The World Today: News at a Glance

A Grisly Discovery: Law enforcement officers in the central state of Jalisco, Mexico, discovered five severed heads inside ice chests that were left by a road leading to Guadalajara. Along with the heads, police found “messages addressed to rivals of the killers, who were assumed to be involved in Mexico’s bitter and violent drug war” (BBC). (See related article: “Mexico’s Drug Cartel War – Who Is to Blame?”)

Papal Visit to Israel: The Jerusalem Post reported that during his visit to the Holy Land in May, Pope Benedict XVI intends to enter Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, participate in four masses (in Amman, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth), visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, and meet with representatives of local Christian communities, as well as with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Israel’s President Shimon Peres, and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority. (See related article: “The World Looks to a New Pope – What Will the Future Bring?”)

Storming an Islamic Site: Masquerading as tourists, 30 Israeli extremists rushed into the courtyard of the al-Aqsa mosque—Islam’s third holiest site—in Jerusalem. The extremists attempted to conduct prayers for Purim, a Jewish holiday, but Israeli soldiers and police moved them away.

The Emergence of Tent Cities: As the rate of foreclosures, business closings and job losses increases throughout the United States, a growing number of “economic homeless”—people who have lost jobs and homes, and have nowhere else to go—are dwelling in makeshift “tent cities.” In California—one of the country’s wealthiest states and one of the largest economies in the world—Sacramento, the state capital, is estimated to have 1,200 to 2,000 people inhabiting a tent city. Other tent cities have emerged in Los Angeles, Seattle, New Orleans and parts of Florida. (See related articles: “Lessons From the Great Depression” and “What Unprecedented Wealth Reveals About a Nation’s Character”)

Shooting Sprees: In the southern United States, a gunman in Alabama unleashed a murder rampage, allegedly killing his mother, grandparents, aunt, uncle and girlfriend, and wounding others, before committing suicide. The victims ranged from age 18 months to 74 years old. And in Germany, a former pupil returned to his school in Winnenden and shot and killed nine students, two teachers, a gardener and two bystanders. The 17-year-old gunman later died in a shootout with police.