The week at a glance...Europe

Dublin

Voters dump leaders: Reeling from their country’s economic near-collapse, Irish voters last week threw out Fianna Fáil, the dominant force in Irish politics since independence in 1921. In the worst upset in Irish history, the party lost 60 seats, retaining only 18 of the 166 seats in the lower house of parliament. The party’s center-right rival, Fine Gael, won 70 seats and will form a coalition with the socialist Labor party, which took 36 seats. Sinn Féin, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, more than tripled its showing with its anti-Europe, anti-banker campaign, winning a surprising 13 seats. Fianna Fáil was blamed for Ireland’s catastrophic financial meltdown, which led to a humiliating international bailout by the EU and the IMF, as well as draconian budget cuts.

London

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Airline worker in plane plot: A former British Airways computer engineer was found guilty this week of plotting to blow up a passenger plane. Bangladeshi-born Rajib Karim, 31, sought work with the airline’s IT department in 2007 with the specific intent of someday downing a plane, prosecutors said. In 2009, he contacted Anwar al-Awlaki—the Yemeni-American cleric who counseled failed “underpants bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab—and the two began plotting attacks. “They also discussed his potential to sabotage BA servers to cause disruption to flights, which would have resulted in a major financial loss,” said prosecutor Colin Gibbs. Officials discovered the plot while investigating Awlaki’s British links. Awlaki is believed to be a leader of al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Frankfurt, Germany

U.S. soldiers killed: A gunman opened fire on a U.S. military bus outside Frankfurt’s airport this week, killing two Air Force servicemen, including the bus driver, and wounding two more. Police captured a 21-year-old suspect and said it appeared he had been working alone. German reports said the suspect was from Kosovo, the tiny, mostly Muslim country that won its independence from Serbia with U.S. help. U.S. officials said the airmen were based in Britain and transiting through Germany on their way to a deployment. The U.S. military has several major bases near Frankfurt, and the region is a logistical hub for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.