Moscow
Reporter brutalized: One of Russia’s most prominent political reporters was beaten nearly to death last week outside his Moscow apartment. Oleg Kashin, 30, is in critical condition with two broken legs and broken hands, and a shattered jaw. One of his fingers was ripped off. Kashin had been covering environmental protests against a highway being built in an old-growth forest, a project sponsored by a crony of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. “It is completely obvious that the people who did this did not like what he was saying and what he was writing,” said Mikhail Mikhailin, Kashin’s editor at Kommersant. Russia is one of the most dangerous places in the world for reporters; 18 journalists have been murdered since 2000. None of the cases has been solved, reinforcing a belief among many Russians that the authorities are responsible.
Jerusalem
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More settlements: In explicit defiance of the U.S. government, Israel announced it would build 1,300 new housing units in a contested area of East Jerusalem. Speaking from Indonesia, President Obama criticized the construction, saying, “This kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations.” The settlement issue has derailed the peace talks that Obama launched in August. The Palestinian Authority suspended participation last month and said it wouldn’t rejoin talks without a settlement freeze. Netanyahu said criticism of the project was overblown. “Israel sees no link between the peace process and its development plans in Jerusalem,” he said.
Baghdad
Canine bomb carriers: Al Qaida in Iraq tried to blow up a U.S. plane by planting bombs inside dogs, French newspaper Le Figaro reported last week. The attempt came two years ago, when terrorists surgically implanted powerful explosives inside two stray dogs, placed the animals in kennel carriers, and booked them on a flight to the U.S. But the dogs died before the carriers were loaded onto the plane, and investigators found the bombs inside them. “This case illustrates the determination of al Qaida militants, who are trying to circumvent terrorism controls by any means,” said French aviation security expert Christophe Naudin. The International Civil Aviation Organization has warned security agencies around the world of the possibility of similar attacks.
Yangon, Myanmar
Junta wins rigged election: The main military-backed party last week won Myanmar’s first election in 20 years in an unsurprising landslide. The main opposition party—Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which won the last election, in 1990, but was prevented from taking power—boycotted the polls. International observers alleged that the junta nonetheless had engaged in widespread fraud, including pre-marked ballots, stuffed ballot boxes, and voter intimidation. “There’s a kind of joke doing the rounds here,” said British Ambassador Andrew Heyn, “that this is less of a general election than an election of generals.” The election also sparked violence, as ethnic rebels excluded from voting battled the military. Some 20,000 people poured into neighboring Thailand to flee the fighting.
Khartoum, Sudan
Secession vote on track: After three days of negotiations with Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the government of Sudan this week agreed to allow a planned referendum on secession to proceed. A 2005 peace agreement called for a referendum on splitting the oil-rich south from Sudan’s north, where the government is based. The vote was scheduled for January, but U.S. officials feared the government would block it, leading to a renewal in the civil war that has already killed some 2 million people. Kerry offered the Sudanese government incentives, including debt relief, the lifting of sanctions, and the removal of Sudan from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. “I believe a broad agreement is within reach if they act with the sense of urgency that is necessary to seize this historic opportunity,” Kerry said.
