Nouakchott, Mauritania
Al Qaida’s new threat: Al Qaida’s North African branch this week called for holy war in Mauritania to establish Islamic rule in the wake of a military coup. “Raise the banner of jihad and let us bleed and have our limbs severed until we bring back a caliphate styled along the lines of the Prophet’s way,” al Qaida in the Islamic Mahgreb said in a statement posted on the Web. Under President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, who was ousted last week, Mauritania was an ally of the U.S. in the struggle against al Qaida. The country’s new military ruler, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, has also pledged to fight Islamic militants.
West Bank
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Palestinian national poet buried: Thousands of Palestinians turned out this week for the state funeral of their national poet. Mahmoud Darwish died in the U.S. at age 67 after a heart operation. Born in Galilee during the British Mandate, Darwish grew up in what had become Israel, where he published poetry and became a member of the Communist Party. His citizenship was revoked when he went to Moscow to study. An early member of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization, he wrote Arafat’s best-known speeches, including the 1974 speech before the U.N. that featured the lines: “Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter’s gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.” He also wrote the 1988 Palestinian declaration of independence. Darwish’s poems are popular in the territories as well as in refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan, and are taught in literature classes around the world.
Srinigar, India
Deadly protests: The Indian-administered portion of Kashmir erupted in protests this week that left at least 25 people dead. The unrest began when apple farmers held a demonstration to protest the government’s closure of a highway they use to reach their markets. When police moved in on that demonstration, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, a prominent Kashmiri separatist, was killed. His death ignited even bigger protests. Thousands of people from the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley marched on the disputed frontier with Pakistan; police opened fire and in turn were pelted with rocks. Muslims in Kashmir have long agitated for independence from India.
Mindanao, Philippines
Uprising reprise: Muslim rebels resumed their fight against Philippine troops last week after a peace deal faltered on legal grounds. Last month, the government reached a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to create a separate Muslim homeland within the mostly Catholic country. But the Supreme Court put the treaty on hold pending a ruling on its constitutionality. Rebel leaders say the government knew the courts would kill the deal, and in retaliation, they launched attacks on Catholic villages on the island of Mindanao. More than 150,000 people have fled the fighting, the worst in years.
Bangkok
Ex-premier skips bail: Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife fled to London this week to escape trial on charges of corruption. Thaksin, a billionaire who was overthrown in a bloodless coup in 2006, had returned to Thailand this year to face the charges against him. Last month, three of his lawyers were convicted of trying to bribe the court, and his wife was convicted of tax evasion. Still, he and his wife were allowed to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics after posting bail of nearly $400,000. But they failed to return to Bangkok. From London, Thaksin read a statement on Thai television complaining that his “political enemies” didn’t care about “the rule of law, facts, or internationally recognized due process.”
Beijing
Americans stabbed: An apparently deranged Chinese man attacked an American couple in Beijing with a knife before jumping to his own death from the Drum Tower, a well-known Ming Dynasty monument. The attack claimed the life of Todd Bachman and seriously wounded his wife, Barbara; they are the parents of 2004 Olympian Elisabeth Bachman, who is married to U.S. men’s volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon. An attack on foreigners is so rare in China that many locals speculated that the killer, Tang Yongming, must have had some political goal. Some theorized that he was a member of the banned cult Falun Gong, or that he was one of the thousands whose homes were destroyed to make way for Olympic venues. But there was no evidence that the killing was anything but a random act.
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