The World

1 | Moscow

Terror in the Airport

A suicide bomber set off an explosion in the international-arrivals section of Moscow’s busiest airport Jan. 24, killing 35 people and wounding up to 180 others. Though no one took immediate responsibility for the Domodedovo airport bombing, authorities suspect it was carried out by Islamist separatists from Russia’s restive North Caucasus region, which includes the once insurgency-ravaged republic of Chechnya. Chechen fighters attacked the same airport in 2004, and two women from Dagestan, adjacent to Chechnya, bombed a Moscow subway station last year. In the wake of the latest attack, President Dmitri Medvedev blamed airport and security authorities for not responding to warnings of an imminent strike, which Russian media outlets say may have been raised as much as a week in advance.

2 | New York

Life Sentence For Gitmo Detainee

Ahmed Ghailani, the first Guantánamo detainee to be tried in a civilian court, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for his role in the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. Upon sentencing Ghailani, who was convicted Nov. 17 of conspiracy to destroy government buildings, the judge said anything Ghailani suffered at the hands of the CIA and other interrogators–he was allegedly tortured–“pales in comparison to the suffering and the horror” he caused. The 1998 attacks in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi killed 224 people and wounded thousands more.

3 | Afghanistan

New Parliament Convenes

Four months after his parliamentary elections, President Hamid Karzai finally swore in a new parliament. Acrimony and investigations of voter fraud have followed the poll results, and Karzai criticized the international community for meddling in the elections and undermining his government’s legitimacy. He renewed a pledge to rid Afghanistan of private security firms and continues to complain about increasing civilian casualties.

4 | Jerusalem

Leaked Docs Show Broad Concessions

Confidential documents detailing a decade of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were aired by al-Jazeera, portraying a desperate Palestinian Authority willing to concede ground on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as compromise on the right of return for refugees. The revelations could threaten the PA’s hold on power in the West Bank, which it controls despite losing a 2006 election to Hamas, the Islamists now controlling Gaza.

5 | London

Study Warns of Global Food Crisis

The “global food system [is] living outside its means,” said an extensive U.K. government-sponsored report compiled over two years with the assistance of 400 experts in 35 countries. The report, which attempts to calculate the future sustainability of the world’s food supply, calls for urgent government action to trim waste, liberalize global trade laws and aid the nearly 2 billion undernourished people in the world.

Worst-case increases in food prices by 2050 owing to climate and other factors

[The following text appears within a chart. Please see hardcopy or PDF for actual chart.]

CLIMATE EFFECT

ECONOMIC EFFECT

MAIZE

RICE

WHEAT

SOURCE: U.K. GOV’T OFFICE FOR SCIENCE

6 | Albania

CRISIS IN THE CAPITAL

Four died in clashes after tens of thousands of antigovernment protesters swelled the streets of Tiranë on Jan. 21. Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s center-right administration is under attack after a video surfaced that potentially implicates the Deputy Prime Minister in an attempted kickback scheme. Years of corruption allegations have held up Albania’s bid to enter the European Union.

7 | Lebanon

A Victory for Hizballah

Sunni Muslims opposed to the influence of the radical Shi’ite party Hizballah took to the streets and violently clashed with troops after Najib Mikati, a Sunni billionaire backed by Hizballah, was appointed Prime Minister. Lebanon’s government collapsed on Jan. 12, after Hizballah quit the ruling coalition over the anticipated indictments of some of its members by a tribunal investigating the murder of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

8 | Washington

The State of The Housing Market

Sales of new single-family homes were lower in 2010 than in any other year since record keeping began almost half a century ago. The government said an estimated 321,000 homes were sold last year, a drop of 14% from 2009. December, however, saw an increase in sales, bringing them to their highest level in eight months, but some analysts warned that it doesn’t necessarily signal a long-term turnaround in the housing market.

9 | Ivory Coast

Cocoa Exports Halted

World prices of cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, soared when Ivorian producers agreed to an export ban called by Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of November’s presidential election. Ouattara hopes to increase pressure on the incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to step down and spurned the efforts of foreign mediators seeking to resolve the conflict. In response to the ban and international sanctions, Gbagbo seized local branches of a regional bank.

10 | Tunisia

Wanted: Former Dictator Ben Ali

Tunisia issued an arrest warrant for deposed President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia Jan. 14 following mass protests in which more than 100 people were killed. Though it’s unlikely that Ben Ali and members of his family will be surrendered by Riyadh, the warrant makes it difficult for him to travel to the West. The protesters who toppled the 23-year-long Ben Ali regime were incensed by the corruption of the country’s ruling elite, particularly Ben Ali’s family. Now their ire has turned on Ben Ali’s former acolytes in the interim government. Protests continue.