Globe Trot: Prime minister resigns over ferry disaster

SOUTH KOREA: Prime Minister Chung Hong-Won resigned on Sunday over South Korea’s ferry-sinking disaster. With more than 200 people dead and over 100 still missing, the clearly botched operation also led to the arrest of all crew members of the Sewol passenger ferry.

AFGHANISTAN: Non-governmental organizations are reassessing security in Afghanistan following a shooting last week at Cure International Hospital. Killed in the attack were long-time physician Jerry Umanos and Morning Star Development physician John Gabel, along with his father, Gary, who was visiting his son in Kabul.

IRAQ: Suicide bombers today attacked police and soldiers as they began to cast votes ahead of Wednesday’s nationwide election. The bombs killed more than 20 people. Violence is expected to continue to mar the first elections since the U.S. pullout. Support is eroding for President Nouri al-Maliki—who by law should not be running (a court overturned a term-limit law passed by parliament)—but few are able to mount a significant challenge to his rule.

“This is not what we promised the Iraqi people. This is not why we fought Saddam,” said Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who won the largest proportion of the vote in 2010. “This is not why allied forces lost lives. It’s an agonizing situation.”

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis, in a first-ever joint canonization, elevated to Catholic sainthood Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II. Francis said of the two 20th-century pontiffs, “They lived through the tragic events of that century, but they were not overwhelmed by them. For them, God was more powerful; faith was more powerful.”