The World

10 ESSENTIAL STORIES

By Harriet Barovick, Laura Fitzpatrick, Alexandra Silver, Claire Suddath, Alyssa Fetini, Frances Romero, Kristi Oloffson and Kayla Webley Monday, May 10, 2010

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    A brawl erupted in Ukraine's parliament on April 27 during debate over a treaty that would extend Russia's naval presence in the port of Sevastopol through 2042. Punches were thrown, a smoke bomb was set off, Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn was pelted with eggs, and a group abstaining from the vote draped a huge flag over their seats in protest. The deal, which was eventually ratified, could save Ukraine billions of dollars on discounted Russian natural gas.

    7 | Cape Cod

    Windy Seas

    On April 28, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar green-lighted America's first offshore wind farm. Dubbed Cape Wind, it will feature 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound. Although the $1 billion project will create a relatively small amount of energy--enough to power an estimated 400,000 houses--its approval opens the door for additional offshore wind farms. Cape Wind remains controversial, however, because local residents fear the project may decrease property values or harm wildlife.

    8 | Sudan

    Al-Bashir Wins Another Term

    President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was the unsurprising victor of an election marred by accusations of voter fraud. Despite the irregularities, which led many opposition parties to drop out, al-Bashir, who has been in power for 22 years, has pledged to use his new term to proceed as scheduled with next January's referendum on granting independence to oil-rich south Sudan, which could become its own nation by July 2011.

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

    Geography of a new Sudan

    The nation would be split in two along the historic north-south border

    Khartoum

    Oil fields

    9 | Iraq

    Electoral Confusion

    An Iraqi court disqualified 52 of the candidates who had run in the March 7 parliamentary elections, saying they had ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. One of them was a winning member of former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's coalition, further complicating the already disputed outcome. Preliminary results--which are awaiting a partial recount--gave Allawi's Sunni-backed bloc two seats more than the one led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

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

    U.S. death-row population

    690 Largest death-row population

    • No death penalty

    • 1-20*

    • 21-100

    • More than 100

    *New Mexico abolished the death penalty in March 2009, though the law was not made retroactive; two inmates remain on death row

    SOURCE: THE DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER

    10 | Utah

    'Firing Squad, Please'

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