Violence

The day before he was killed this week, Christian Poveda, veteran photojournalist and documentary filmmaker, said he was worried. The Salvadoran street gangs whose lives Poveda had chronicled in recent years were turning uglier than ever. A brief glimmer of hope -- gang leaders speaking of a truce and ending the daily, deadly violence that has terrorized the tiny Central American country for years -- had vanished. A new crop of leaders was emerging who seemed more vicious and less inclined to negotiate or moderate their criminal actions, including extortion, carjacking and killing.

Restaurant owner Lyra Quitay is blind in one eye. Her arms, chest and legs bear painful black scars and her right hand is so gnarled that it resembles a claw when she signs her name. In October 2001, a terrorist's bomb ripped through the claustrophobic downtown market where Quitay runs a tiny kitchen, instantly killing her security guard and blowing a hole in her life. The guard had gone to investigate an abandoned duck egg cart; when he opened the lid on a pot, it exploded -- ripping off his head and leaving Quitay with injuries so severe that she still wakes up crying at night.

Nabeer Bakurally's short life came to an end on a chilly, inky night in November, on a street in East London. The 19-year-old was out late with a friend when a group of young men attacked them, possibly after some kind of dispute. There was a lethal glint of metal, and minutes later Bakurally lay bleeding on the sidewalk, stabbed in the heart. His death added to a grim roll call of fatal knife attacks in Britain in 2008, possibly the worst such year on record.

A suicide bomber attacked police here Sunday as they rushed to treat civilians injured by a smaller explosion, killing seven people and wounding at least 25, said police official Sanaullah Khan. Of the seven slain, five were police officials and two were civilians, Khan said, and 16 police were among the wounded. Amanullah Khan, a wounded police official, said he and his colleagues were attending to four civilians injured by the first explosion when the bomber struck.

Ugandan rebels have killed at least a dozen people, including two wildlife rangers, in attacks in Congo's northeast, conservation officials and the United Nations said Tuesday. In the worst incident, the rebels killed eight people Monday in the village of Napopo, near Congo's borders with Sudan and Uganda, Ron Redmond, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said in Geneva. He said the militants burned houses and kidnapped several people.

After word spread across this Indian reservation that seven people had been kidnapped by leftist rebels, the community's unarmed "indigenous guard" sprang into action. Within minutes, hundreds of men, women and children were out on roads and pathways searching for the hostages, communicating by radio, cellphone and shouts. Many held lanterns that, as the search continued after nightfall, made the rescue party seem an eerily glowing centipede snaking up and down hillsides.

Vice President-elect Joe Biden conferred with Iraqi leaders here Monday as police reported four bombings that killed 10 people. Biden, a frequent visitor to Iraq as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met with President Jalal Talabani, Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi and Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih. Abdul Mehdi said they discussed implementation of a security agreement that took effect Jan. 1. The accord sets a three-year time frame for full withdrawal of American forces.

A succession of violent incidents in Venezuela, including the armed takeover of the Caracas city hall, point to an ugly campaign ahead of a Feb. 15 vote that could lift term limits on President Hugo Chavez. A group of 40 armed men who said they were Chavez supporters were still in control of city hall Monday evening, two days after they forced their way in, handcuffed two security officers and declared the building "recovered for the revolution," a mayoral spokesman said.

Lee Jung-hee recalls the precise moment when all hell broke loose -- the tie-yanking, headlocks and neck-wringing, the thud of sledgehammers and, ominously, the sickening whine of a chain saw. The 39-year-old had witnessed plenty of violent protests in her native South Korea, where rowdy demonstrations are a Saturday newscast staple. These combatants, however, weren't blue-collar workers or student protesters, but dozens of blue-suited national lawmakers.

Silvia Guadalupe Perez burst into tears as she named the bitter ingredients of her new life as a widow: three children emotionally adrift, a mounting pile of bills and meager factory wages to pay them. "I can't . . . " Perez, 36, said as she sobbed on the witness stand. She took a sip of water and dabbed her eyes with a tissue before turning again to the prosecutor's gentle questioning.