The World

10 ESSENTIAL STORIES

By Harriet Barovick, Ishaan Tharoor, Alexandra Silver, Claire Suddath, Frances Romero, Kayla Webley and Josh Sanburn Monday, Sept. 06, 2010

    • (2 of 3)

    Nine states and D.C. were chosen as winners in the second round of the Obama Administration's Race to the Top education-reform program. They will receive money from a $4.35 billion fund created by the federal stimulus to reward states that implement reforms, such as merit-based teacher pay and charter schools, aimed at closing the achievement gap.

    5 | Japan

    A Deadly Look

    Japan recently announced that it would open the Tokyo Detention Center's execution chambers to its national media for the first time ever. Justice Minister Keiko Chiba, an opponent of capital punishment, made the decision shortly after she witnessed two hangings in July. Japan, which has more than 100 people on death row, is the only G-8 country besides the U.S. to retain the death penalty.

    6 | The Philippines

    UNDER SIEGE

    After a daylong standoff, police in Manila shot dead Rolando Mendoza, a former officer who had taken hostage a busful of passengers. Mendoza, who was fired last year in an alleged extortion scandal, was brought down only after eight tourists from Hong Kong were killed. Critics pilloried the police force, which they say was ill-trained to respond to such a crisis. President Benigno Aquino III pledged to hold a "thorough investigation."

    7 | Congo

    Hundreds Raped in Rebel Raid

    In the country that has the sad distinction of being the "rape capital of the world," nearly 200 women, girls and baby boys were systematically raped over four days beginning July 30 in eastern Congo, according to the U.N. An ethnic-Hutu rebel gang whose leaders are linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda was blamed for the attacks. Aid groups report many women were assaulted by two to six men, often in front of their families.

    8 | Germany

    Restructuring the Military

    On Aug. 23, the German Defense Ministry unveiled several proposals to reform the country's armed forces, known as the Bundeswehr. The Ministry's preferred plan advises cutting troop levels from some 250,000 to about 165,000 and halting a policy of conscription. However, critics, including many in the government, see compulsory service as integral to the country's values.

    Military conscripts, in thousands

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

    THE FUTURE OF THE DRAFT?

    SOURCE: BUNDESWEHR

    9 | Yemen

    A War on Many Fronts

    As Washington prepares to increase the use of targeted drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Yemen, that country's security forces laid siege to a town believed to be in the grip of al-Qaeda-linked militants. Some 80,000 civilians fled Loder, in southern Yemen, as the offensive got under way. Elsewhere, Yemeni officials sat down to talks with leaders of a long-standing Shi'ite insurgency in the country's north.

    10 | Greenland

    Natural Gas Found off Coast

    3. 1
    4. 2
    5. 3