Egyptian blogger and peace activist Philip Rizk was released without charge Feb. 11, four days after he was abducted immediately after he took part in a march in support of Gaza. He reports he was blindfolded, handcuffed and interrogated around the clock by state security agents while in detention. The German government and legions of former and current classmates and professors mobilized an online campaign for the release of Rizk, a dual Egyptian-German citizen who studied at Wheaton College in Illinois and is a graduate student at American University in Cairo.

From the New York Times, Feb. 11:

The Palestinian Authority is pressing the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate accusations of war crimes committed by Israeli commanders during the recent war in Gaza.

Several Israeli military vehicles overran the Qalqiliya-area village of Jayyous the night of Feb. 11 and imposed a curfew on the area. The troops blasted into the area amid gunfire and sound bombs, announcing a curfew to residents, witnesses reported. As the soldiers entered the village Palestinian youths showered the vehicles with stones and empty bottles, sparking brief clashes. Locals host weekly demonstrations against the building of the separation wall on village land, and have reported an increase in Israeli military activity since the popular campaign started. (Ma'an News Agency, Feb. 11)

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and hawkish ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu are locked in a battle for power after a tight election that could send peace talks into limbo. Livni's Kadima party won 28 seats in the 120-member Knesset, just one ahead of Netanyahu's Likud party, leaving the country facing perhaps weeks of political uncertainty. An overall lurch to the right makes it more likely Netanyahu will return to the nation's most powerful post, but Livni immediately started coalition talks, meeting with Avigdor Lieberman of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu—who observers say has emerged as king-maker.

Taliban suicide attacks struck government buildings at three sites in Kabul on Feb. 11, killing at least 20 people and wounding 57 in coordinated strikes that demonstrated the vulnerability of even Afghanistan's heavily fortified capital. At the Justice Ministry, five militants armed with explosives and Kalashnikov rifles killed two guards, stormed the building, and took control of several floors for about an hour. They shot to death 10 people before being killed.

Two near-simultaneous car bombs ripped through a Baghdad bus station on Feb. 11, killing at least 16 people, amid a flare-up of violence across Iraq that claimed more than 20 lives and left some 60 injured. Officials said the parked cars blew up near the bus station in the Shi'ite district of Bayaah in western Baghdad and that most of the 16 dead and 43 wounded were men—many Shi'ite pilgrims en route to Karbala.

The US North Pacific Fishery Management Council, spurred by concerns that commercial fishing fleets looking for untapped sources are about to enter waters off northern Alaska opened up by the break-up of the Arctic ice pack, voted Feb. 5 to close those waters to fishing pending studies on the health and sustainability of fish living under the now-retreating ice pack.

From The Guardian, Feb. 8:

Bushfires and global warming: is there a link?
Scientists are reluctant to link ­individual weather events to global warming, because natural variability will always throw up extreme events. However, they say that climate change loads the dice, and can make severe episodes more likely.