Mosul, Iraq
The front shifts northward: Five American soldiers were killed this week when Sunni guerrillas attacked a U.S. convoy in Mosul. U.S. and Iraqi authorities said insurgent activity has become concentrated in Mosul and other northern cities as militants leave the more heavily patrolled areas, such as Baghdad and Anbar province. Three-fifths of American deaths in Iraq this year occurred in the three Sunni provinces north of Baghdad, and militant groups such as al Qaida in Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq have built bases in those areas. “When you attack the enemy more, the violence increases, so you have higher casualty rates,” said Maj. Peggy Kageleiry, a military spokeswoman for northern Iraq. “That’s what we’re doing, we’re pushing al Qaida and they’re fighting us.”
Baghdad
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Invasion surprised Saddam: Saddam Hussein did not expect the U.S. actually to invade his country, an FBI interrogator revealed this week. Agent George Piro, who interviewed the former Iraqi dictator over a period of seven months after his 2003 capture, said Saddam pretended to have weapons of mass destruction to deter an Iranian attack and miscalculated the U.S. response. “He thought the United States would retaliate with the same type of attack as we did in 1998, a four-day aerial attack,” Piro said in an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes. Piro said the FBI interrogation of Saddam did not use “harsh” techniques such as sleep deprivation or waterboarding. “It’s against FBI policy, first, and wouldn’t have really benefited us with someone like Saddam,” Piro said. Instead, the interrogator gained Saddam’s trust over time, by talking with him about literature and politics. Saddam was hanged in 2006.
Nairobi, Kenya
Tribe vs. tribe: Clashes between rival tribes killed at least 100 people in western Kenya this week, including a prominent politician, in the continued fallout of a disputed presidential election. Gangs from President Mwai Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe, armed with machetes, hacked to death members of the Luo tribe of opposition candidate Raila Odinga, presumably in retaliation for a deadly Luo attack on a Kikuyu church three weeks ago. Opposition lawmaker Mugabe Were was gunned down outside his home. More than 800 people have been killed since Odinga accused Kibaki of stealing the election in December. Kofi Annan, former U.N. secretary-general, has been in Kenya for a week trying, so far unsuccessfully, to persuade Kibaki and Odinga to meet face to face.
Kandahar, Afghanistan
American taken hostage: American aid worker Cyd Mizell, 49, was kidnapped last week on her way to work at a development foundation in Kandahar. While no claim of responsibility or ransom demand has been made, police said they suspected Taliban militants because the daylight abduction was so swift and professional. Mizell has been in Kandahar for six years and speaks fluent Pashtu, a local language. In addition to her aid job, she teaches English at a local university and instructs Afghan girls in embroidery. Some 500 women from various Afghan women’s groups demonstrated in central Kandahar this week, demanding her release. Mizell is the first American to be kidnapped in Afghanistan since 2005.
Guangzhou, China
Snow paralyzes nation: Blizzards across eastern and central China killed dozens of people this week and stranded tens of millions. The storms, the worst in 50 years, hit just as millions of people were heading to their hometowns to celebrate the Lunar New Year festival. In Guangzhou city alone, some 600,000 train passengers were stuck at railroad stations and even in the trains themselves, which stopped when the power went out. Authorities rushed thousands of boxes of ramen noodles to the trains to feed the trapped passengers. So far, the government said, weather delays have cost $3.2 billion and affected 78 million people.
Bangkok
Democracy returns: Military rule ended in Thailand this week when the parliament elected Samak Sundaravej as prime minister. Samak, 72, is a veteran of many governments and a close ally of the previous prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a 2006 military coup amid corruption charges. But Samak may not stay in power long. He has clout in his People Power Party, which took a plurality in the December elections, but he is personally unpopular among Thais because of his past support for deadly crackdowns on demonstrators.
