The World

1 | Tehran

Playing Hide-And-Seek

Officials with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have negotiated an Oct. 25 inspection of Iran’s recently revealed uranium-enrichment plant under construction outside Qum. The plant, which Tehran insists will be used for civilian purposes, has heightened fears that Iran is hiding facilities that would give it greater capacity to potentially build nuclear weapons. Skeptics say delaying the inspection until the end of the month would give Iran time to cover up its activities. “One has to be somewhat suspicious,” Washington’s IAEA representative said Oct. 5 on Capitol Hill.

2 | Islamabad

Blast Targets Aid Workers

A suicide bomber disguised as a soldier walked into the fortified headquarters of the U.N. Food Program in Pakistan by asking to use the bathroom and set off an explosion that killed five people. The latest in a string of attacks against foreign aid workers in the region, the Oct. 5 bombing was particularly disquieting given the ease with which the perpetrator infiltrated the heavily protected compound, just steps from President Asif Ali Zardari’s residence. A Taliban spokesman confirmed that the group was responsible for the incident, the deadliest in the Pakistani capital since April. In the aftermath, the U.N. said it would temporarily shutter all its Pakistan offices, which provide aid to many of the estimated 2 million people displaced by fighting in the Swat Valley.

3 | New York

Preemies’ Troubling Toll

Nearly 13 million babies worldwide are born prematurely each year–10% of total births–and a million die as a result, according to a March of Dimes report. Using World Health Organization data, the group found that 85% of premature births occur in Africa and Asia. The U.S. preterm rate, meanwhile, has jumped 36% in the past 25 years.

Preterm birthrate, by region

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

11.9%

AFRICA

10.6%

NORTH AMERICA

9.1%

ASIA

8.1%

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

6.4%

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

6.2%

EUROPE

SOURCE: MARCH OF DIMES

4 | Brussels

Pilots Protest Long Hours

Airplane workers demonstrated at 22 European airports on Oct. 5 to call travelers’ attention to their grueling shifts, which they say are hazardous to passenger safety. Backed by the European Cockpit Association, which represents some 38,000 pilots and crew members, protesters handed out some 100,000 fake boarding passes containing warnings about fatigue and arguments against the current E.U. laws, which hold that flight personnel can stay airborne for up to 14 hr. per day and 11 hr. 45 min. overnight. A 2003 study found that the risk of accidents for pilots who had been working 13 hr. or more was 5½ times the risk for all pilots.

5 | Dublin

Irish Ayes Have the E.U. Smiling

Second time’s the charm. Since initially dismissing it last June, Irish voters have ratified the Lisbon Treaty, an agreement intended to strengthen and streamline the European Union’s governance. The treaty, if enacted, would create the offices of E.U. President and foreign policy chief and allow the body to use majority rule in place of unanimous-decision-making in some cases. With Poland expected to approve the pact soon, the final holdout is the Czech Republic, whose President, Vaclav Klaus, opposes the bid.

6 | Athens

SOCIALIST SPARKS FLY

George Papandreou, leader of Greece’s Socialist Party (PASOK), was sworn in as the country’s new Prime Minister on Oct. 6 after defeating conservative incumbent Costas Karamanlis, whose party has been dogged by corruption scandals and a sagging economy. With the country’s budget deficit at 6% of its GDP–twice the E.U.-mandated limit–Papandreou has his work cut out for him. His campaign pledges include a $4.4 billion stimulus package, higher taxes for the wealthy and wage increases that will outpace the rate of inflation.

7 | Ohio

Staying Executions

After the botched lethal injection on Sept. 15 of convicted murderer and rapist Romell Broom, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has delayed Broom’s execution along with those of two other inmates while the state reviews its death-penalty procedures. Technicians tried unsuccessfully for two hours to access Broom’s veins before aborting the effort. Death-penalty opponents hope the state will follow others in abolishing the practice.

8 | Cape Town

Ranking Africa’s Governments

The third survey by Sudanese-born philanthropist Mo Ibrahim’s foundation provides a detailed assessment of good governance on a continent sorely lacking it. Ibrahim’s index, released Oct. 5, scores Africa’s 53 nations in 84 categories, measuring economic opportunity, safety, human rights and development. The Indian Ocean outpost of Mauritius took top honors, while to nobody’s surprise anarchic Somalia ranked a distant last.

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

The Ibrahim Index

1 MAURITIUS

2 CAPE VERDE

3 SEYCHELLES

4 BOTSWANA

5 SOUTH AFRICA

49 SUDAN

50 DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

51 ZIMBABWE

52 CHAD

53 SOMALIA

SOURCE: THE MO IBRAHIM FOUNDATION

9 | Washington

Rethinking Detentions

The U.S. says it will revamp the controversial system for holding immigrants awaiting deportation after human-rights groups accused several detention centers of abuse and providing poor living conditions. Officials have promised better medical care and housing facilities, possibly including converted hotels, for detainees–a goal the American Civil Liberties Union called “encouraging.”

10 | Stockholm

Science Stars Take a Bow

The first of this year’s Nobel Prizes celebrated advances in harnessing light and understanding cells. Nine scientists (eight of them U.S. citizens) shared honors in physics, medicine and chemistry for work that has contributed to photography and antibiotics research, among other fields. Each prize includes a $1.4 million award.

Nobel Prize Winners

PHYSICS

Fiber optics

Charles Kao

Improved light-transmitting glass fibers, aiding the rise of the Internet

Digital-imaging sensor

Willard Boyle

George Smith

Invented a sensor that transforms light into electric signals, technology now used in digital cameras as well as the Hubble Space Telescope

MEDICINE

Cell biology

Elizabeth Blackburn

Jack Szostak

Carol Greider

Their research in the 1970s and ’80s uncovered how chromosomes protect themselves as cells divide–shedding light on aging and advancing the fight against cancer

CHEMISTRY

Ribosomes

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Thomas Steitz

Ada Yonath

The trio used X-ray technology to map the ribosome, which creates proteins that control the chemistry in cells. The findings improved antibiotics’ ability to disable ribosomes in bacteria

* | What They’re Banning in Egypt: Sheik Mohammed Tantawi, a leading Egyptian cleric, said he would issue a fatwa against Muslim women who wear the niqab, a face-covering veil, in the nation’s schools. Tantawi argued that the garment had “nothing to do with Islam” and merely promoted religious extremism. Following his lead, Egypt’s Minister of Higher Education banned the niqab from university residences.