1. U.S. consulting firm drops Tunisian government as a client. Listing Tunisia’s troubling “approach to important civil rights and civil liberties issues,” among its reasons, Washington Media Group dropped the country as a client this week. Amid the environment of increasing violence and chaos, the firm decided to drop the country from its list of clients because “the Tunisian government was not going to implement the recommendations and work product [the firm] provided,” according to Washington Media Group president Gregory Vistica.
2. Violence spikes in Afghanistan. In the first week of January, Afghanistan experienced 700 “security incidents,” a steep number compared to last year’s 400 a week, according to NATO statistics. U.S. military officials are pointing to Afghanistan’s unseasonably warm winter as a possible cause for the heightened violence. Apparently, lack of snow in the mountains of Afghanistan has given Taliban fighters unusual freedom of mobility. Gen. David H. Petraeus, top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, predicts consistently elevated violence throughout the year.
3. Nobel laureate’s bank undergoes investigation in Bangladesh. Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen Bank was placed under investigation this week by the Bangladeshi government. This investigation was launched in response to money laundering and tax evasion allegations, and continued despite Norway’s absolution of Yunus of any wrongdoing in their own investigation.
4. New jobs and a landmark restored in Haiti. One day before the anniversary of last year’s devastating earthquake, Haiti’s historic Iron Market was reopened and Haitian officials signed a deal with South Korea for Sae-A Trading Company, a large factory, to be built. This is projected to bring in 20,000 jobs to the Haitian public, a much needed economic pick-me-up for the floundering Caribbean country.
5. Rising global food prices spark sheep thefts in Britain. Another farmer in the region of Windermere, England has been added to the list of 19 who have fallen victim to sheep thefts over the past 12 months. Some officials blame globalization and its growing meat prices, which have risen due to weather, oil prices and demand, for these phenomena.

All information gathered from The Washington Post Online.