Dispatches

Dec. 31

New Year’s Eve took an unexpected turn in Dubai when a massive fire climbed the 63-story Address hotel near the city center. No deaths were reported, but the fast-moving blaze injured at least 16 and took four teams of firefighters some 20 hours to contain. Irish singer Anita Williams, who was performing at the five-star hotel, told the BBC that people fled in a “stampede” when the fire “shot up through the entire hotel. ... I thought, ‘This is a film.’” During the fire, the United Arab Emirates government allowed a huge fireworks display to continue at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, only 600 yards away.

Islamic feud

Jan. 3

World leaders called for restraint as flaring tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia threatened to escalate Sunni-Shiite conflict across the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, a Sunni majority nation, cut diplomatic ties with Iran on Jan. 3 after Iranians set fire to the Saudi Embassy in protest of the Saudi government’s execution of a well-known Shiite dissident cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr—one of 47 “terrorists” beheaded or shot by firing squad. Saudi Arabia gave Iran 48 hours to pull its diplomats from Riyadh. Bahrain and Sudan followed Saudi Arabia’s lead and also cut diplomatic ties with Iran. The tension revealed internal strife in Saudi Arabia, leading former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to predict the possible downfall of the Saudi royal family.

‘A grave provocation’

Jan. 6

The world reacted with a mixture of alarm and skepticism after North Korea claimed it successfully detonated its first hydrogen bomb. The assertion on North Korean state television came hours after the Korean Peninsula experienced a 5.1 earthquake. The head of the global nuclear oversight agency said the blast—which occurred at a test site inside a mountain—appeared to be similar to the one North Korea carried out in 2013, much smaller than the nuclear bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, to help end World War II. The White House expressed skepticism of North Korea’s claim, while South Korea called the test a “grave provocation.”

Midwest underwater

Dec. 31

Heavy rains caused massive flooding that shut down interstate highways, forced large-scale evacuations, and left dozens of people dead across several Midwest states. Federal, state, and local government entities declared states of emergency, including in Illinois and Missouri: “It’s almost as if you’re living on some other planet,” Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said while surveying a ravaged area near St. Louis. The deluge destroyed hundreds of structures and broke records set during a previous major flood in 1995. While Midwest states began cleanup in early January, Southern states such as Louisiana and Mississippi braced for the flooding to arrive downstream.

Not a joke

Dec. 30

Authorities in Pennsylvania arraigned Bill Cosby on charges that he drugged and sexually assaulted former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004—one of more than 50 women who have accused the aging comedian of similar crimes. Cosby, 78, has not denied the incident in question, according to court documents, but claims Constand never tried to stop his advances, which took place at his home outside Philadelphia. Cosby and Constand settled a civil lawsuit out of court in 2006. His attorney blamed the new charges on politics: “Make no mistake, we intend to mount a vigorous defense against this unjustified charge and we expect that Mr. Cosby will be exonerated by a court of law.”