Jos, Nigeria
Religious killings: Mobs of Muslims and Christians in the city of Jos attacked one another with machetes and guns last week, leaving more than 300 people dead. Each side blamed the other for having started the fighting, which raged for four days. Local leaders have complained that in previous riots, the federal government allowed the perpetrators to go free. But Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, who has been leading the country for months while President Umaru Yar’Adua is being treated for a heart condition, said he would jail the instigators “no matter how highly placed.” Jos, located in the volatile area where Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north meets the mostly Christian south, is no stranger to religious battles; thousands have died there in sectarian violence over the past decade.
Beirut
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No survivors: An Ethiopian Airlines plane veered off course shortly after takeoff from Beirut this week and hurtled into the Mediterranean Sea, killing all 90 people on board. Witnesses said they saw the Boeing 737 burst into flames before falling into the water. The flight, bound for the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, took off at 2:30 a.m. in a strong thunderstorm. The pilot immediately started flying in the wrong direction, Lebanese Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi said. “They asked him to correct his path, but he did a very fast and strange turn before disappearing completely from the radar,” Aridi said. Authorities said there was no indication of foul play; they were waiting for the black box to be retrieved to help them determine the cause of crash.
Baghdad
Hotels destroyed: A series of massive suicide car bombings rocked Baghdad this week, highlighting the precarious security situation just six weeks before national elections. Dozens of people were killed and more than 100 were wounded as car bombs struck three landmark hotels used by foreign dignitaries and reporters. The bombs hit just as the most infamous of Saddam Hussein’s former henchmen—Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali—was being executed, raising speculation that members of Saddam’s Baath Party were responsible. Most analysts blamed the attacks on Sunni insurgents trying to discredit the Shiite-led government ahead of the elections. Vice President Joe Biden was in Baghdad last week trying to end an impasse over the government’s recent banning of 511 Sunni candidates. He made little progress; just 59 candidates were reinstated this week.
Somewhere in Afghanistan
Bin Laden speaks: Osama bin Laden sought this week to take credit for the failed attempt to blow up a U.S. plane on Christmas Day. In an audiotape sent to Al-Jazeera, bin Laden endorsed the attack, saying, “The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of Sept. 11.” But the White House said there was no evidence that bin Laden even knew of the attack ahead of time. Bin Laden’s attempt to associate himself with the so-called underpants bomber, President Obama said, was “an indication of how weakened he is.”
Islamabad, Pakistan
Taking a break: Shrugging off American pressure, the Pakistani army said that it would not launch any new offensives against militants this year. Taliban forces are believed to use North Waziristan, Pakistan, as their base of operations against U.S. and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, and the U.S. wants Pakistan to go after militant havens there. But Pakistani officials last week said their troops were tied up trying to stabilize the Swat Valley and South Waziristan, where major military offensives last year were successful in routing militants but also created hundreds of thousands of refugees. Pakistan’s refusal to broaden its anti-militant campaign, announced during Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ visit to Islamabad, could jeopardize President Obama’s plan to crush Taliban activity in Afghanistan through a troop surge.
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Tense vote: President Mahinda Rajapaksa was re-elected this week in Sri Lanka’s first peacetime election in decades, capturing 58 percent of the vote. But his chief rival, Gen. Sarath Fonseka, refused to recognize the results. Both men are considered heroes for defeating the Tamil Tigers, the separatists whose 25-year campaign of terror ended last year after a military assault deep into Tamil territory. The two men fell out after the war ended. Immediately after this week’s vote, troops surrounded the hotel where Fonseka was staying, and he accused the government of plotting to kill him. “They are behaving like murderers,” he said. “We will never accept this result.” No major fraud was reported on voting day, but observers said the campaign was unfair, as Rajapaksa used state funds and blocked media coverage of Fonseka.
Beijing
China bites back: China fired back at both Google and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week, accusing them of conspiring “to restrict China’s right to protect its national security.’’ Google has threatened to pull out of China in response to hacker attacks on dissidents’ e-mail accounts; meanwhile, the company said it would no longer censor information on its Chinese site. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backed Google and issued a broad statement of U.S. support for Internet freedom, saying, “We look to the Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough review of the cyber-intrusions.” In response, China issued an angry statement saying that the hacking accusation was “groundless’’ and insulting, and would damage U.S.-China relations. In the government-backed Global Times, an analyst said Internet freedom was a ruse designed to preserve U.S. “hegemonic domination’’ of the world.
