The week at a glance ... International

Moscow

Soldiers charged with looting: Four Russian soldiers have been charged with looting the wreckage of a Polish airliner that crashed in April, killing Poland’s president and 95 others. The four had been assigned to guard the smoldering remains of the plane, which crashed near Smolensk, Russia, en route to a ceremony commemorating the massacre of Poles by Soviet troops at Katyn during World War II. Instead, Polish investigators say, the thieves stole five bank cards from victims and withdrew nearly $1,900 in cash. A Russian Interior Ministry spokesman initially denied the theft allegation, calling it “blasphemous and cynical.” But Russian officials then reversed course, saying the four had admitted their guilt.

Dandong, China

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Border deaths: A North Korean border guard this week shot four Chinese citizens near the Chinese–North Korean border, killing three. The incident, first reported in the South Korean press, was confirmed by China, which filed a rare formal complaint against its ally North Korea. A Chinese newspaper reported that the border guard had believed the four Chinese were engaged in illegal trade across the border. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il made his first visit to China in four years last month. His regime relies on aid from China, which is also its main trade partner, to stem chronic food shortages. In 2009, North Korea detained two American journalists captured near the country’s border with China. They were later released.

Tokyo

New prime minister: The ruling Democratic Party’s choice for a new prime minister, Finance Minister Naoto Kan, has been confirmed by parliament, a week after Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama resigned, just nine months into his term. Kan, a former civic activist, is known as a fiscal conservative. He says his priority is to tackle Japan’s mushrooming public debt. Hatoyama was forced out after backtracking on a pledge to close a U.S. airbase on Okinawa, a decision that enraged his coalition partners.

Manila, Philippines

Aquino wins presidency: Benigno Aquino III won a landslide victory in the presidential race, garnering 15 million votes, nearly 6 million more than his nearest competitor. A 50-year-old bachelor from one of the nation’s wealthiest families, Aquino benefited from deep reservoirs of goodwill for his late parents, former President Corazon Aquino and Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., who was murdered in 1983 when he returned from exile to challenge then-President Ferdinand Marcos. An unassuming legislator until his run for president, Aquino faces armed domestic insurgencies in addition to widespread corruption. “The problems I will be inheriting are still growing to this very day,” he said.

Naypyidaw, Myanmar

Nuclear warning: A military defector from Myanmar, also known as Burma, has claimed that the ruling junta is attempting to start a nuclear weapons program. According to a report released on the Norway-based news website Democratic Voice of Burma, the government is trying to build a nuclear reactor “to make plutonium and a nuclear enrichment program.” Evidence comes in the form of hundreds of photographs and documents smuggled out of the country by a former army major, Sai Thein Win. Although it is not thought that Myanmar’s nuclear program is at an advanced stage, earlier reports have suggested that the junta has been in secret negotiations to buy arms and weapons technology from North Korea, in defiance of international sanctions.

Bhopal, India

Executives sentenced: Seven former officers of chemical giant Union Carbide have been fined and given jail terms of two years for their part in the Bhopal disaster 25 years ago. The seven include the then-chairman of Union Carbide India, Keshub Mahindra, but not the company’s overall boss, Warren Anderson. The unlikelihood that those convicted will actually serve any prison time for their role in the worst industrial accident in history prompted protests from citizens groups. At least 3,500 people were killed immediately when the Bhopal plant released 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas into the air in December 1984. In the years since, advocates say, the accident has claimed the lives of some 25,000 people and damaged the health of half a million more. Dow Chemical Co., which bought Union Carbide in 1999, says the company has paid nearly $500 million in compensation to victims and that it considers the matter closed.

Kabul

Ministers ousted: Two senior figures in Hamid Karzai’s government, Interior Minister Hanif Atmar and domestic spy chief Amrullah Saleh, have been forced to resign after failing to prevent a Taliban attack last week on the president and more than 1,600 other dignitaries at a peace conference in Kabul. Although no one was injured, Karzai was furious that delegates had come under rocket attack from Taliban fighters concealed in a building only 500 yards from where the jirga (assembly) was being held. The loss of Saleh and Atmar, who have close ties with Washington, may undermine international confidence in Karzai’s ability to improve the security situation.