Matthew Wald reported for the New York Times Feb. 6. that the US Energy Department is subsidizing two Russian nuclear institutes at Nizhny Novgorod that are building key parts of the Bushehr reactor in Iran that Washington has spent years trying to stop. One institute, the Scientific Research Institute of Measuring Systems, is providing control systems for the Iranian plant; the other is providing hundreds of pumps and ventilation fans. Russia has agreed to take back the spent fuel from the Bushehr plant, so the plutonium cannot be recovered by the Iranians. The Energy Department is subsidizing the institutes under the Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention, set up after the collapse of the USSR to maintain control of Soviet nuclear expertise and technology.

Clearing vast tracts of land for biofuels production would hinder—not help—the effort to slow global warming, according to two new studies published in the journal Science. Although such fuels emit less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels, clearing forests and other native ecosystems releases carbon dioxide from plants and soil through fire or decomposition. Additionally, cropland absorbs less carbon than the native ecosystems it replaces.

Congolese forces arrested Col. Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, accused former leader of the rebel National Integrationist Front (FNI), and handed him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Ngudjolo is alleged to have played a key role in a murderous attack on the village of Bogoro, Ituri province, in February 2003. He is facing three counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of war crimes, including sexual slavery and the use of child soldiers. He is the third Congolese national sent to the ICC, after Thomas Lubanga Dyilo and Germain Katanga. (UN News Service via AllAfrica, Feb. 7)

Pakistani Taliban fighters led by commander Baitullah Mehsud Feb. 6 announced the suspension of attacks against security forces in the Waziristan tribal region and the Swat valley for an indefinite period. Maulvi Muhammad Omar, a spokesman for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, told reporters in Peshawar from an undisclosed location that the militants had stopped attacks because the "government has softened operations" against the militants. "We have stated earlier that if anyone does not want to fight us, we will also not fight with them. But if anyone imposes war on us we will fight with them," Omar said. But in Islamabad, interim Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan said the security forces had "broken the back of the militants and they are on the run." Khan said a grand jirga or council of elders will be convened soon to end hostilities in the tribal regions. (PTI, Feb. 6)

A 37-year-old US businesswoman and married mother of three is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia's religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in Riyadh. Yara, who does not want her last name published, was bruised and crying when she was released from a day in prison after she was strip-searched, threatened and forced to sign confessions by the kingdom's "Mutaween," or Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

Lest we forget... From the Gothamist, Feb. 1:

While Crossing Delancey, Woman Fatally Struck by SUV
Late Wednesday night, an 82-year-old woman crossing Delancey Street at Allen was fatally hit by an SUV driver. The driver, who was traveling west on Delancey, stayed on the scene was not charged with a crime.

Ralph DiGia

Ralph DiGia, lifelong war resister and pacifist, died Feb. 1 in New York City, days after breaking his hip in a fall. Ralph, 93, was a leading figure in the War Resisters League, one of the United States' oldest anti-war groups, for more than two generations. He joined the organization shortly after the end of World War II and his release from federal prison, where he had served a term for refusing military service as a conscientious objector.

Tamils in the UK marked the 60th anniversary of Sri Lankan independence Feb. 5 with a hundreds-strong protest at Downing Street demanding "real freedom" and "real rights" for the Hindu minority on the island. That same day, at least 14 were killed in two roadside bombings in Sri Lanka. In his independence day address to the nation, President Mahinda Rajapakse said the "challenge bestowed upon us by history is the defeat of terrorism," and government forces had cornered the Tamil Tiger rebels in the north. His government recently ended a 2002 cease-fire with the rebels. The protest was called by the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO), while the British Tamils Forum held a photo exhibition near parliament on "the past 60 years of oppression, ethnic cleansing and discrimination that...the Tamil community has faced at the hands of the sovereign state of Sri Lanka." The Sri Lankan government protested the protest, charging it was organized by AC Shanthan and Golden Lambert. Both men have reportedly been arrested in the past under UK anti-terrorist laws and are believed to be out on bail. "Sources" cited by the Times of India said the two are "prominent fund-raisers" for the Tamil Tigers.