For more than a month, Iraqi Kurdistan has been piping oil across its northern border to Turkey, against the wishes of the central Iraqi government. Kurdish crude is bringing long-simmering tensions between Baghdad and Irbil to a head, and what happens next will affect Turkish-Iraqi relations for years to come.

Six Egyptian embassy employees are kidnapped and released in Tripoli as the fallout from the Libyan misadventure spreads out this weekend.

The fight over the Keystone XL pipeline may not actually affect emissions or stop Canada’s oil sands from being developed, but darnit it’s been good for the green movement! That’s the gist of the recent New York Times article “Pipeline Fight Lifts Environmental Movement,” which—while careful not to take sides—calls the fight a “boon to the environmental movement.” Here’s what’s wrong with that perspective.

Moody’s has threatened to downgrade Puerto Rico to junk status unless it borrows money this month. Unfortunately, it could be downgraded anyways if it can’t secure favorable interest rates on this borrowing.

Ecuadorian airlines company Tame has suspended flights to Venezuela, finally putting its foot down over a number of unpaid plane tickets. It’s not a very Bolivarian thing for Quito to do.

Protests sprouted up in Russian-speaking southern and eastern Ukraine over the weekend. Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych has been put on notice.

As the ruble slides towards five year lows against the dollar, Russia’s middle class is getting nervous. Putin’s expensive and ambitious foreign policy may be hitting some hard limits soon.

Greetings readers! We trust you’ve had a refreshing weekend. Here’s a look back on the big stories you may have missed over the past week:

Coming soon to British produce aisles: purple tomatoes. Genetic modifications not only change the new type of tomato’s hue, they make it healthier as well.

A British man will pay the ultimate price for blasphemy in Pakistan, after a district court sentenced the 70-year old to death for sending out letters to the police in which he declared himself to be a prophet.