Intrigue at the top: President Vladimir Putin has fired the defense minister amid a corruption scandal. Anatoly Serdyukov, who presided over drastic cuts in Russia’s bloated officer corps, faces questions over kickbacks in the sale of military assets. It’s the first time since the Gorbachev era that such a high-level official has been held accountable for corruption. Yet some Russian analysts suggested that Serdyukov’s dismissal was related to his cheating on his wife, who is the daughter of one of Putin’s close friends. Others said it was the military exacting revenge. The new defense chief is Sergei Shoigu, another longtime Putin ally who is among Russia’s most popular politicians
Beijing
Fatter and sicker: Prevalence of type 2 diabetes has more than tripled in China over the past decade as Chinese people adopt a more Western diet and lifestyle. “China, unfortunately, has become the world’s capital for diabetes,” said Michael Rosenblatt, chief medical officer of pharmaceutical giant Merck. “The government is starting to pay more attention, as this is the beginning of a huge problem,” in terms of both health and economics. China has 90 million diabetics, compared with 24 million in the U.S., and over the next two decades it expects another 40 million to acquire the condition. Type 2 is associated with inactivity and obesity.
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Lahore, Pakistan
Mob ransacks school: A mob laid waste to the top girls’ high school in Lahore last week after rumors circulated that a homework assignment insulted the Prophet Mohammed. More than 200 protesters set desks and chairs ablaze and ransacked offices. A teacher offended the protesters by allegedly miscopying an Islamic text. She fled into hiding, while the principal was arrested and faces the death penalty for blasphemy. The principal’s son, Sameer Asim Farooqi, who also works at the school, said the attackers may have used blasphemy as a pretext to shut down the school. “It seems that an organized gang attacked our school,” he said
Jerusalem
No hard feelings? After weeks of cozying up to Mitt Romney, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under criticism at home for backing the wrong horse. Netanyahu harshly criticized President Obama as insufficiently tough on Iran, while warmly welcoming Romney to Israel in July. One of Netanyahu’s top supporters, U.S. casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, was a major backer of pro-Romney PACs, and Adelson’s Israeli newspaper, Israel Hayom, ran multiple op-eds endorsing the Republican. “This morning is not good for Netanyahu,” said Eli Yishai, leader of the government-allied Shas party, while the opposition Kadima party said the prime minister “got us into hot water with Obama.” Netanyahu sent congratulations to Obama and called the U.S.-Israeli relationship “stronger than ever.”
Cairo
New Coptic pope: For the first time in 41 years, Egypt’s Coptic Christians got a new pope, after a blindfolded child picked the winner from a bowl containing three names. Pope Tawadros II, 60, formerly a little-known rural bishop, takes over a church that was long allied with the Mubarak regime, which it saw as its protector in the mostly Muslim country. Tawadros signaled that he would vigorously defend Christian rights now that an Islamist government rules Egypt, and he warned against drafting a new constitution that enforces Islamic law. “Any additions or hints that make the constitution religious will not be acceptable,” he said, “not only to Copts but to many sectors in society.”
Enugu, Nigeria
Biafran Republic returns: Secessionists in Nigeria have re-declared the independence of the Republic of Biafra. The original declaration, in 1967, sparked a three-year civil war in Nigeria that killed more than 1 million people and ended in Biafran defeat. This week some 500 people, including veterans of that conflict, held a brief demonstration and again raised the Biafran flag before being arrested and charged with treason. Among the detained was Ben Onwuka, head of the Biafran Zionist Movement, who pledged to create a country “at equal par with world economic powers in Europe, Asia, and America.”
Christchurch, New Zealand:
Free WiFi for all: In a bid for public support as he fights extradition to the U.S., Web-hosting magnate Kim Dotcom promised to give all New Zealanders free WiFi with the money he says he’ll earn by suing Hollywood. Dotcom, born in Germany as Kim Schmitz, plans to run a fiber-optic cable across the Pacific from New Zealand to the U.S., doubling Kiwis’ bandwidth. Dotcom said he’ll fund the project by suing Hollywood studios and the U.S. government for their “unlawful and political destruction” of his file-sharing business, Megaupload. The company, which allowed users to share videos and music, was shut down early this year for allegedly promoting digital piracy, and the FBI seeks to charge Dotcom with racketeering and money laundering.
