Newsweek World News Headlines

Pakistan's Push to Clear the Waziristans

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:10:32 GMT

Under intense U.S. pressure to drive deeper into the jihadist havens of North and South Waziristan, Pakistan is trying to clear the area its own way. The country's military chiefs dread the losses their troops would suffer against entrenched militants in the tribal badlands, but something has to be done, if only to stop the erosion of public support for the government. While American drone attacks have been effective in killing dozens of militants, many Pakistanis deeply resent the strikes as an affront to Pakistani sovereignty, and they despise their government for allowing them.

The Days Grow Deadlier in Mexico

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:08:36 GMT

Even by the standards of Mexico's drug war, June has been bad. In a single 24-hour span, 85 people were killed, the worst one-day toll in more than a year and a half. In just a week, more than 120 turned up dead. In the northwestern state of Sinaloa—where one victim recently had his face peeled off and stitched to a soccer ball—prisoners at the Mazatlán jail unleashed an attack that left 29 dead. In President Felipe Calderón's home state, Michoacán, suspected members of La Familia gang ambushed federal officers with a machine gun. Twelve more dead, 13 wounded.

Britain Turns a Page on Bloody Sunday

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:06:42 GMT

A sense of finality accompanied the June 15 release of Britain's 10-volume, 5,000-page final report on the events of Jan. 30, 1972. On that day, remembered ever since in Northern Ireland as Bloody Sunday, British paratroopers shot and killed 13 unarmed Catholic civil-rights protesters on the streets of Londonderry. The episode deepened the Troubles, which eventually left more than 3,000 dead. But in a speech that once would have been unthinkable, Prime Minister David Cameron has now said he is "deeply sorry" for the Army's "unjustified and unjustifiable" actions.

China is Starting to Grow Up

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:05:12 GMT

News from China—good or bad—assumes epic proportions in the public consciousness. But don't lose perspective. Take the dramatic stories of recent labor strife: strikes at a Honda components plant and worker suicides at Foxconn have been followed by double-digit pay increases and speculation that wages may rise exponentially in China, threatening the country's—and the world's—prosperity.

Brazil Kicks Back—a Little Too Much

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:03:44 GMT

You don't know what downtime is until you've seen Brazil during the World Cup. Banks close for the games. If the national team makes the playoff round, many schools suspend classes (kindergarten included). And good luck finding an open church on game day. Even the warring drug traffickers on Rio's hillsides will likely call a truce when the ball is rolling—though stray celebratory gunfire can be a hazard if Brazil scores.

Finding a Friendly Face in Russia

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:02:30 GMT

What has come over Vladimir Putin? Not so long ago the Russian leader was raging against the United States for trying to become "the one single master" of the world, blasting NATO for "creeping up to Russia's borders," and commissioning a rewrite of his country's history textbooks to glorify the murderous dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. But lately the prime minister is sounding downright temperate. Instead of excoriating the West, he's pushing U.S. business deals and drawing up a new partnership with the European Union on trade and visa-free travel. In April he publicly denounced the brutality of Stalin's "totalitarian regime." And initially, instead of flexing Russia's regional muscle by sending troops to quell ethnic violence in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, he pushed for a regionwide aid effort.

Zakaria: The Ayatollahs Aren't About to Fall

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 02:58:48 GMT

The regime in Iran isn't about to fall.

China's New Underclass: White-Collar Workers

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 02:53:04 GMT

White-collar workers are china's newest underclass.

My Turn: When the Taliban Took Me Hostage

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 01:48:13 GMT

Since the terror attacks of 2001, no Western reporter has crossed into the tribal areas that line the Pakistan-Afghanistan divide. I thought I could be the one. Now in my 60s, I had spent my adult life working and traveling in the region, catching my first glimpse from the front seat of an old Volkswagen on a cross-country trip through the borderlands in the 1970s. After the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, I hiked into the mountains and lived with the mujahedin as they fought for their independence. I wrote a book about my experiences and, after 9/11, I returned several times on assignment for CBS News.

