Russian presidential candidate Ivan Rybkin was reported missing by friends and family on Sunday, February 8. Rybkin, who missed a news conference and the official registration for the Russian election, was found to have spent four days in Ukraine, out of contact with his wife and his campaign staff. He expressed surprise at the volume of media coverage and attention being directed at him, as he had only "decided to go to Kiev to visit friends." His disappearance ignited a flurry of rumors in Russian political circles, ranging from a staged plot to skew popular opinion to an assassination by Russian security services.
A week after narrowly winning the Oklahoma primary, retired Gen. Wesley Clark announced that he was ending his campaign for the Democratic Presidential Nomination. A latecomer to the race, entering the race over the summer, Clark cited poor showing in the southern states and fund-raising troubles as the primary reasons for ending the campaign. John Kerry, the democratic frontrunner, further solidified his position with victories in Virginia, Tennessee and Maine.
An Iranian airline crashed on approach to Sharjah Airport on Tuesday, February 10. Of the 46 people aboard the flight, 43 were killed, and the survivors remain hospitalized. No distress call was received from the plane, an 11-year old Fokker-50. The plane's 'black boxes', the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, were successfully recovered from the scene. A cause for the crash could not be immediately determined.
A letter intercepted by US intelligence alleges that al Qaeda is making plans to incite a civil war in Iraq. The letter reportedly outlines a strategy for infiltrating Iraq and attacking US and Iraqi forces. The US has cited the letter as the impetus for a recent increase in attacks against soldiers and Iraqi police forces.
The lower house of the French parliament passed a law on Tuesday, February 10, banning the display of any conspicuous religious insignia, such as the traditional Muslim headscarf, in public schools. This has caused an outrage in the Muslim community of France, who believe the ban will "negatively affect the attitudes of Arabs and Muslims with respect to France and the French government." The anger stems from the fact that among Muslims, wearing the "veil is an obligation in the Islamic faith."