The week at a glance...International

last updated 8 January 2015

Nairobi, Kenya

Terrorists retaliate: The Somali Islamist group al-Shabab is suspected in two grenade blasts in Nairobi this week that killed one person and injured dozens. Kenya sent troops into Somalia last week in pursuit of al-Shabab fighters it says have kidnapped tourists and aid workers in Kenya, and as the fighting continued, al-Shabab said it would retaliate. The grenade attacks at a bar and a bus station came soon after the U.S. Embassy warned of “credible information of an imminent threat of terrorist attacks” at sites frequented by foreigners.

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Who will rule? Saudi authorities must decide who is next in line for the throne after Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz al-Saud died last week, at age 80. The line of succession doesn’t run from father to son, because Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, founder of the House of Saud, decreed that his 37 sons should pass the throne one to another. King Abdullah, 87, will now have to nominate one of his 19 remaining brothers and half brothers for approval by the rest, and most observers believe the choice will be Prince Nayef, 78, who is seen as more conservative than the late Crown Prince. Sultan made his mark in his decades-long role as defense minister, overseeing vast arms purchases from the U.S., the U.K., and France. One of his sons, Prince Bandar, was a longtime ambassador to the U.S. and an ally of the Bush family.

Van, Turkey

Quake strikes poor: Entire city blocks collapsed when a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck southeastern Turkey this week, killing at least 461 people. The quake destroyed hundreds of buildings in the cities of Van and Ercis and flattened several rural villages nearby. “We see that people pay the price for concrete that virtually turned to sand, or for weakened concrete blocks on the ground floors,” said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Rescuers worked in near-freezing temperatures to pull dozens of survivors from the rubble. In the most dramatic success story, a 2-week-old baby was found alive two days after the quake, along with her mother and grandmother. At first Turkey declined most offers of international aid, but began accepting it as the need for temporary shelters became more acute. Israel sent a planeload of mobile homes, though relations between the two countries have recently been tense.

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

New personality cult: Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov gave himself the title Hero of Turkmenistan this week, confirming fears that he was becoming an echo of his megalomaniacal predecessor. When Saparmurat Niyazov died in 2006, after ruling the gas-rich former Soviet republic since independence, many hoped that the repressive and weird country might open up a bit. But Berdymukhamedov is proving just as narcissistic. At a ceremony honoring him this week, the president was told, “Wherever you tread, the soil turns into an orchard of paradise, and new villages, museums, factories, and kindergartens rise there.” All media is controlled by the state, and many citizens are forbidden to travel abroad.

Islamabad, Pakistan

Get the Haqqanis: Flanked by top officials and speaking “very frankly,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Pakistani officials there would be a “very big price” if they did not take on the Haqqani network. The al Qaida–affiliated group, based in Pakistan, is blamed for deadly attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan and the killing of a top Afghan peace negotiator. Speaking in Islamabad with the CIA director and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs by her side, Clinton said, “For too long, extremists have been able to operate here in Pakistan and from Pakistani soil.” Pakistani authorities have been reluctant to mount an operation in remote North Waziristan, where the Haqqanis are based. The U.S. has hinted that it might do so with or without Pakistani support.

Bangkok

Under water: Thailand has been hit with the worst flooding in half a century. Thousands of people fleeing inundated villages this week reached Bangkok only to be told they must evacuate that city too. After three months of monsoon rains, water from the sodden center of the country is draining toward the sea, and Bangkok is right in the way. Officials tried to divert the flow to the west and east but were forced to open some of the sluice gates into the city, putting much of the capital at risk. One of the city’s two airports closed because its runways were under more than a foot of water. Over 100,000 people are living in evacuation shelters, and the government has declared a five-day holiday to allow people to flee.

Rottnest Island, Australia

Man-eating shark: Australian authorities issued a rare shoot-to-kill order against a great white shark this week, after an American diver was attacked and killed. George Thomas Wainwright, 32, was the third person to be killed by a shark off the Australian coast in the past two months. Shark experts said it was highly unlikely that the same shark had attacked all three, or that the hunters would even encounter any of the sharks that were responsible. “It sounds a little bit like taking revenge, and we’re talking about an endangered species,” said marine zoologist Barbara Weuringer. In the past 20 years, sharks have killed a total of 24 people in Australian waters.

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