The week at a glance...International

Seoul

Suicide soars: The suicide rate in South Korea has more than doubled in the past decade, the government said this week. South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world; for citizens in their 20s and 30s, suicide is the leading cause of death. Some analysts say the act has become normalized by a spate of high-profile suicides, including those of actor and singer Park Yong-ha, who hanged himself last year at age 32, and former President Roh Moo-hyun, who jumped off a cliff in 2009. Others blame the proliferation of suicide groups on the Web, where youths make pacts to kill themselves together. “When a situation is bad and they can’t show their cool selves, Koreans tend to get frustrated, give up, and take drastic choices,” Hwang Sang-min, a professor of psychology at Yonsei University, told The Wall Street Journal.

New Delhi

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Terrorist attack: At least 11 people were killed this week and scores injured when a briefcase bomb went off at the entrance to the Delhi High Court. The powerful bombing was timed to inflict maximum damage, on the busiest day of the court week, when citizens are invited to bring cases in the public interest. Blood-spattered papers littered the scene as EMTs worked frantically to save people with missing limbs. A Pakistani Islamist terror group, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, claimed responsibility in an e-mail. It demanded that the court repeal the death sentence of convicted terrorist Mohammed Afzal Guru or the group would “target major high courts and the Supreme Court of India.” Guru was the mastermind of a 2001 attack on India’s parliament, which killed seven people.

Quetta, Pakistan

Working with the U.S.: In a notable turnaround, Pakistani authorities highlighted their cooperation with U.S. intelligence agencies this week as they announced the capture of three senior al Qaida operatives. “This operation was planned and conducted” with the U.S., the Pakistani military said, praising the “strong, historic intelligence relationship” between the two countries. Relations have been sour since U.S. Navy SEALs entered Pakistani territory to kill Osama bin Laden without informing Pakistani authorities. The Pakistani military said one of the men captured this week, Younis al-Mauritani, was planning attacks on U.S. economic interests, including a plot to blow up oil tankers or military ships by ramming them with explosives-laden speedboats.

Kabul

Desertion epidemic: Afghan soldiers are abandoning their posts in droves. At least one in seven deserted during the first half of this year, more than double last year’s rate. U.S. and Afghan officials blame the increase, which comes as the U.S. begins to withdraw its troops, on poor leadership in Afghan units. The trend is prompting criticism of the Afghan government’s long-standing amnesty for deserters, a policy designed by President Hamid Karzai to allow soldiers to return home during harvest season. “I am personally in favor of removing that amnesty,” said Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, chief of staff of the Afghan army. “We cannot turn a blind eye on the individuals who are doing something wrong.”

Hama, Syria

Manhunt: The attorney general of the city of Hama was on the run this week after he resigned in a video posted online, saying he had defected from President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in protest over the slaughter of civilians. Adnan Bakkour is the highest-level state official to defect so far in the six-month uprising. After the regime claimed that Bakkour had been “kidnapped by terrorists” and forced to make the video, Bakkour released a further audio message denying that and saying he had been lightly wounded in an attack on his convoy but had escaped with help from other dissidents. Syrian troops descended on Hama with tanks and door-to-door raids, killing at least four people as they searched for the former official.

Bani Walid, Libya

Endgame: Just two major towns remained under the control of Muammar al-Qaddafi this week, and Libyan fighters said they had the ousted dictator surrounded. Members of the new Libyan government, the Transitional National Council, said they had tracked Qaddafi by satellite as well as with human intelligence and had located him by his predilection for setting up tents wherever he goes. “He can’t get out,” said government spokesman Anis Sharif. Meanwhile, at least a dozen top Qaddafi loyalists fled in a huge convoy across the desert to neighboring Niger. The Obama administration urged Libya’s neighbors to arrest any members of the regime who sought asylum with them.