Afghanistan
The Taliban did not succeed in derailing Afghanistan’s presidential election, as voter turnout added up to be more than expected. According to Reuters, 60 percent of the country’s 12 million eligible voters cast their ballots on Saturday to decide who to replace President Hamid Karzai, who recently decided to resign after 12 years in power.
As Afghan authorities deployed about 350,000 security officers, the Taliban still claimed to have staged 1,000 attacks and to have killed dozens that day, Reuters reported. This is Afghanistan’s first-ever democratic presidential election.
Brazil
The popularity of Brazilian President Dilma Roussef dove five percentage points since October, according to a poll by the Datafolha polling institute. On Sunday the institute published the results, stating that Roussef’s approval rating decreased from 41 percent during last year’s Brazilian presidential elections to the current 36 percent.
According to the Associated Press, a Datafolha poll claims that the decrease is due in part to the national inflation, which now stands at 5.7 percent. Datafolha surveyed 2,637 people on April 2 and 3 for the study, the AP reported.
Egypt
The death toll from tribal clashes in the southern Egyptian city of Aswan rose to 25 as two more people were killed during attacks Sunday. Tensions sparked between the city’s two biggest tribes, the Nubian clan and the Arab Beni Helal clan, and people on the two sides fought with guns and petrol bombs, burning houses and shops to the ground, Reuters reported. Seventeen of the casualties belong to the Arab Beni Halal clan, according to Reuters. The Egyptian army claims that insurgent group Muslim Brotherhood perpetuated the clashes, although the group denies any involvement.
Japan
The United States on Sunday warned East Asian nations that it will send two warships to Japan in response to North Korean threats. According to the AP, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has issued a warning to Asia Pacific nations that the country will send two more ballistic missile destroyers to Japan, and said that “China must better respect its neighbors.” Hagel, who will travel to China later this week, called the nation a “great power,” but warned the country that “intimidation is a very deadly thing that leads only to conflict.”
Nigeria
Officials announced on Sunday that Nigeria had taken the top spot in the list of biggest African economies. According to the AP, the country’s economy has peaked at $510 billion, overtaking taking South Africa, the only African nation part of the G20 whose economy now stands at $353 billion. Oil is the biggest revenue source for the country, bringing in about 80 percent of all government money, and Nigeria’s communication, agriculture and sectors are growing, too, the AP reported. Still, about 70 percent of the Nigerian population lives in poverty, according to the AP.
Syria
A car bomb explosion on Sunday in the war-torn city of Homs killed 29 people, most of them rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. According to Agence France-Presse, the Syrian state news agency claimed that the blast occurred as the car was being loaded with explosives. Another fire in the capital Damascus that day killed another two people as mortar rounds hit the Damascus Opera House, which was inaugurated by President Bashir al-Assad in 2004. Five other people were wounded in the mortar fire.
