The World

1 | Berlin A Deadly Air Strike Hits Home German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing growing criticism at home and abroad after a bombing in northern Afghanistan ordered by German troops killed dozens of people, including civilians. In an address to parliament, Merkel expressed regret but insisted she would not “accept premature judgments” about the incident, the deadliest involving the nation’s military since World War II. The Sept. 4 strike on two fuel trucks hijacked by the Taliban, which was carried out by U.S. fighter jets, has heightened the Afghan war’s unpopularity in Germany and erodes confidence in Merkel’s coalition government ahead of parliamentary elections Sept. 27.

2 | Gabon Violence Follows Vote Ali Ben Bongo was set to fill the shoes of his late father Omar Bongo as Gabon’s next President after winning the sub-Saharan nation’s presidential elections Sept. 3. But demonstrators demanding change after 41 years of Omar Bongo’s rule responded with violence, torching shops, a police station and the French consulate. Ali Ben Bongo’s challengers allege stuffing of ballot boxes and “incomprehensible swelling of voter lists” and call for a recount, although they have so far offered no evidence of tampering.

3 | China Xinjiang Unrest Continues Two months after ethnic clashes left nearly 200 dead in China’s restive northwest province, thousands of protesters massed in the capital of Urumqi following reports of a bizarre string of hypodermic-needle attacks on ethnic Chinese. According to state-run media–the main source of news in an area without reliable Internet access–five people were killed in the disturbance, which led to the ouster of a local Communist Party official; more than 500 reportedly sought treatment.

4 | England A Terrorism Case Closes In what has been heralded as one of the biggest antiterrorism successes since Sept. 11, three Britons were convicted of plotting to blow up seven transatlantic airliners using liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks. British nationals Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain face life in prison. The scheme, which was foiled in 2006, led to sweeping changes in airport security, including limits on carry-on liquids. The men’s first trial had ended in a hung jury.

5 | Washington A Full Plate on Capitol Hill Members of Congress returned to a busy legislative session Sept. 8 following their summer recess. Their top priority: health-care reform, an issue lawmakers heard an earful about during raucous town-hall meetings in August. The key items this fall:

HEALTH CARE Democrats and Republicans remain bitterly divided over a proposed overhaul of the massive industry

CLIMATE CHANGE The House passed a controversial cap-and-trade emissions plan in June. Its fate in the Senate is uncertain

FINANCIAL REGULATION Lawmakers will consider tighter bank rules and an agency to protect consumers, but little action is expected

FEDERAL SPENDING The Senate is due to approve $1.2 trillion in funding for federal agencies before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30

6 | North Korea HIGH WATER, RISING TENSIONS North Korea marked its 61st anniversary Sept. 9 by vowing to “mercilessly annihilate the U.S. imperialists” in response to any aggression, just days after Pyongyang announced its continued pursuit of a uranium-enrichment program. The hermit state also opened a dam on the Imjin River without warning on Sept. 6, sending 40 million tons of water across the border into South Korea, where six people were swept away. Seoul has demanded an apology, calling the North’s excuses for releasing the water “not acceptable.”

7 | Afghanistan Journalist Freed in Deadly Raid New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, a dual British-Irish national who had been taken hostage in northern Afghanistan by Taliban kidnappers Sept. 5, was freed in a daring early-morning strike by British commandos four days later. The gambit resulted in the death of Farrell’s Afghan translator, Sultan Munadi. At least 16 journalists have been kidnapped in Afghanistan since January 2002. Farrell was also held hostage in Iraq in 2004.

8 | Brussels No Fishing The European Commission is backing a proposal to ban the international sale of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a Mediterranean species depleted by decades of overfishing. An estimated 90% of Europe’s bluefin tuna is exported to Japan, where voracious sushi consumption has driven the fish’s population to dangerously low levels. The European Union is expected to formally support the measure this month.

9 | Washington More Space Flight, Please A blue-ribbon panel is pleading for a more robust space program in a preliminary report to the White House and NASA. Some recommendations: an extension for the International Space Station program and a boost of $3 billion a year in NASA funding. The panel says the future of U.S. manned space flight is on an “unsustainable trajectory” and that the agency’s annual budget of $18 billion is not enough to support what “really is rocket science.”

10 | Tel Aviv No Settlement on Settlements Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved plans for the construction of 455 additional housing units in the West Bank while saying Israel would consider a freeze on building in Palestinian-claimed territories afterward–a political compromise that displeased both Israeli hard-liners and Palestinians. The Obama Administration, which has pressured Israel to halt construction in order to kick-start stalled peace talks, expressed “regret” over the plans. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, meanwhile, dismissed talk of a moratorium, noting that Israel’s decision to continue building “nullifies any effect that a settlement freeze, when and if announced, will have” on the peace process.

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

Number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank

SOURCE: CENTRAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS, STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF ISRAEL

* | What They’re Watching in Sweden: Even more shocking than the content of Dirty Diaries–a collection of 12 short pornographic films that premiered in Stockholm on Sept. 3–is the source of the project’s funding: Swedish taxpayers. Director Mia Engberg received $70,000 from the Swedish Film Institute to depict “sexuality through a female’s perspective”–a revelation that rankled conservative pols and filmgoers alike.