Fighting between forces loyal to Libya’s leader, Muammar Qaddafi, and his opponents in the east grew fiercer. He remains in control of Tripoli, the capital, and is battling to seize back towns under rebel control. Western and Arab leaders discussed whether a no-fly zone should be imposed. See article
The UN said that the humanitarian situation caused by the fighting was dire, with more than 100,000 refugees from Libya in makeshift camps across the borders with Egypt and Tunisia. The UN suspended Libya from the Human Rights Council; the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into possible crimes against humanity committed by Libya’s leaders. See article
The Egyptian prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, stepped down, as did the Tunisian prime minister, Mohamed Ghannouchi. Protests continued in both countries, with pro-democracy campaigners complaining about the slow pace of reform and the continuing presence of allies of the former regimes. See article
Demonstrations got angrier in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, and in other towns across the country. At least 27 people are reported to have been killed since the protests began a few weeks ago. President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s offer to form a unity government failed to quell the unrest. See article
At least one person was killed in protests by jobless and ill-paid youths in Sohar, a port city in hitherto peaceful Oman. Days later, however, thousands of Omanis took to the streets in support of Sultan Qaboos, who has promised reform. See article
Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, leaders of the Iranian opposition Green Movement, have been thrown in jail, according to their families. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in response, leading, said the opposition, to 200 arrests.
Six men were killed in an apparent assassination or coup attempt in Congo. Shooting broke out in Kinshasa, the capital, after unidentified men armed with guns, rocket-propelled grenades and machetes attacked the home of Joseph Kabila, the president.
Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s minister for minorities, was gunned down outside his home in Islamabad. Mr Bhatti, a Christian, was a critic of Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws, as was Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, who was assassinated two months ago. A message left at the scene of Mr Bhatti’s murder promised death to those who offer support to blasphemers. See article
A court in the Indian state of Gujarat found 31 Muslim men guilty for the deaths of 59 Hindu activists who died in a fire at a railway station in 2002. The killings at Godhra ignited rioting in which at least 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were massacred. Eleven of the defendants were sentenced to death.
India’s Supreme Court ordered the head of the country’s anti-corruption commission to resign, because he faces corruption charges.
The recently retired head of Bolivia’s drug police was arrested in Panama and sent to the United States to face charges of trafficking cocaine. Three other senior police officers were arrested in Bolivia. In its annual report this week the International Narcotics Control Board, a UN body, complained about the failure of the government of Evo Morales, Bolivia’s president, to curb cocaine production. See article
Brazil’s government said it would scale back planned spending on housing for the poor, postpone the purchase of 36 fighter jets for the air force and freeze the federal government payroll as part of its effort to cool an overheating economy.
Voters in Ireland threw out their Fianna Fail-led government at an election. The new government will be led by Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny, whose party scored its best result ever. Mr Kenny has promised to secure a better deal from the European Union on Ireland’s bail-out. See article
The Dutch government looked set to lose its majority in the upper-house Senate after its coalition partners did badly in regional elections.
France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, sacked his controversial foreign minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, over her apparently close links with the ousted Tunisian regime. Her job went to a former Gaullist prime minister, Alain Juppé. See article
The German defence minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, was forced to quit after a long row over plagiarism in his doctoral thesis. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was reluctant to lose the popular Mr zu Guttenberg, replaced him with a Christian Democrat stalwart, Thomas de Maizière. See article
Two American air force servicemen were shot dead and two were wounded when a gunman opened fire on a military bus at Frankfurt Airport. A suspect, apparently from Kosovo, was arrested.
A Bangladeshi man was found guilty by a court in London of involvement in a plot to blow up airliners. Rajib Karim worked as a software engineer for British Airways, where he contacted Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical cleric based in Yemen.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress passed another interim measure that avoids a shutdown of the federal government and cuts $4 billion in spending. But the bill provided only a two-week extension to funding, and the whole issue will have to be resolved again by March 18th. See article
Barack Obama suggested that he would give states the opportunity to seek waivers from mandates in the new health-insurance law as soon as the legislation comes into effect in 2014. The act that was passed by Congress requires states to wait until 2017 before they can apply for opt-outs.
The Supreme Court ruled that the constitution protected the right of a fundamentalist church from Kansas to picket the funerals of troops killed in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, overturning the decision of a lower court that had sided with the family of a marine who had served in Iraq. The Westboro church believes the wars are God’s punishment for America’s tolerance of homosexuality. It airs its views near memorial services for the troops, usually under police protection.
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