The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

Top Five World News Events: Jan. 17 – Jan. 23

  1. Protesters revolt against government officials in Tunisia.Last Wednesday, protesters swarmed the streets of Tunisia’s capitol, Tunis, demanding that Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannoushi and certain cabinet members resign alongside Tunisia’s ex-president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who reportedly fled the country with his family five days before as a response to previous rioting. Although it is unclear as of yet whether the protestors’ demands will be answered, the Tunisian government announced Wednesday, in an apparent attempt to mollify the crowds, that all political prisoners detained under Ben Ali’s reign have been freed.
  2. Conflict continues in Sudan after initial approval of South Sudan’s vote for independence.Sudanese rebels led by the main Justice and Equality Movement attacked a small army unit in western Darfur on Friday. This violent clash, which occurred after a whopping 98 percent of Southern Sudanese voters chose to secede from the north, resulted in 21 fatalities total, 13 of whom were rebels.
  3. Bombings shake Baghdad as a result of insurgent bombing campaign. Eight fatalities and 30 injuries were recorded after six bombs exploded in and around Baghdad on Sunday. These bombings began at 7 a.m. and lasted for over three hours, targeting mainly security forces and Shi’ite pilgrims. Two children, three policemen, and one Iranian pilgrim are recorded among the list of fatalities. After almost three months of tranquility in Baghdad, these attacks came as a shock to the city, and they have elicited speculations about renewed extremist insurgency.
  4. Poverty triggers suicides in Egypt.When limited financial prospects prompted 25-year-old Egyptian Ahmed Hashim al-Sayyed to set himself on fire, speculative parallels were drawn between the situation in Egypt and that of its fellow African country, Tunisia. There, dissatisfaction over unemployment and the widening socio-economic gap culminated in a similar suicide, which triggered weeks of rioting and a government overthrow. However, despite two other self-immolations since, little action has been taken in Egypt in response to these suicides.
  5. Chinese President Hu Jintao attends White House state dinner.In light of the unjust imprisonment of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, and in an attempt to bring the topic of human rights to the attention of Chinese President Hu Jintao, President Obama hosted the Chinese leader at a state dinner on Wednesday. After being prodded, Hu conceded that “a lot still needs to be done in China, in terms of human rights.”

All information gathered from The Washington Post Online.

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