After last week's assassination of a Tunisian opposition politician – and the quest to find those responsible – the spotlight turned on a little-known ultra-conservative Muslim movement.
Salafism, a puritanical but traditionally peaceful branch of Islam, has become increasingly important in Middle Eastern and north African nations since the Arab spring lifted the ruthless suppression on such groups. With a small but significant proportion of Salafists now adopting violent and jihadist rhetoric, our cover story examines the rising popularity of Salafism and considers the implications for the future stability and secular political ambitions of the region.
One way or another, religion has figured prominently in the news this week. As we were going to press, Pope Benedict XVI announced his intention to step down as the head of the Roman Catholic church due to old age, in doing so becoming the first pope to resign since 1415. We consider the impact on the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, and why many feel a sense of disappointment at Benedict's papal legacy.
From Syria, the Washington Post reports on Iran's and Hezbollah's militant networks of influence in the civil war-ravaged country, designed to protect their interests whether president Bashar al-Assad stays or goes.
Elsewhere, Jason Burke brings a harrowing but powerful report on the trafficking of Indian women to Saudi Arabia. There are also difficult but important stories from Africa this week, where we report on the killing of polio workers in Nigeria and a brutal gang rape and murder in Cape Town that has drawn comparisons with the Delhi bus attack.
In South America, Quito is closing its airport, considered one of the most dangerous in the world due to its hair-raising altitude and aspect. But is its replacement much safer? Aviation experts are undecided. Further south, the Washington Post has news of Brazil's rapid investment in hydropower through dams, which has alarmed environmental groups.
From the US, where president Barack Obama has been finalising his second-term administration, we take a closer look at John Brennan, the new head of the CIA and the man many see as the chief architect of America's highly controversial drone weapons programme.
In Europe, intrigue continues to envelop the growing scandal of horse meat in supermarket burgers and ready meals. Few expect the scandal to die down any time soon. In Brussels the European Union has agreed the first budget cut in its history. And in the UK, a damning report into patient care failures at a Staffordshire hospital has rocked the National Health Service to its core.
As ever, on the Comment pages our celebrated line-up of opinion writers, including Gary Younge, Will Hutton and Polly Toynbee, put these stories into the kind of sharp context you expect from the Guardian Weekly.
Our Review section this week opens with a look at the much-misunderstood dual affliction of narcolepsy and cataplexy, which inflicts havoc on the lives of sufferers and for which there is, as yet, no cure. We take you from organised crime in Russia's Winter Olympic venue, to mob rule in Venezuela's prisons.
In Culture we bring you a rare interview with the celebrated US artist Carl Andre, as well as a Le Monde feature about plans to restore the formal gardens of Versailles to their original 1715 glory. And in Books we look at two new books on foreign wars, one reviewing US military atrocities in Vietnam, and the other on Britain's attempts to tame 19th-century Afghanistan.
We hope you enjoy the edition – please do email me with your thoughts on it.
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