As South Sudan voted in its independence referendum, clashes between Dinka tribesmen and Arab militias left more than 60 dead in the disputed Abyei border enclave.
Belarussian dissidents are calling for sanctions against the regime, with 200 of the protesters arrested last month still being held—some 30 in special KGB political prisons.
The defense chiefs of South Korea and Japan met in Seoul to pledge unprecedented military relations after Pentagon calls for “trilateral cooperation” against the DPRK.
The Tunisian government says 14 were killed in unrest over the weekend in the western towns of Kasserine, Regueb and Thala, while opposition leaders put the figure at 25.
From exile in Warsaw, Belarussian opposition activists demanded release of all dissidents arrested in last month’s wave of terror, and sanctions against the Lukashenko regime.
Jewish organizations are protesting the 27-year sentence handed down to Sholom Rubashkin, the kosher slaughterhouse CEO whose plant was raided for undocumented workers.
Rising food prices led to an outbreak of riots in Algeria, with unrest continuing today in several cities. Youth also clashed with police in towns around neighboring Tunisia.
Moroccan security services broke up a 27-member terrorist network, authorities announced, saying the cell aimed to set up an al-Qaeda base in the kingdom.
The powerful Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ended his self-imposed exile in Iran and returned to his stronghold hometown of Najaf in central Iraq this week.
More than 1,000 protesters took to the streets in Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdish regional capital, to condemn a new law requiring all public demonstrations to have government permits.
The assassination of Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who called for revision of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, reveals escalating polarization between secular and Islamist forces.
Coptic Christians took to the streets in Egypt in a series of angry protests after a deadly blast during New Year’s Eve midnight mass at Alexandria’s al-Qiddisin Church.
