The Israeli government's decision to include two West Bank locations—the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb—on a list of "national heritage sites" has sparked an uproar in the country's political circles. Chaim Oron, chairman of the left-wing Meretz party, slammed the decision Feb. 21, saying "This is another attempt to blur the borders between the State of Israel and the occupied territories."

Despite good intentions, the push to privatize government functions and instate "free trade" policies has caused declining food production, increased poverty and a sparked a hunger crisis for millions of people in African nations, researchers conclude in a new study. Market reforms that began in the mid-1980s and were supposed to aid economic growth have actually backfired in some of the world's poorest nations, leading in recent years to multiple food riots, scientists reported Feb. 15 today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A criminal court in Algeria Feb. 21 acquitted former Guantánamo Bay detainee Mustafa Hemlili of charges of counterfeiting and affiliation with a militant group. Hemlili was released from Guantánamo, along with fellow inmate Hederbash Sufian, after a six-year detention period. The court separated the trials of the two defendants, stating that the only link between them was the date of their release. Sufian's trial was postponed due to poor health after his lawyers presented evidence showing that he suffers from mental trauma as a result of his treatment at the US naval facility. Hemlili had traveled with family members to Mali, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan without a passport before going to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region to work with an international relief agency assisting Afghan refugees. After the 9-11 attacks, Hemlili was captured in Peshawar, Pakistan, with a forged Iraqi passport. (Jurist, Feb. 22)

From the New York Times, Feb. 21:

Hit and Run in Brooklyn Leaves One Brain-Dead
An employee of the mayor's office was declared brain-dead on Sunday morning after she and another woman were struck by a hit-and-run driver while crossing Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, the authorities said.

Several British companies are poised to begin offshore exploration in waters around the Falkand Islands—sparking a diplomatic row with Argentina, which claims the archipelago that it calls the Malvinas. Britain's Desire petroleum, which has just put a rig in place, has licensed six areas where it predicts 3.5 billion barrels of oil and nine trillion cubic feet of gas. Last week, Buenos Aires said it would require all ships from the islands to obtain permits to dock in Argentina in retribution for the move. The press in both the UK and Argentina are raising the specter of renewed conflict over the islands, the scene of a two-month war in 1982.

Honduran President Porfirio Lobo is not invited to the second Summit of Latin American and Caribbean Unity, organizers of the regional confab announced. Mexico, which will host the event on February 22-23 in the resort city of Cancún, said the Honduran government should be recognized by the Organization of American States (OAS) before it can take a seat at the summit. (RIA-Novosti, Press TV, Feb. 21)

Critics of Mexican President Felipe Calderón and his so-called Drug War charge that the government is favoring the Sinaloa Cartel. "There are no important detentions of Sinaloa cartel members," Diego Osorno, an investigative journalist and the author of a book on the Sinaloa Cartel (El Cártel de Sinaloa: Una historia del uso político del narco, Grijalbo, México 2009), told AlJazeera. "But the government is hunting down [Sinaloa's] adversary groups [and] new players in the world of drug trafficking."

The Netherlands' coalition government collapsed Feb. 19 after the two largest parties failed to agree on whether to withdraw Dutch troops from Afghanistan later this year, as had been planned. The cabinet of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende fell apart following 16 hours of talks in The Hague. Balkenende's Christian Democrat Appeal (CDA) had pushed for keeping a reduced force in Afghanistan for a year past the August 2010 deadline. This was met with opposition from the Labour Party of deputy prime minister Wouter Bos, the deputy prime minister. "A plan was agreed to when our soldiers went to Afghanistan. Our partners in the government didn't want to stick to that plan, and on the basis of their refusal we have decided to resign from this government," Bos said.