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NADER BAKAR, spokesman for al-Nour, a hard-line Islamist party, on its decision to expel party member and parliamentarian Anwar el-Balkimy after it emerged that he'd had plastic surgery on his nose--an act deemed sinful by some religious conservatives
The Great Divide
4 | ARGENTINA
About 2,500 visitors cheered as a shelf of ice 230 ft. (70 m) tall broke off the Perito Moreno glacier in Patagonia, one of the region's most popular attractions. Though the 97-sq.-mi. (251 sq km) glacier frequently calves, this type of massive collapse has occurred only a few times since such an event was first recorded in 1917, most recently in 2008. Water flowing beneath the ice causes the dramatic splits.
The New Military-Industrial Complex
5 | CHINA
Beijing officials announced that China's military spending this year would grow by 11.2%, to $106.4 billion--though analysts contend that the real figures are far higher. While China's defense outlay is still a fraction of the U.S.'s $662 billion war chest, it is steadily upgrading its submarine fleet and pouring resources into new stealth-fighter and aircraft-carrier programs. China's militarism is a growing concern in capitals across Asia, and it has led the Obama Administration to bolster the U.S. military position in the Pacific.
[The following text appears within a chart. Please see hardcopy or PDF for actual chart.]
China's military spending is outpacing that of its regional rival India
CHINA
$32.1B
$114.3B
ACTIVE-DUTY MILITARY
2.29 MILLION
SUBMARINES
71
TANKS
7,050
COMBAT AIRCRAFT
1,998
INDIA
$21.8B
$34.8B
ACTIVE-DUTY MILITARY
1.33 MILLION
SUBMARINES
16
TANKS
4,117
COMBAT AIRCRAFT
691
SOURCES: SIPRI; REUTERS
U.K. 8 MILLION
Handcrafted porcelain sunflower seeds bought by London's Tate museum; the seeds are part of the 100 million exhibited by Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei at the Tate Modern in 2010
Shadows of a Democracy
6 | RUSSIA
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin won Russia's presidential election in a landslide, a result that surprised no one in a country long accustomed to living in the former KGB man's authoritarian shadow. European monitors said the election was "clearly skewed" in Putin's favor, but that made little difference. As Putin declared victory, protests in Moscow--far smaller and more muted than demonstrations earlier this winter--were swiftly snuffed out.