The World

10 ESSENTIAL STORIES

By Harriet Barovick, Laura Fitzpatrick, Alexandra Silver, Claire Suddath, Alyssa Fetini, Frances Romero, Kristi Oloffson and Kayla Webley Monday, June 07, 2010

    • (2 of 3)

    The synthetic DNA is substituted for that of a cell from another bacterial species, and the cell begins to divide

    6 | Seoul

    HARSH WORDS

    South Koreans rallied on May 25 against their northern neighbor, which continued to deny having torpedoed a South Korean warship even after a team of international investigators confirmed it sank the vessel. In a tense back and forth, South Korean President Lee Myung Bak cut off trade and called on the U.N. to tighten sanctions, while North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il severed all ties to the South and put his military on alert. During her May 26 visit to Seoul, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the sinking an "unacceptable provocation."

    7 | Iraq

    Winning Candidate Killed

    Bashar Hamid al-Agaidi was fatally shot outside his house in Mosul on May 24. Agaidi had won a seat in parliament as a member of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Sunni-backed bloc, which scored two more seats than Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition in the March 7 election. The murder highlighted the urgent need to form a new government, a resolution that has been delayed for 2½ months.

    8 | Ethiopia

    A Questionable Landslide

    Opposition leaders called for a new election after preliminary results from the May 23 vote gave the ruling party--Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)--nearly all of the 547 seats in Parliament. Human Rights Watch cited voter intimidation and media restrictions, while the White House joined E.U. observers in criticizing the election. Meles, who has ruled since 1991, dismissed the complaints amid claims that his government was arresting and assaulting opposition members.

    9 | Washington

    U.S. Troops To Mexico Border

    President Obama will dispatch up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border for up to a year in order to reinforce efforts at curbing illegal immigration and drug smuggling. The deployment comes at a critical time for Obama, who is seeking Republican support for immigration legislation while also opposing Arizona's harsh new immigration law.

    10 | London

    Human Rights (and Wrongs)

    On May 26, Amnesty International released its annual report on human rights, detailing advances and backslides in 159 countries around the world. By the end of 2009, 110 states had joined the International Criminal Court, thus strengthening governments' abilities to prosecute serious crimes once shielded by amnesty laws. The report cited Latin America as an area of particular improvement, especially Peru, Uruguay and Argentina, all of which have paved the way for human-rights violators to be brought to court.

    [The following text appears within a chart. Please see hardcopy or PDF for actual chart.]

    All countries

    G-20 countries

    Hold prisoners of conscience

    30%

    42%

    Restrict freedom of expression

    60%

    53%

    Conduct unfair trials

    35%

    47%

    * | What They're Banning in Nevada:

    3. 1
    4. 2
    5. 3