Abuja, Nigeria
U.N. office bombed: In one of the deadliest attacks ever on U.N. facilities, a suicide car bomber killed 23 people at the U.N. office in the Nigerian capital of Abuja last week. The bomber rammed his car through two sets of gates and smashed into the glass-walled reception area, and then detonated a mass of explosives. Among the dead were at least 11 U.N. staff members, mostly Nigerians. A radical Muslim group called Boko Haram—which means “Western education is sacrilege”—claimed responsibility. The group is linked to al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb as well as to Somalia’s al-Shabab. The Muslim north of Nigeria, where the group is based, is extremely poor and has benefited little from the country’s oil wealth.
Johannesburg
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Youth protest: Protesters burned T-shirts bearing President Jacob Zuma’s image this week at the start of a disciplinary hearing for Julius Malema, the fiery leader of the African National Congress Youth League. When demonstrators began throwing bricks, Malema appealed for “revolutionary restraint.” Malema has mobilized thousands of youths with his speeches about inequality. Zuma sees him as a rival and wants him censured for “sowing division” in the ANC.
Damascus, Syria
No oil for EU: The European Union finally hit Syria where it hurts this week, slapping it with an oil embargo after the regime once again fired on peaceful protesters. The U.S. had already imposed such a ban, but since it has little trade with Syria, the gesture was symbolic. The EU, by contrast, is Syria’s main trading partner and buys more than $4 billion worth of its oil every year. Meanwhile, the five-month uprising spread to Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city and until now a bastion for President Bashar al-Assad. Analysts said the business community, which has tacitly supported the regime so far, is now turning against Assad as it sees trade falling off and the economy suffering. “They are seeing the boat sinking and are starting to prepare to jump ship,” one businessman told CSMonitor.com.
Kabul
The high cost of war: August was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in the entire 10-year war in Afghanistan. A record 66 U.S. troops died in August; the previous high was 65, in July 2010. The higher death toll is largely the result of the downing early in the month of a transport helicopter carrying 30 U.S. personnel, most of them Navy SEALs. That was the single deadliest incident for coalition forces since they entered Afghanistan. August coincided with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, and President Hamid Karzai chose the festival celebrating the month’s end to call on insurgents to lay down their arms. “Once again I call on all brothers and oppositions to give up violence, stop killing their brothers, and join the peace process in the country,” he said.
Beijing
Spies covered up: Leaked video of a lecture by a Chinese general shows that Beijing has been covering up cases of spying by Chinese nationals out of embarrassment. In a two-and-a-half-hour speech that someone put up on YouTube, Gen. Jin Yinan named eight top Communist Party and military officials who had sold state secrets to foreign countries, and said that they had been convicted of corruption instead of spying so China could save face. The list includes Kang Rixin, former head of China’s nuclear power program, who, Jin said, passed nuclear secrets to an unnamed party; and Li Bin, China’s former ambassador to South Korea, who allegedly passed secrets to South Korean officials.
Qitaihe, China
Miners rescued: Rescuers have saved 22 of 26 miners who were trapped underground in a flooded coal mine for a week. The miners got stuck in the illegal mine after they accidentally drilled into a neighboring mine that had filled with water. China’s mines are among the world’s deadliest because of poor oversight and practically nonexistent safety measures. This particular mine was ordered closed in 2007, but the owner reopened it last month without permission. Two local government officials have been fired over the accident.
Tokyo
Thankless job: Japan has yet another new prime minister. Yoshihiko Noda, a former finance minister, is the third prime minister to take office in the two years since the Democratic Party ousted the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Selected at a party conference this week, he takes over from Naoto Kan, who was pummeled in the press for his handling of the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Noda must now oversee reconstruction in the tsunami zone and master the ongoing nuclear crisis at Fukushima with its resulting energy shortages—all against the backdrop of a stagnant economy and an aging population. He immediately tried to dampen expectations. “Running Japan’s government is like pushing a giant snowball up a snowy, slippery hill,” said Noda in his acceptance speech.
Moscow
Rocket trouble: A string of accidents has grounded Russian space flights, leaving the International Space Station with no way to get supplies or rotate its crew. The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said it wouldn’t resume flights until last week’s crash of an unmanned cargo freighter could be explained and corrected. Rocket malfunctions appear to have caused at least three other serious accidents in the past year, all of them satellite launch failures. Russia’s Soyuz manned rockets are the only way for crews to reach the space station now that NASA’s space shuttles have been retired. If the next crew can’t be sent up by November, the station may be left unmanned.
