As the security situation in Mali continues to deteriorate, human rights abuses against women and children are on the rise, according to a senior United Nations official. In a four-day tour of northern Mali, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonović noted that the human rights situation on the ground has shifted since the conflict ignited in early 2012.

Previously, members of the Tuareg rebellion seeking independence from the Malian government carried out abuses in pursuit of their goals. But a junior officer-led coup by the Malian Army against perceived government weakness in pursuing the Tuareg in March considerably changed the conflict’s dynamic. Islamist groups such as Ansar Dine and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) took advantage of a weakened government and unorganized Tuareg rebels to gain control of vast swaths of territory.

Their de facto control of the north has increased the systemic nature of the assaults as well as changed the targets, the U.N. report says:

Allegedly at least three executions, eight amputations and two floggings have been carried out in recent months. Forced marriages are reportedly common, and women are being sold and forced to remarry, which is akin to rape and commercial sexual exploitation. Šimonović said that one of the people he had interviewed had told him that “women were not only for sale, but also ‘on sale’ in the North, and can be bought for less than 1,000 US dollars.”

During his mission, Šimonović drew particular attention to the violation of women’s rights. “Women are the primary victims of the current crisis and have been disproportionately affected by the situation in the north. Their human rights, to employment, education and access to basic social services have been seriously curtailed,” he said.

Among the other troubling reports from the U.N. visit is the compiling of lists of women “who have had children out of wedlock, or are unmarried and pregnant” for reprisal and the recruitment of child soldiers into the Islamists’ camps.

Ansar Dine and MUJAO have in the past months also destroyed ancient shrines and kidnapped and executed diplomats. Both groups maintain ties to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an affiliate of al Qaeda’s core, which has put down roots in Northern Mali.

The situation in the south, including Mali’s capital Bamako, is one of instability as the national government rebuilds itself post-coup. Mali has reached out to the international community for assistance in recapturing territory, prompting the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to pledge military force to assist in an intervention. However, the United Nations Security Council has so far refused to sign off on intervention until ECOWAS provides a workable plan of action.

The growing presence of AQIM in the region has led the United States to consider unilateral strikes in the aftermath of last month’s attacks on the U.S. consulate in Libya.

Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset Danny Danon told a gathering in Chicago that President Obama’s policies were “catastrophic” for Israel, according to the Associated Press. Danon, who is also planning trips to New York and Florida on a book tour, also argued that the President was “not a friend of Israel.”

Though Danon, a Likud minister and ally to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed that he was stating a personal opinion rather than interfering in the U.S. election, he has effusively praised GOP candidate Mitt Romney, framing his comments in nakedly electoral terms. In a July op-ed for the Jerusalem Post, Danon wrote:

In this election, those who want what is truly best for Israel are presented with a starker choice than usual. On one hand, there is Gov. Mitt Romney, who is taking the time to visit us at the moment, and who time and again has spoken out strongly for Israel’s rights to safeguard our own interests.

On the other hand, incumbent candidate US President Barack Obama has all but adopted the Palestinian negotiation position and given Israel the cold shoulder on every possible occasion.

Danon has a history of harsh right-wing public positioning. He suggested Israel should permanently annex the occupied Palestinian territories, telling al-Jazeera, “There is place only for one state on the land of Israel …. I do not believe in a two-state solution.” Danon has introduced legislation to annex part of the West Bank. He also implied the U.S. and its allies should use military force to overthrow the Iranian government.

The Likud minister’s comments also present a problem for his party leader, Netanyahu, who has been battling the widespread perception that he has been intervening in the U.S. presidential election on Romney’s behalf. The Prime Minister’s remarks on Iran have been used in an anti-Obama ad that aired in Florida, forcing Netanyahu’s office disavow any involvement in the ad’s production. Netanyahu also gave an interview to Israeli tabloid Israel Hayom denying that he was moving against Obama.

Danon’s judgment of President Obama is not shared by his country’s Defense Minister and President. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said he “can hardly remember a better period of support, American support and cooperation and similar strategic understanding” and that “I don’t think that anyone can raise any question mark about the devotion of this president to the security of Israel.” Similarly, President Shimon Peres told CNN that “when I look at the record of President Obama concerning the major issues, security, I think it’s a highly satisfactory record, from an Israeli point of view.” The Obama administration has broadened American cooperation with Israel on a variety of key issues, including missile defense.

