The week at a glance ... International

Cluster bombs banned: Cluster bombs were officially outlawed this week as a treaty banning their production and use went into force. The notoriously inaccurate weapons scatter hundreds of bomblets over a wide area, and the unexploded ones can injure civilians long after a conflict ends. The Convention on Cluster Munitions was negotiated after Israel’s use of them in the 2006 war with Lebanon caused an international outcry. The U.N. has estimated that Israel dropped as many as 4 million bomblets in Lebanon, and some 40 percent failed to explode on impact. But the ban will have limited effect: The four main cluster bomb–producing nations—China, the U.S., Israel, and Russia—did not sign the treaty.

Tel Aviv, Israel

Clash with Lebanon: A border clash this week left at least four Lebanese and one Israeli soldier dead, in the first fighting since the two countries’ 2006 war. The gunfire began when Israeli troops crossed the border fence—which does not precisely follow the border—to uproot a tree that was within Israeli territory. Israel said it had alerted the U.N. peacekeeping force in the area to its planned maintenance work, but that Lebanese forces opened fire on them anyway. “Israel desires peace and proved that when it withdrew its forces in 2000 to the international border,” said Defense Minister Ehud Barak. “But Israel will absolutely not tolerate attacks on its soldiers or its civilians in its sovereign territory.” Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Israel should “put an end to its aggression and its violations.”

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Hamadan, Iran

Assassination attempt? Iranian authorities this week denied reports that a bomb had gone off near President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s motorcade in an apparent assassination attempt. Initial Iranian media reports said the explosion had been caused by a homemade grenade. But the state news agency denounced those reports as “lies” spread by “foreign media” and said the blast merely had been a firecracker set off by “an excited young man” who was “expressing his happiness” at seeing the president. Ahmadinejad appeared on live television shortly after the blast and made no mention of it. A few days earlier, he had claimed that Israel was plotting to kill him, saying “The stupid Zionists have hired mercenaries to assassinate me.”

Dubai

Ban on BlackBerrys: The United Arab Emirates said this week it plans to bar the use of BlackBerrys starting in October because authorities can’t monitor data sent on the devices. Unlike other smart phones, BlackBerry devices route their encrypted data through offshore servers, circumventing local telecoms. UAE officials said that to combat money laundering and terrorism, they must be able to intercept e-mails and text messages. The plan sent shock waves through the international business community; the UAE has half a million BlackBerry users, many of them foreigners.

Kabul

Take them out: The U.S. military has shifted its emphasis in Afghanistan from counterinsurgency to counterterrorism, featuring “targeted killings” of top Taliban leaders, The New York Times reported this week. Over the past five months, commando raids have killed at least 130 top insurgent commanders. The aim, officials said, is to put pressure on the lower-level Taliban militants to abandon the insurgency and take up the Afghan government’s offer of amnesty. The strategy of counterinsurgency, or direct attacks on Taliban strongholds, has been producing higher and higher coalition casualties. July was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in the entire nine-year war, with 66 soldiers killed. The previous record, 60 dead, was set in June.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Under water: A massive monsoon has produced Pakistan’s worst floods in more than a century, claiming 1,400 lives and forcing some 3 million residents from their homes in the past week. The disaster began in the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where flash floods swept away entire villages; tens of thousands of people were stranded. The flooding spread downriver to the heavily populated Punjab and Sindh provinces. “We are now in a race against time to avert a public health disaster,” said Neva Khan, head of Oxfam in Pakistan. “The countryside is drowning in an ocean of contaminated water.”

Tokyo

Dead or alive? The Japanese government called for a nationwide check on the whereabouts of the elderly this week, after revelations that several people thought to be among the country’s oldest were in fact dead or missing. Last week, police looking for Tokyo’s oldest man, believed to be 111, found his mummified remains. He had died some 30 years ago, and his children were still collecting benefits on his behalf. This week, local authorities said Tokyo’s oldest woman, supposedly 113, could not be found and is presumed dead. “It is important for authorities to grasp the reality of where and how old people are living,” said Health Minister Akira Nagatsuma. Japan has the world’s highest life expectancy, with an over-100 population of 41,000.

Shuberskoe, Russia

Wildfires out of control: The hottest summer on record has produced Russia’s worst season for wildfires. Emergency officials said fires are breaking out at a rate of 300 a day, choking cities with smoke and forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes. Entire villages and at least one military base have burned to the ground. Fire reached the gates of the closed city of Sarov, where Russia’s nuclear bombs are developed, as officials deployed dozens of water tanker planes. The fires are destroying crops already reduced by a drought, and officials said the wheat harvest could drop by a third. Since Russia is one of the world’s top wheat producers, that news sparked a jump in global wheat prices.