Moscow
Flying while intoxicated? Passengers rose up in revolt this week to prevent their Aeroflot flight from taking off after their seemingly drunk pilot greeted them with slurred words and bloodshot eyes. Flight attendants first told the 300 alarmed passengers on the flight from Moscow to New York to stop “making trouble,” then called in Aeroflot representatives to board the plane. At first officials declined to remove the pilot, but at the insistence of passenger Ksenia Sobchak, a well-known Russian TV personality and socialite, Aeroflot relented and provided a new flight crew. The company insists its pilot was not intoxicated and that the passengers may have experienced a “mass psychosis.” But passengers say they know what they saw. “I don’t think there’s anyone in Russia who doesn’t know what a drunk person looks like,” passenger Katya Kushner told The Moscow Times.
Pyongyang, North Korea
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
A harder line: North Korea announced last week that it was canceling a nonaggression pact and all other peace agreements with South Korea. It also moved a long-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead into position for a possible test launch. “Relations between the North and South have worsened to the point where there is no way or hope of correcting them,” said the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the North Korean agency in charge of relations with the South. South Korean analysts said the bellicose actions could be an attempt to get the attention of President Obama, who has appointed special envoys for Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East, but not North Korea.
Tehran
Going into orbit: Iran launched a satellite into orbit this week from a rocket it built itself, raising fears that it could be building advanced weapons systems. “It is certainly a reason for us to be concerned about Iran and its continued attempts to develop a ballistic missile program of increasingly long range,” said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed those fears, saying that the Omid satellite carried a message of “peace and brotherhood” to the world. “We have a divine view of technology,” he said, “unlike the dominating powers of the world, who have satanic views.” Iran is under U.N. sanctions for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, which the U.S. and other Western nations fear could lead to the production of nuclear weapons.
Quetta, Pakistan
American hostage: Pakistani gunmen this week kidnapped an American U.N. official and killed his driver. The American, John Solecki, is the chief of the U.N. refugee office in Baluchistan, a Pakistani province that hosts many Afghan refugees. In December 2007, he started a program to promote women’s rights and girls’ education in the region. Solecki was ambushed in his car in Quetta, a city known as a base for al Qaida and Taliban militants. Police say they aren’t yet sure whether his abductors were Islamist militants or common criminals seeking ransom. Baluchistan is also the site of a long-running tribal insurgency.
Baghdad
Iraqis vote: Iraq last week held its first provincial elections since January 2005, and preliminary results indicated that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawa Party got a major boost, while the more religious parties slipped. The voting was virtually violence-free, in stark contrast to 2005, which Iraqi officials cited as evidence of major progress toward democratic self-governance. But some serious problems surfaced. Overall turnout was only about 50 percent, and many Sunni and Kurdish voters complained that they had been turned away from the polls. Election officials said some reports of voting fraud seemed credible and were under investigation. But election commission chief Faraj al-Haidari urged all Iraqis to wait for the official results, due in several weeks. “It is not necessary to listen to the rumors of the parties,” he said. “Anyone can say that they’re the winners.”
Gaza
Clashes resume: Violence resumed in Gaza this week after Palestinian militants fired a long-range rocket into the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon and Israel retaliated with airstrikes. It was the first Palestinian rocket fire since a major clash between the two sides ended three weeks ago. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said more rocket attacks would bring additional airstrikes. “My opinion on this matter is clear; every attack must be met with a response,” she said. Likud Party head Benjamin Netanyahu, favored to win next week’s Israeli elections, went further. “A government led by me will overthrow the Hamas administration in Gaza and bring an end to the rocket fire,” he said.
Tripoli, Libya
Qaddafi’s vision for Africa: Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi was elected this week to head the 53-member African Union. The longtime dictator, an outspoken proponent of African unity, said he would use his one-year term to try to establish a “United States of Africa,” with a single currency, army, and passport for the entire continent. He attended the African Union meeting in Ethiopia this week accompanied by seven richly robed men who, he said, were the “traditional kings of Africa.” Other African leaders seemed dubious about Qaddafi’s appointment, which came about largely because the union was required to pick someone from North Africa as its leader this year. “I think his time has come,” said Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. “I think it’s up to us to make sure it comes out best.”
