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The U.S. unveiled incentives to persuade the Sudanese government to curb violence in its Darfur region. If Sudan addresses the humanitarian crisis and implements a 2005 agreement to end its civil war, Washington said it would consider normalizing relations. President Obama promised new sanctions should Khartoum refuse.
7 | Iran
A DEADLY BLAME GAME
Iranian officials accused the U.S., Britain and Pakistan of helping to orchestrate a suicide bombing in Sistan-Baluchestan province Oct. 18 that killed 42 people, including commanders of the Revolutionary Guard, the nation's élite military unit. Though the Sunni rebel group Jundallah claimed responsibility for the attack--Iran's deadliest in nearly two decades--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the foreign powers for funding the majority-Shi'ite country's insurgency in order to destabilize its borders. All three nations denied involvement.
8 | Atlanta
A Shift in Cancer Screening
The American Cancer Society announced that the benefits of prostate- and breast-cancer screenings have been overstated, after a study found that such tests often detect nonlethal tumors but fail to catch faster-spreading malignant growths. Screenings for colon and cervical cancers, on the other hand, have led to a marked decline in late-stage cancers.
9 | Pakistan
Forging a 'Path of Riddance'
Responding to a spate of attacks by Taliban militants that killed more than 100 people in the first three weeks of October, Pakistan's government launched a new offensive in insurgent-plagued South Waziristan that it dubbed Operation Path of Riddance. Pakistan's army chief requested the support of the area's Mehsud tribe, whose members fill many of the Taliban's top posts. Thousands of civilians fled the region, where 30,000 troops were fighting.
Bloodletting in Pakistan
1 ISLAMABAD, 10/5
Suicide bombing outside U.N. agency
DEATH TOLL: 5
2 PESHAWAR, 10/9
100 wounded when car explodes
DEATH TOLL: 53
3 RAWALPINDI, 10/11
Hostages taken at army headquarters
DEATH TOLL: 14
4 LAHORE, 10/15
Three security facilities attacked
DEATH TOLL: 27
5 PESHAWAR, 10/16
Bombing outside the Central Investigation Agency
DEATH TOLL: 13
6 ISLAMABAD, 10/20
Twin bombs at a university
DEATH TOLL: 5
10 | New York City
A Rigged Game on Wall Street
Prosecutors in Manhattan said they broke up a major insider-trading ring, the largest ever centered in the hedge-fund industry. Raj Rajaratnam, a billionaire co-founder of the Galleon Group, and five others were arrested and charged with earning $20 million off stock trades on the basis of information unavailable to the public. Rajaratnam, whose firm manages $3.7 billion, allegedly relied on a broad network of sources, including executives at IBM and McKinsey & Co., for lucrative tips; one leak about a Google earnings report yielded his firm $8 million in profits in 2007, authorities said. The investigation was the first insider-trading probe to make use of wiretaps and may signal a tougher attitude toward white collar crime in the wake of the Bernard Madoff scandal.