Ethnic Groups

The riot began with a customer's complaint about her dinner. "Waitress, there's a tooth in my soup," a Tibetan woman said indignantly. Before long, a curious crowd of Tibetans gathered around the soup bowl. Restaurant owner Yun Sha came out of the kitchen and insisted that the offending item was just a chip off a lamb bone. "Let's trash this restaurant," Yun heard somebody scream, and the crowd proceeded to do just that. Tables, chairs, a television flew through the air.

Kurdish lawmakers walked out of parliament Tuesday in protest over a vote on conditions for Iraq's provincial elections that called for ethnic groups to share power in Kirkuk, an oil-rich city that Kurds consider part of their territory. The walkout, which included shouting and accusations of a conspiracy against Kurds, appeared to reduce the chances that the elections would be held this year. There is no law setting out election procedures. U.S.

The legacy of Radovan Karadzic is etched here in unsmiling, mistrustful faces; on tombstones that march shoulder to shoulder for nearly a quarter-mile; in empty, scarred houses whose owners never returned. Karadzic's Bosnian Serb army rounded up thousands of Muslims living or sheltering in Srebrenica on a sweltering July day 13 years ago and separated males from the women.

Iraq's parliament ended its summer term Wednesday without passing legislation setting up provincial elections this year, forcing the government to call an emergency session for the weekend. However, a positive outcome remains far from certain. Parliament speaker Mahmoud Mashadani said he would convene a special meeting of lawmakers Sunday to resolve the impasse over the election legislation, which will help decide the status of the oil-rich, ethnically divided city of Kirkuk. U.S.

Three Iraqi soldiers died in a roadside bombing Friday in the northern city of Kirkuk, where relations remained frayed among Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens after a suicide bombing and ethnic clashes early in the week. The bomb targeted a convoy of Iraqi army vehicles, killing three soldiers and wounding two, the military said.

The last king of Toraja was 93 when he took his final breath in July 2003. Five years later, he's still part of the family, quietly residing in a small room in his former palace, shaded by two red parasols decorated with colored beads and gold fringe. By Torajan tradition, he isn't really dead. He's just sick.

A passenger van packed with explosives blew up Friday at a bus station north of Baghdad where Shiite Muslim pilgrims had stopped for the night, killing at least three people and wounding dozens, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. The attack occurred a day after a female suicide bomber struck Shiite pilgrims traveling to Karbala for a major religious festival, killing at least 20 people and wounding at least 75.

I first noticed the shop nearly two years ago, because of the guitar and the spray of pink plastic flowers hanging on the wall outside. A yellow and red stairway led to the door. It was a defiant display of color in a tense city of grays, blacks and browns. More remarkably, the store appeared to be selling musical instruments at a time when religious extremists were attacking anything that hinted at Western decadence.

Tariq Jawrani inspected his brother's corpse. Blood crusted the nose and mouth, his skull was fractured, and bruises covered his stomach, back and legs, he said. Holes were gouged in Bashir's flesh. Baqubah police said the marks were from tubes inserted because of kidney failure, but his family said the 34-year-old had been in good health before police officers detained him at a checkpoint late last month.

The collapse last week of the Islamic Courts Union in Mogadishu is reviving old clan rivalries that experts say will play a key role in Somalia's future. The following is a primer on the nation's clans. There are six main clans and minority groups, and dozens of subclans. Hawiye, the largest by number, are historically based in central Somalia and the capital, Mogadishu, though, like most clans, can be found all over the country.