Staff for House Democrats allege in a memo to Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that Republicans on the committee withheld information from Democrats in the investigation surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi Libya:

Although Chairman [Darrell] Issa [R-CA] has claimed publicly that ‘we are pursuing this on a bipartisan basis,’ the Committee’s investigation into the attack in Benghazi has been extremely partisan. The Chairman and his staff failed to consult with Democratic Members prior to issuing public letters with unverified allegations, concealed witnesses and refused to make one hearing witness available to Democratic staff, withheld documents obtained by the Committee during the investigation, and effectively excluded Democratic Committee Members from joining a poorly-planned congressional delegation to Libya.

The Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow investigating the Benghazi attack, which killed four Americans, including Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.

The memo also complains that House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) did not invite the Oversight Committee to a classified State Department briefing today on the Libya attacks and that “[a]s of the writing of this memo, the minority is not aware of any classified briefings provided to the Oversight Committee about the attack in Benghazi during the Committee’s entire investigation.” (HT: Foreign Policy)

After a slight delay, the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority has posted the American Freedom Defense Initiative’s anti-Muslim advertisements in four DC Metro subway stations. WMATA last month delayed displaying the ads — which refer to Muslims as “savages” — on the grounds that they could be seen as incitement in a time of global tensions after the attacks on U.S. embassies in the Middle East.

ADFI, led by Pamela Geller, sued WMATA to have the advertisements posted immediately, as any delay was a violation of the group’s First Amendment rights. In a one-page order issued on Friday, District Judge Rosemary Collyer ordered WMATA to display the ads by no later than October 5.

WMATA has complied with the District Court’s order, leading the ads to be posted in four DC Metro stations for the next month: Takoma Park, Glenmont, Georgia Ave/Petworth, and U Street/Cardoza. At the time of publishing, WMATA did not respond to an inquiry about why it chose to place the ads in these locations.

An appeal to have the ads remain free from defacement ran on the Washington Post’s website on Monday. Similar ads in New York and San Fransisco have been the target of constant defacement, being labeled as “racist” and “hate speech.” Despite the appeal, several of the signs have already been creatively revised, as in the case of the advertisement at the Takoma Park station:

Debbie Polhemus, of D.C., covered up the letters of the ad, which read “In Any War Between the Civilized Man and the Savage, Support the Civilized Man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”

The high school teacher said she wanted to counteract the American Freedom Defense Initiative’s right to free speech with her own right to free speech, all without actually defacing the sign. “This is a public space, and we don’t like hate speech,” she told The Washington Examiner. “And not to do anything would be to allow this speech. … It would be hurtful.”

Her message at the Takoma Metro station on the Red Line instead included: “If you see something hateful say something peaceful.”

The ads in New York have also been countered by anti-hate speech advertisements purchased by the United Methodist Women and other religious groups.

Mitt Romney campaign surrogate Rudy Giuliani suggested that the four Americas who died in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya last month were killed because the Obama administration was allegedly playing politics with the issue.

Giuliani told Fox News’s Bill Hemmer that the Americans at the consulate, including the late Ambassador Chris Stevens, “didn’t have to die if there were a competent reaction that wasn’t controlled by political spin”:

GIULIANI: The reality is, when you close your eyes to what’s going on you get attacked without recognizing you’re getting attacked. We should never have been attacked in Libya. The warnings were manifold. Instead of increasing security we decreased security. It is quite possible that the ambassador and the other three Americans didn’t have to die if there were a competent reaction that wasn’t controlled by political spin as opposed to done very very realistically.

Watch the clip:

While it’s unclear what reaction to the Benghazi attack the Obama administration could have taken that would have retroactively saved the lives of Stevens and his colleagues, it’s conservatives like Giuliani who have been politicizing the incident, calling it Obama’s “Watergate” (the sixth Watergate-type scandal of Obama’s administration) and saying the president should be impeached.