The World

1 | North Korea Dear Leader in Decline? After Kim Jong Il failed to attend a parade marking the country’s 60th anniversary, rumors began circulating that the secretive North Korean leader’s health was deteriorating. State media have not reported a public appearance by Kim since Aug. 14, though Western intelligence officials say the 66-year-old dictator has manipulated such reports before. White House officials could not confirm the rumors but said they are monitoring the “opaque” nation amid stalled talks over its nuclear program. The Dear Leader assumed power in 1994 after the death of his father, North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung; so far none of his three sons have emerged as the heir apparent. North Korea has dismissed the rumors, calling them a “conspiracy plot.”

2 | London Verdict for Liquid Bombers Three of the eight men accused of plotting to blow up transatlantic commercial flights using liquid explosives hidden in plastic soft-drink bottles were found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, but the jury failed to reach verdicts on four of the men (one was acquitted of all charges)–and even on whether the cell had actually targeted aircraft. Prosecutors said the suspects’ early arrests made it difficult to collect enough evidence to convince the jury of an imminent threat. Meanwhile, restrictions on carrying liquids aboard planes–measures sparked by the 2006 plot–remain in place at many airports around the world.

3 | Baghdad Petraeus Hands Over the Keys General David Petraeus turns over control of U.S. troops in Iraq to his former deputy, Lieut. General Raymond Odierno, on Sept. 16. In July the Senate voted to promote Petraeus to head the military’s Central Command, covering central Asia and the Middle East, including Afghanistan and Iraq. He assumes his new post this fall, filling the void left by Admiral William J. Fallon, who resigned in March over clashes with the Bush Administration.

Lieut. General Raymond Odierno He helped Petraeus implement the 2007 surge and will become a full general before taking the reins in Iraq

General David Petraeus He’ll try to repeat Iraq’s drop in violence in Afghanistan, where the Taliban appears to be strengthening

4 | Toronto Election, Again Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper dissolved Parliament on Sept. 7 and called for an early election–the third national vote in four years. A ballot had been scheduled for 2009, but analysts said the new Oct. 14 date benefits Harper’s Conservative Party by getting voters to the polls before they can be influenced by the outcome of U.S. elections or a continuing slump in the economy.

5 | Caribbean FIERCE WEATHER Four storms in as many weeks have battered the Caribbean, spurring repeated mass evacuations and a climbing death toll. In Haiti, where areas of most of the nation’s provinces are underwater, the storms have left an estimated 1,000 people dead and millions without food, water and shelter. In Cuba few deaths have been reported, but 2.6 million people–a quarter of the nation’s population–sought refuge from Ike. Cuba’s government has predicted damage in the billions of dollars.

6 | Bolivia TAKING TO THE STREETS Protesters took over public offices across the country amid escalating opposition to leftist President Evo Morales. The protesters want to stop Morales from rewriting the constitution and redistributing natural gas revenue from wealthy states to poorer indigenous communities. On Sept. 10, Morales ordered U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg to leave the country, accusing him of “conspiring against democracy.”

7 | Iowa More Trouble In Postville The Department of Agriculture has cited Postville-based Agriprocessors Inc.–a kosher slaughterhouse targeted in a huge immigration raid in May–for improper slaughter, on the basis of video evidence (above) supplied by PETA. The Iowa attorney general has also charged the company with more than 9,000 child-labor-law violations, alleging it had hired children as young as 14. Agriprocessors denied the allegations.

8 | Afghanistan Backlash on Civilian Deaths U.S. and NATO air strikes killed 321 civilians in 2007, three times as many as in the previous year, Human Rights Watch reported, amid a dispute over civilian fatalities in an Aug. 22 attack. New video footage has prompted U.S. investigators to re-examine their initial conclusion that most of the strike’s casualties were Taliban. One tribal elder offered to dig up victims’ graves to prove their innocence.

[This article contains a complex diagram. Please see hardcopy of magazine.]

Number of civilians killed by air strikes in Afghanistan

2006 2007 2008 (so far)

*Each icon represents two people

SOURCE: HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

9 | Bangkok Recipe for An Ouster After withstanding months of protests and calls for his resignation, Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej was ultimately forced from office Sept. 9 on a technicality. According to a court ruling, Samak’s gig as an occasional host of a TV cooking show violated a conflict-of-interest article in the Thai constitution that prohibits the Prime Minister from having a job outside of official duties. Yet just as soon as Samak was removed, his party declared its intention to renominate him, a move likely to perpetuate Thailand’s political unrest. Samak’s detractors allege he is merely a proxy for exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, removed in a military coup in 2006.

[This article contains a complex diagram. Please see hardcopy of magazine.]

Dreams from My Father

1.8 million total copies in print

Promises to Keep 185,000

Faith of My Fathers 536,000

Sarah* 325,000

*By Kaylene Johnson

10 | New York Reading the Candidates With the presidential race in the homestretch, publishers are scrambling to meet demand for books by or about the contenders. Joe Biden’s memoir was just reissued in paperback, and a second Sarah Palin bio is already in the works, with 100,000 copies coming out in October. While Barack Obama’s two books are best sellers, John McCain fills more shelf space: since becoming a Senator, he’s penned five hefty tomes with speechwriter Mark Salter.

* | What They’re Wearing in Japan: Outgoing Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda failed to energize the country during his lackluster tenure, but he knows how to deliver a parting shot. “I’m not like you,” Fukuda barked at a reporter who questioned whether he’d given his all in the post. The sharp comeback is now a pop-culture catchphrase; T shirts adorned with the remark are the best-selling item among more than 900,000 designs at online retailer Club T.