AHS Comparative Government

In the past three decades, China's cities have grown by hundreds of millions of people.  As Chinese cities have grown, however, they have tended to sprawl rather than to become more densely populated.  This pattern of urban growth -- a pattern familiar to Americans -- has increased traffic congestion and air pollution in Chinese cities and has wasted natural resources and farmland on a massive scale:

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21640396-how-fix-chinese-cities-great-sprawl-china

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan was quick to condemn the terrorist attacks that took place in Paris between 7 January and 9 January; those attacks killed 16 people.  It took Jonathan nearly two weeks, however, to mention a recent Boko Haram attack on Baga, in northeastern Nigeria.  The attack on Baga, which took place on 3 January, killed approximately 2000 Nigerian civilians.  The Economist speculates that Jonathan took so long to acknowledge and condemn the Baga attack because doing so only reminded Nigerian voters that Jonathan's government appears unable to contain the Boko Haram jihadi insurgency; those voters will decide on 14 February whether to reelect Jonathan or to replace him with Muhammadu Buhari, a former Nigerian general:

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21639561-nigerias-politicians-ignore-horrors-boko-haram-blind-bloodshed

Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay a total of $84 million to 15,600 Nigerian fisherman for losses resulting from two oil spills in the Ogoni speaking region of the Niger Delta.  $30 million of those funds will be spent improving health and education in Bodo, the community affected by the oil spills.  Shell will also clean up the environmental contamination resulting from the spills; unfortunately, that contamination was not cleaned up when the spills occurred six years ago. 

The settlement agreement between Shell and the fisherman is the first of its kind and may encourage other Delta residents to file environmental claims against oil companies operating in the Delta.  Those oil companies contend that most of the environmental problems in the Niger Delta result not from oil company accidents and spills but from acts of theft and vandalism committed by local residents; the oil companies deny responsibility for environmental degradation resulting from such acts.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-30699787