Brickbats

Brickbat: Red Card

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Pierre Nkurunziza
Xinhua/Sipa USA/Newscom

Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza travels the country with his own soccer team, playing local teams. The teams he plays usually know the score: Go easy on the president's team and maybe let him score. But in a recent game in the town of Kiremba, the president played a team that contained a number of Congolese refugees who didn't know who he was. They didn't go easy on the team or the president, and he fell several times as the other team attacked him when he had the ball. Kiremba's administrator and his assistant were later arrested and charged with "conspiracy against the president."