South African police raided the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg, which was serving as a sanctuary for some 1,000 Zimbabwean refugees, arresting scores of suspected "illegal immigrants" Jan. 31. Bishop Paul Verryn accused the police of using excessive force on refugees and church workers in the midnight raid: "They did not have a warrant," Verryn told SABC. "They have pushed me around and treated us despicably." He said the refugees "ran in terror" as police "came military-style and...turned the church upside-down... They have kicked down doors, they've broken a window, they assaulted people. They manhandled me. I mean, they just treated us as if we're animals." He called the police action "appalling" and "despicable."

United Nations "peacekeepers" in the disputed African territory of Western Sahara have vandalized ancient rock paintings, a UN official told the London Times. The paper published photos of the paintings at the archaeological site of Lajuad, some 6,000 years old—defaced with spray paint. Julian Harston, the UN official responsible for Western Sahara, said he was shocked by the vandalism, and that funds would be sought from UNESCO to remove the graffiti. UN peacekeepers were deployed in 1991 to monitor a ceasefire between Moroccan occupation forces and the Polisario Front independence movement.

Some 200 Afghans protested at the UN office in Kabul Jan. 31 against the death sentence passed against Perwiz Kambakhsh, a reporter convicted of blasphemy. The protest was organized by the small Solidarity Party of Afghanistan. The upper house of parliament said the previous day it backed the sentence against Kambakhsh. "This statement by Afghan lawmakers is a shocking confirmation of intolerance and a lack of respect for free speech," the International Federation of Journalists said, calling on its members to urge President Hamid Karzai to overturn the sentence. (Reuters, Jan. 31)

Israel's High Court of Justice Jan. 30 ruled that the blocking of power and fuel to the Gaza Strip is legal, as the remaining supplies still meet the humanitarian needs of the population. A three-justice panel, headed by Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, rejected petitions submitted by human rights organizations. "The Gaza Strip is controlled by a murderous terror organization, which works tirelessly to harm Israel and its citizens, and breaks every possible rule of international justice in its violent actions against men, women and children," Justice Beinisch wrote.

Wanted al-Qaeda figure Abu Laith al-Libi was killed in Pakistan by a CIA air-strike, anonymous officials told CNN. Al-Libi was said to have been behind several attacks on US forces in Afghanistan, including the February 2007 bombing at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney. He was on a "most wanted" list of 12 accused terrorists issued in October by the Combined Joint Task Force-82. The officials said al-Libi was killed by a missile fired from an airplane. "May God have mercy on Sheikh Abu Laith al-Libi and accept him with his brothers, with the martyrs," said a eulogy posted on a leading Islamist site, Al-Ekhlaas.

In the pitch for World War 4 Report's Winter Fund Drive last month, we wrote: "We hate to admit that we are at an existential crisis. We think that it is bad form to hold out our demise as a threat to get readers to donate. But after five years, World War 4 Report is starting to look unsustainable. We need to be able to reliably raise $2,000 at least once a year to continue, and our donations have only been decreasing over the past year. We do not understand why... We cling to the democratic ethic that a radical anti-war e-journal should be sustained by its readers... Are we unrealistic? Is it time to call it quits?"

Japan deployed a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile interceptor system at the Takeyama base in Yokosuka, just southwest of Tokyo Jan. 30, military sources told AP. Yokosuka is the site of Japan's largest naval base and homeport of the US Seventh Fleet. PAC-3 systems were installed at two other bases near Tokyo last year, and eight more are slated to be deployed around the nation. The fourth will be deployed at Kasumigaura in Ibaraki by the end of March. While the first three are deployed to protect the capital, they will have to be moved closer to Tokyo to be effective in the event of attack.

Testimony in the trial of Peru's ex-strongman Alberto Fujimori charges that his administration negotiated amnesty for an army death squad in exchange for keeping secret the government's involvement in two massacres in which 25 were killed. The claim comes from Pedro Supo, a former leader of the "Grupo Colina" death squad, run by the Army Intelligence Service (SIE).