The week at a glance ... International

Abidjan, Ivory Coast

War averted? Under pressure from African leaders, Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo this week agreed to negotiate a peaceful end to the political crisis prompted by his refusal to cede power after losing the November presidential election to rival Alassane Ouattara. Dozens of people were killed in December in post-election skirmishes between supporters of the two men, and African leaders began discussing whether to send a military force to oust Gbagbo. After meeting with the presidents of Sierra Leone, Benin, and Cape Verde, as well as with the African Union mediator, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Gbagbo said he would lift the blockade around Ouattara’s headquarters. He made no plans, however, to move out of the presidential palace.

Jerusalem

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Ex-president convicted of rape: In a case that has shocked Israel, former President Moshe Katsav was convicted last week of rape. Katsav, 65, faces up to 16 years in prison for raping an employee in 1998, when he was tourism minister, as well as for sexual harassment of two other women who worked for him while he was president from 2000 to 2007. Katsav had claimed the charges were politically motivated, saying he was targeted because he was a Mizrahi Jew from Iran. Women’s groups said the conviction showed that Israel had finally begun to shed the overtly sexist atmosphere that permeated its early decades. “The court sent two clear and sharp messages: that everyone is equal and every woman has the full right to her body,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Baghdad

Al-Sadr returns: The anti-American Shiite cleric and militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr has returned to Iraq after four years of self-imposed exile in Iran. Al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army battled U.S. forces for years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, had been in Iran to evade an arrest warrant for the killing of a rival cleric in 2003. But Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s new government shows no inclination to pursue those charges now. No wonder: Al-Maliki owes his re-election to al-Sadr, who unexpectedly threw his support behind his former political enemy a few months ago. Iran is believed to have engineered the alliance to cement Shiite rule in Iraq.

Islamabad, Pakistan

Government in turmoil: Pakistan’s ruling party was plunged into dual crises this week when a key ally abandoned the governing coalition and a top party member was assassinated. Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab and a close ally of President Asif Ali Zardari, was gunned down by Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, one of his own bodyguards. Qadri, who surrendered, said he’d acted as “a slave of the Prophet,” enraged over Taseer’s support for reform of the country’s strict blasphemy laws, which mandate the execution of those who insult Islam. The loss is another blow to the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, already weakened by the defection of coalition partner Muttahida Qaumi Movement, or MQM, which pulled out of the government last weekend over a rise in fuel prices. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s government may collapse unless he can win the support of a major opposition party.

Manila

Killer in photo: A Philippine politician murdered while taking a holiday snapshot of his family caught an image of his killer. Reynaldo Dagsa was taking a New Year’s photo of his wife, daughter, and mother-in-law when a man he’d once sent to prison for stealing cars jumped into the frame and shot him. The chilling last photo on Dagsa’s camera shows the gunman standing behind the family members and pointing a pistol directly toward the camera. The family did not hear the shot amid the din of celebratory gunfire marking the New Year holiday. (More than 30 people were accidentally killed by stray bullets during the holiday.) Caloocan Police Chief Jude Santos said authorities had identified the shooter from the photo and were searching for him.

Queensland, Australia

Epic floods: A Texas-size chunk of northeastern Australia was under water this week as the country faced its worst flooding in a century. Weeks of heavy rains across Queensland have burst rivers, forcing military evacuations of entire towns. At least 10 people have been killed. Those still in the flooded area are bracing for more rain and an influx of crocodiles and highly venomous taipans, brown snakes, and red-bellied black snakes, which are slithering into people’s houses to escape drowning. Meanwhile, deluged mines and farms are costing the state billions of dollars in lost industry and infrastructure. The losses will have a global effect: Queensland provides half of the world’s coking coal, used in steel manufacturing, as well as much of Asia’s wheat, and prices of both products have already risen sharply.