Hundreds of protesters gathered yesterday outside the mansion of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, calling for his resignation amid the alleged sex scandal that has tarnished his image. Writer and Philosopher Umberto Ecco and “Gomorra” author Roberto Saviano are among the intellectuals leading the movement against the prime minister.
A spate of car bombs in northern Iraq have killed at least 7 people and wounded some 80 others. This video shows graphic footage of one of the attacks, which happened in the country’s northern city of Kirkuk. Two car bombs were aimed at police patrols while a third device exploded outside a building that houses the Kurdish security forces. No group has so far claimed responsibility.
Footage has emerged of a gang of Muslim men beating to death three members of the Ahmadiyah sect in Indonesia. The attack has been condemned by rights groups and the government, but some say a 3-year-old law banning Ahmadis from spreading their faith incited the violence.
According to official media, Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has said his government will lift the national state of emergency imposed for the past 19 years in the very near future.
The Egyptian army has started arresting anti-government protesters in the center of Cairo. It marks a change of approach by the military, which previously wasn’t intervening in clashes between supporters of President Mubarak and anti-government demonstrators. Five people are reported to have been killed in a morning gunfight in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. That follows a day of heavy violence in which hundreds were injured. The country’s braced for more trouble as it enters its tenth day of unrest.
James F. Jeffrey, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Feb. 1, about the challenges ahead as the United States withdraws its military and pursues the transition to a civilian-led presence in Iraq.
As the trials of opposition politicians in Belarus approach, Amnesty International examines human rights violations committed by the Belarusian authorities in the aftermath of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s fourth re-election last December. Hundreds of people were detained and many were beaten by riot police during the dispersal of a demonstration on election night on 19 December.
Recep Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, has called on Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s president, to listen to the calls for change from Egyptian people.
Estonia has become the the 17th member of the Euro Zone despite the collective currency’s ongoing troubles. The Euro became official tender in the Baltic state after the country’s original cash, the kroon, was finally phased out over the weekend. Estonia is the first former Soviet state to adopt the Euro.