BAGHDAD — For Abu Mina, a ceramic artist and professor, Baghdad is one big jail — too dangerous for him to live with his wife and daughters, too dangerous for him to meet his students openly, too dangerous to work in his studio.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) — Somalia’s government, with new emergency powers in hand to tame the chaotic country, ordered four major media outlets to shut down on Monday as the president named a team to take charge of the capital.

QUITO (AFP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be a guest of honour Monday at the inauguration of leftist Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who won an election late last year as a fervent critic of the United States.