing 737-800 was headed to Addis Ababa and disappeared off radar within five minutes after taking off at 2:37 Monday morning during a thunderstorm. A Lebanese minister reported that “bad weather was apparently the cause of the crash” and Defense Minister Elias Murr said that the government had “ruled out foul play so far.” Witnesses on the coast reported seeing a “ball of fire” in the sky. Lebanese army officials noted that the plane broke up in the air before plummeting into the sea, though these initial conclusions have not been confirmed. Rescue efforts are underway with helicopters and naval ships searching the crash site; the UN peacekeeping operation in Lebanon sent three ships and two helicopters. So far, 24 bodies have been recovered in the sea and debris has begun washing up on shore. Lebanese prime minister Saad Hairi has declared a day of mourning, closing schools and government offices.

An announcement this week from Myanmar’s ruling military junta brought good news to the country’s famed democracy advocate, Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi, who has been subjected to house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years, is slated to be released from detention this November, according to a statement by Myanmar’s home minister, Maj. Gen. Muang Oo. In addition to Suu Kyi, another Burmese democracy advocate, former general Thura Tin Oo [no relation], will also be released from detention. The decision to release both Suu Kyi and Tin Oo comes amid assurances on the part of the country’s ruling junta that this year’s upcoming elections—the country’s first in 20 years—will be open and transparent. “We are not a power crazy government,” Maung Oo reportedly said during his announcement of Suu Kyi’s release. “The election will be held in 2010 without fail. I promise the election will be free and fair. There will be no cheating.” While Burmese officials have not yet declared a specific date on which the country’s elections will occur, a representative of Suu Kyi’s political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), insisted that “the most important thing is they [both Suu Kyi and Tin Oo] must be freed in good time so that they can work for national reconciliation.” Suu Kyi’s NLD party won an overwhelming victory in 1990, during Myanmar’s last democratic elections. However, the country’s military regime, which has controlled Myanmar since 1962, failed to allow the party to take office. In the intervening years, Suu Kyi became a symbol of democratic resistance throughout Myanmar and the world. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her efforts.

The government of Rwanda just released a detailed report concluding its investigation of the assassination of former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana. According to the official report, Habyarimana’s assassination, which occurred on April 6, 1994, was undertaken by Hutu extremists who went on to commit a 100-day genocide that lead to the demise of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis, along with an indeterminate number of moderate Hutus. This report comes in the aftermath of a long-running political storm that pitted Rwanda’s current Tutsi-led government in Kigali against a wide array of actors, many of whom insinuated that the current Rwandan government, lead by Paul Kagame, was itself responsible for the assassination of Habyarimana. (Kagame’s former militia, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, was credited with halting the 1994 genocide, which exploded in the aftermath of a four-year civil war between Kagame’s forces and Habyarimana’s anti-Tutsi regime.) The French government, which was a prominent supporter of the authoritarian Habyarimana regime, has long alleged that Kagame’s forces were themselves responsible for shooting down the president’s plane, which also killed several French nationals who were on-board. In 2006, a French judge in Paris issued arrest warrants for nine Rwandan government officials in conjunction with Habyarimana’s assassination. Officials in Kigali responded by freezing diplomatic ties with France. However, in the intervening years, as the French judge’s allegations slowly fizzled, ties between the two nations have warmed. A few weeks ago, in early January, Rwandan foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo held a meeting with her French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, in Kigali. “We have a common history,” she said. “We have had difficulties. We are ready to discuss them and move on. We are beginning a new phase in our shared history.” For his part, Kouchner noted, “What happened in Rwanda concerns every inhabitant of this land. France is with you and I say this in the name of France of the past days, present and future.” Members of the Rwandan government and other observers hope that the publication of this report will signal a turning point between the two countries in the months to come.