The world at a glance ... International

Ottawa

Early elections: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper this week called early elections, saying that the intransigence of the opposition parties had made the current Parliament “dysfunctional.” Next month’s national election will be Canada’s third in just over four years. In 2006, Harper’s Conservative Party took over the government, but with a plurality, not a majority. He hopes that holding elections now, while his popularity is relatively high, will give him the margin he needs to get laws passed. In a recent poll, 50 percent of Canadians said Harper should remain prime minister, while just 20 percent preferred Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion. Still, calling the election now, a year before it’s required, is risky—given Canada’s falling economy.

Sasabe, Mexico

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Migrants stay home: The illegal flow of Mexicans to the United States has dropped sharply in recent months, officials on both sides of the border said. So far this year, the U.S. Border Patrol has caught nearly 20 percent fewer illegal aliens than it had last year at this point, even though it has doubled the number of border agents. Officials said a new U.S. policy of detaining illegal immigrants, rather than quickly repatriating them, was proving to be an effective deterrent. “They’re just not going in the same numbers,” said Mexico City–based political analyst Dan Lund. “And the ones already there are staying put, because they know how difficult it is to return afterwards.”

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Hurricanes bash Haiti: Flooding from hurricanes and tropical storms has killed more than 1,000 people in Haiti over the past few weeks, officials reported. Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike all hit Haiti, washing away hundreds of bridges and roads and leaving entire villages stranded. Some 5 million people now lack adequate food and water. The U.S. has sent a Navy ship to rescue stranded Haitians, along with $10 million in humanitarian aid, but much of the food and medicine has yet to reach the victims. “Road inaccessibility and the succession of storms have made it very difficult for us to deliver the assistance,” said World Food Program official Romain Sirois. As The Week went to press, Hurricane Ike was barreling through the Gulf of Mexico toward the Texas coast.

Caracas, Venezuela

Russian ships are coming: Four Russian warships will take part in joint exercises with Venezuela later this year, the Venezuelan government said this week. It will be the first Russian presence in the Caribbean since the Cold War. The announcement came just a week after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said his country would respond to the U.S. deployment of warships in the Black Sea, traditionally a Russian navy haunt, to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez predicted U.S. disapproval, saying, “Go ahead and squeal, Yankees.” But U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said only that it was interesting that the Russians had “found a few ships that can make it that far.”

London

Terror trial anticlimax: A British jury this week cleared eight suspects of planning to bomb airplanes using explosives smuggled in liquids, though some were convicted on other charges. The arrest of the eight men, in 2006, inspired bans on liquid in carry-on luggage at airports across the world. Yet none of the men were actually convicted of plotting to bring down airplanes. Instead, the jury this week convicted three of conspiracy to murder, acquitted one of all charges, and could reach no decision on the other four. The three who were convicted claimed they were planning to detonate bombs around London as a political statement, but had no designs on airplanes. Some British officials blamed the verdict on the U.S. arrest, around the same time, of a terror suspect in Pakistan—which forced British authorities to move against the suspects before they had gathered all the evidence.

Tripoli, Libya

Dining with Qaddafi: In a dramatic affirmation of renewed U.S.-Libyan relations, Condoleezza Rice last week became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Libya since 1953. Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi was once an avowed American enemy who sponsored numerous terrorist acts, including the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. But in 2003 he joined the U.S. war on terror, renouncing his nuclear aspirations and paying reparations to Lockerbie victims. The visit, Rice said, “demonstrates that when countries are prepared to make strategic changes in direction, the United States is prepared to respond.” Qaddafi entertained Rice at a lavish banquet in his tent and gave her a locket containing an engraving of himself.

Moscow

Retrenching in Georgia: Russia said this week it would withdraw the troops it deployed to Georgia last month—but not all the way. The troops will now join the Russian peacekeepers already stationed in the two breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, more than doubling the Russian military presence there. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russian troops would remain in the provinces “for a long time” in order “to prevent any relapses of aggressive actions.” Russia last week recognized the independence of the two pro-Russian provinces, saying they had the same right as Kosovo to seek self-rule. European leaders, who have been negotiating with the Russians over the Georgia crisis, disagreed. “It is not up to Russia to define Georgia’s borders,” said French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Jerusalem

American forced to dance: A performer with the Alvin Ailey dance troupe was ordered to dance for Israeli airport security officers this week, to convince them of his identity, Israel newspapers reported. Abdur-Rahim Jackson was reportedly singled out from other members of the mostly African-American ensemble because of his Muslim name. “I demonstrated a few dance steps, and after another round of questioning they let me go,” Jackson told the Tel Aviv Yedioth Ahronoth. Jackson said the same thing happened to him at a U.S. airport once. “Maybe I should get used to dancing at airports,” he said. Israeli officials declined to comment.

Pyongyang, North Korea

Is Kim ill? President Kim Jong Il did not attend the parade for North Korea’s 60th anniversary of independence this week, raising speculation that he is seriously ill. The 66-year-old dictator, who is believed to have heart disease and diabetes, has not been seen in public for more than a month, and U.S. intelligence officials said he might have had a stroke. Kim is so reclusive that rumors of his illness or demise arise frequently. A new book by a Japanese expert on North Korea even claims that Kim actually died of diabetes in 2003 and has been impersonated by various doubles since then. The author, Toshimitsu Shigemura, says that voiceprint analyses of recent speeches do not match those of earlier speeches. Most other experts dismiss the theory as too far-fetched.

Bangkok

Prime minister can’t be chef: A Thai court ordered Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to resign this week, ruling that his two appearances on a cooking show constituted illegal alternative employment. Samak said the $2,300 he received for his stints on Tasting and Complaining was not a salary, but merely a stipend to cover the cost of fuel and ingredients. Samak’s infraction is extremely minor compared with the charges leveled against his predecessor, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was driven from office in a military coup for allegedly misappropriating billions of dollars. But the opposition, which accuses Samak of being a puppet of Thaksin, has been searching for months for an excuse to oust him. While Samak has agreed to resign, his party says it would simply re-elect him as premier next week.

Peshawar, Pakistan

Drones hunt bin Laden: Frustrated by Osama bin Laden’s continued elusiveness, the U.S. military has switched tactics and is increasingly relying on unmanned Predator spy planes to hunt down the al Qaida leader, The Washington Post reported this week. Officials said using military force on the ground to find bin Laden was not working, because CIA officers and U.S. Special Forces cannot operate freely in Pakistan and because the militants have informants in the Pakistani military. Instead, the U.S. has begun sending Predator drones loaded with live-feed cameras into Pakistani tribal regions on search and bombing missions. But nobody expects an instant payoff: Bin Laden reportedly keeps total radio silence and is thought to wear disguises. “There’s not a scintilla of evidence that we have any idea where he is,” said former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel.

Yerevan, Armenia

Enemies meet: A Turkish leader visited Armenia this week, for the first time ever. Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian invited Turkish President Abdullah Gul to Yerevan, to watch the two national soccer teams play a World Cup qualifier. The visit was a symbol of improving ties between the two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations because of their historic dispute over the Armenian genocide. Most historians agree that Ottoman Turks killed some 1 million Armenians during World War I; Turkey insists far fewer Armenians died and has declined to acknowledge that there was a genocide. “We are going to resolve the issues, said Sarkisian, “and not pass them on to next generations.” Gul said the visit “promised hope for the future.”