Beijing
Flu scare: China got its first reported case of swine flu this week, sparking a vigorous campaign by health officials to contain the illness. Within 24 hours of the diagnosis, officials identified and quarantined hundreds of people who’d had contact with the patient, who recently traveled from Minnesota to Chengdu in southwestern China. Health officials said such extreme measures were necessary to prevent a mixing of swine flu with the avian flu, which is fairly common in China. Avian flu is often deadly but hard to transmit to humans; swine flu is usually benign but highly contagious. If the two strains combined, the resulting “super flu” could be both deadly and contagious. There have now been nearly 4,700 confirmed cases of swine flu in 30 countries, including more than 2,500 in the U.S. and 1,600 in Mexico.
Kabul
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New U.S. general: David McKiernan, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, was abruptly ousted this week, an unusual move during a war. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he requested McKiernan’s resignation because he wanted “fresh thinking” in the fight against the Taliban. “We have a new strategy, a new mission, and a new ambassador. I believe that new military leadership is also needed,” Gates said. He has recommended that President Obama appoint Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, a Special Ops commander who ran operations against the Sunni insurgent group al Qaida in Iraq from 2006 to 2008. McChrystal is expected to step up efforts to create alliances with local militias, as the U.S. military did successfully in Iraq.
Tehran
American freed: Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi was freed from jail after an Iranian appeals court suspended her sentence for spying. Three weeks ago, Saberi was convicted of spying for the U.S. in a closed, one-day trial and sentenced to eight years in prison. The appeals court this week reduced the charge to possessing classified information and released her to her parents. Her attorney said Saberi, 32, a former Miss North Dakota, had obtained an Iranian government document about the U.S.’s war in Iraq, but said she was not a spy. Saberi credited U.S. government pressure and international protests for her release, and said she planned to return to North Dakota before deciding what to do next.
Baghdad
U.S. soldier kills mates: A U.S. soldier snapped this week and gunned down five fellow troops at a military counseling clinic in Baghdad, officials said. Just last week, Sgt. John M. Russell reportedly had his gun confiscated because of his erratic behavior and was ordered into counseling. Authorities are now trying to determine how Russell, 44, got the gun he allegedly used to kill two members of the medical staff and three soldiers visiting the clinic. The Army also opened an inquiry into the effectiveness of psychiatric counseling for soldiers in Iraq, many of whom have served multiple tours of duty. “If we’ve learned anything from this war,” said Maj. Gen. Dan Bolger, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, “it is that not all injuries are physical.”
Jerusalem
Jews, Muslims criticize pope: Pope Benedict XVI managed to offend both Jews and Muslims during his trip to Israel this week. The pope visited Israel’s national Holocaust memorial but refused to enter the museum because it portrays Pope Pius XII as covering up the suffering of Jews during the Holocaust. Israelis criticized that decision and said the pope’s prayer for Holocaust victims was inadequate. “I personally missed hearing a tone of sharing the grief,” said former Chief Rabbi Meir Lau. The pope angered Muslims when he left an interfaith meeting in Jerusalem early after an Islamic cleric railed against Israel. At the meeting, ostensibly devoted to reconciliation among faiths, Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi said Islam and Christianity should unite against Israel.
Mogadishu, Somalia
Fighting flares up: Tens of thousands of people fled Somalia’s capital this week as the hard-line Islamist al-Shabab group attacked the moderate Islamist government. Al-Shabab leader Sheikh Dahir Aweys unleashed his fighters after abandoning negotiations over joining the transitional government of his former colleague, President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. Both men served in the government of the Union of Islamic Courts in 2006, before it was ousted by the Ethiopian military. “They’re shelling the presidential palace and parts of the airport,” said Rashid Abdi of the International Crisis Group. “This is looking like the final assault.” The militants said they were being helped by “jihadists” from Arab countries.
