Hotel attack
1 Afghanistan: Eleven people were killed when a squad of up to eight Taliban suicide bombers and gunmen laid siege to a landmark hotel overlooking the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday evening, sparking a gun battle that ended only when Nato helicopters shot dead several insurgents who had occupied the roof.
One guest told journalists that he jumped out of a window when the attack started. “I was running with my family,” said the man, identified only as Jawid. “There was shooting. The restaurant was full with guests.”
DSK freed on bail
2 America: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the IMF, was released without bail on Friday as the case against him for sexual assault of a maid was brought to the brink of collapse amid reports that the alleged victim lacked credibility as a witness. A forensic examination offered evidence of sexual contact, but officials have reportedly claimed that the maid, from Guinea in West Africa, has lied to investigators. They suspect she may have links to drug-dealing, money-laundering and immigration offences. An official told The New York Times: “It is a mess, a mess on both sides.”
Time running out
3 Syria: Hundreds of thousands of people staged more anti-government protests across the country, despite the military crackdown and promises of reform and dialogue from President Bashar al-Assad. At least nine people were killed as demonstrators took to the streets of the main towns and cities on Friday. Video footage posted by activists showed a huge crowd in the centre of Hama chanting: “The people demand the fall of the regime.”
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, warned that time was running out for Assad to usher in reforms.
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Lagarde in charge
4 France: Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, became the first woman to be appointed to the helm of the IMF on Tuesday, taking on one of the most powerful positions in global finance as the crisis in Greece threatens the stability of the eurozone and rattles financial markets worldwide. Lagarde also faces the challenge of restoring credibility to the fund after the resignation of her predecessor, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
“I am deeply honoured by the trust placed in me,” said Lagarde, 55, a former champion synchronised swimmer with a background in law.
Ransom trio free
5 Somalia: Three British men who had each been sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for illegally bringing in more than £2m in pirate ransom cash were released after receiving a presidential pardon. The men were among a six-member foreign security team arrested as they transferred the cash between small aircraft on the runway at Mogadishu airport on May 24.
Last Sunday they were fined and the ransom money confiscated. “Because of their illegal arrival, the two planes were each fined $50,000 [£31,000]. And the $3.6m in cash has been taken,” said Abdirahman Omar Osman, a spokesman for the Somalian government.
Bachmann drive
6 America: The Republican Michele Bachmann formally announced her 2012 presidential bid on Tuesday. Speaking at her birthplace of Waterloo, Iowa, the Tea Party favourite sought to make the most of her roots in the country’s first-voting state. “I often say that everything I need to know, I learnt in Iowa,” she said. “I want to bring your voice to the White House.”
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The bid got her off to a strong start with one poll putting Bachmann almost in a dead heat with Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who is considered a more mainstream candidate: Romney pulled in 23% and Bachmann 22%.
Chavez has cancer
7 Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez stunned the nation on Thursday night in an unusually concise 15-minute prerecorded address on state television in which he acknowledged that he has been battling cancer.
“This has been a slow and careful process of diagnosis, of advances and discoveries at various stages,” Chavez said. “They confirmed the existence of a tumorous abscess, with the presence of cancerous cells, which required a second operation to completely extract the said tumour.” He said he was receiving further treatment in Cuba, and that he would “continue battling”.
However, the news was greeted with dismay and denial by his supporters, who for two weeks have been condemning the cancer rumours as a smear campaign. “I don’t know why he said it but it’s not true,” said Luis, a worker painting a wall in a central Caracas plaza.
And stay out
8 Burma: Michelle Yeoh, the actress who stars as Aung San Suu Kyi in a forthcoming film, was deported from the country after being placed on a blacklist by the military authorities, officials said on Tuesday.
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Yeoh, a former Bond girl, was refused entry at Rangoon airport and dispatched on the next flight out. She was apparently returning to pay a second visit to Suu Kyi, whom she portrays in Luc Besson’s The Lady, a film about the Nobel peace prize winner’s life and family, and her struggle against the Burmese government.
There was no official word as to why Yeoh had been placed on the list of banned individuals, which is mostly made up of journalists and democracy activists.
Genocide trial
9 Cambodia: The trial of the four surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge got under way on Monday. They are charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed more than three decades ago in the Maoist “killing fields” revolution.
Nuon Chea, 84, one of the defendants bundled up against the air-conditioning in a striped beanie, walked out of court on Monday, in a sign of the legal wrangling to come in a case that has lasted five years, cost more than $100m and is intended finally to lay the past to rest. The Khmer Rouge’s plan for an agrarian utopia led to the deaths of 1.7m people — nearly a quarter of the population — between 1975 and 1979.
“I am not happy with this hearing,” Chea said, as he was granted leave to return to his cell.
The lost emperor
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10 New Zealand: “Happy Feet”, an emperor penguin, is set for a long swim home to Antarctica after a series of operations to save his life. The wayward juvenile captured the hearts of New Zealanders when he was found on June 20 on Peka Peka beach some 2,000 miles from his Antarctic birthplace. After Happy Feet spent days eating sticks and sand, which he mistook for snow, his health deteriorated. He was taken in by zoologists and treated at Wellington zoo, where 7lb of sand was removed from his stomach.
Dr John Wyeth, a gastroenterologist at Wellington hospital, helped with the operations. “Yesterday he punched me in the stomach with his flipper. He’s been calling and it’s really awesome to hear that emperor penguin call for real and not just on a documentary,” he said.