Twin Bombings in Russia Cast Cloud Over Olympics
Two suicide bomb attacks on consecutive days rocked the southern Russian city of Volgograd, a key railroad hub some 400 miles (640 km) northeast of Sochi, where the Winter Olympics start in early February. The first blast hit the central train station on Dec. 29, killing at least 17. The following day, at least 14 died when a bomb ripped through a trolleybus.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but attention immediately turned to the restive Russian republics in the nearby Caucasus, where an Islamist insurgency has blown hot and cold for over a decade. In July, Doku Umarov, a shadowy Chechen militant leader, called on Muslims to target the Olympics, describing the winter sporting events set for the Black Sea resort as "Satanic dancing on the bones of our ancestors."
Terrorists from the Caucasus--a region where many complain of heavy-handed rule from Moscow--have struck before, including a 2010 suicide attack on the Russian capital's subway system. Well aware of the threat, Russia has put into place a heavy security cordon around Sochi.
But other cities are clearly more vulnerable. The bombings in Volgograd--formerly Stalingrad, the site of a devastating, epic World War II battle--provide a grim prologue to Sochi. Russia's leaders and Olympic organizers must hope the narrative will turn happier in the weeks to come.
PAKISTAN
'It seems that I have been totally abandoned and forgotten.'
Warren Weinstein, 72-year-old American contractor, calling in a video message for the U.S. government to negotiate his release with his kidnappers, who are believed to be al-Qaeda militants. Weinstein was abducted from his apartment in Lahore in 2011, and the White House has thus far been unable to free him.
DATA
THE WORLD'S MOST INSTAGRAMMED CITIES
The social network released its annual list. Here, the top five:
1
New York City
2
Bangkok
3
Los Angeles
4
London
5
S*o Paulo
The Explainer
How Japan Upset The Neighborhood
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's recent visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine--which honors some 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including war criminals convicted for their imperial rampage across Asia during World War II--has drawn criticism from other countries.
CHINA
A history museum on Yasukuni's grounds downplays Japan's brutal wartime conduct, describing the Nanking massacre--in which hundreds of thousands died--as an "incident." Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi labeled Abe's shrine tour a step in a "very dangerous direction" and warned that "China will not tolerate [it]."
SOUTH KOREA
The colonized Korean Peninsula suffered under imperial Japan. Yasukuni "glorifies Japan's history of militaristic aggression and colonial rule," said Yoo Jin-ryong, South Korea's Culture Minister, who also deemed Abe's pilgrimage "deplorable."
U.S.