A Politically Correct War

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:33:02 GMT

Nine years after 9/11, we still don't know how to deal with radical Islam.

Soccer’s Bad Influence on Brazil

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:24:32 GMT

The whole nation grinds to a halt during the most-watched sports event in the world.

Georgia Not on Our Mind

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 01:51:16 GMT

Washington's reset with Moscow has one very clear casualty: Georgia. America insists it still supports the small democracy, but it also says Russia's ongoing occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the two breakaway regions formerly a part of Georgia, "need no longer be considered an obstacle" to inking a nuclear deal with Moscow, which was tabled after the 2008 invasion. NATO, too, is cooling toward Tbilisi. The military alliance hasn't set any concrete membership targets for Georgia yet—a clear signal that NATO is in no hurry to talk about Georgian accession, which Moscow opposes. What's more, the French are close to completing the sale of missile-bearing warships to Russia—which plans to deploy them to defend Abkhazia. The West once saw Georgia as a democratic bulwark in a pivotal region, and lavished it with attention. Now the country seems more like an afterthought.

Bhopal Verdict Reveals Shoddy Indian Justice

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 01:45:53 GMT

More than 25 years after a pesticide plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal spewed a toxic cloud that killed as many as 25,000 people, an Indian court last week finally sentenced seven former executives involved in the disaster. They'll receive two years in prison (pending appeal) and pay fines equivalent to $2,100—the maximum punishment allowed under current law, but one considered so lenient that many in India are demanding far tougher corporate liability laws.

Despite Gulf Leak, World Still Wants Deepwater Oil

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 01:21:46 GMT

With crude still hemorrhaging into the Gulf of Mexico, deep-water drilling might seem taboo just now. In fact, extreme oil will likely be the new normal. Despite the gulf tragedy, the quest for oil and gas in the most difficult places on the planet is just getting underway. Prospecting proceeds apace in the ultra-deepwater reserves off the coasts of Ghana and Nigeria, the sulfur-laden depths of the Black Sea, and the tar sands of Venezuela's Orinoco Basin. Brazil's Petrobras, which already controls a quarter of global deepwater operations, is just starting to plumb its 9 to 15 billion barrels of proven reserves buried some four miles below the Atlantic.

Labor’s Day in China

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 01:15:13 GMT

A wave of suicides at Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturer of Apple's iPhone and iPad, has drawn global attention to the plight of China's workers. And the issue has grown even hotter in recent weeks as thousands of employees at three Honda plants staged walkouts to demand better pay. The unrest is bad PR for the multinationals involved, but it may ultimately be good news for China's ill-paid workers. The Foxconn and Honda incidents suggest that factory employees all over China are getting fed up with bottom-of-the-barrel wages and unpleasant working conditions—and they're learning that assertiveness pays off. Thanks to the country's one-child policy, China is facing a labor shortage, putting workers in a stronger bargaining position; indeed, after the Foxconn and Honda crises, bosses caved, raising wages as much as 100 percent and taking steps to improve shop conditions.

Japan’s Not-So-Prime Minister

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 01:12:24 GMT

What does Naoto Kan really believe? For better or worse, Japan's new prime minister has a reputation as a flip-flopper. Like the way he used to denounce the opposition Liberal Democratic Party for being "America's yes man"—but now suggests he'll do nothing to disturb the U.S.-Japan relationship. Or the way he vowed in 2002 to "substantially reduce" the U.S. Marines' presence on Okinawa, yet when his predecessor agreed to let them stay (he was forced to resign as a result), Kan said he'd honor the deal. Or the way he used to slam Tokyo's powerful bureaucrats as "a bunch of idiots." But when he was sworn in as prime minister last week, he promised to consult their "knowledge and experience."

The New Global Politics of Deficit Reduction

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:48:48 GMT

How politicians worldwide are buying votes by cutting spending.

Britain's BP Problem

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:24:54 GMT

Four thousand miles of ocean won't insulate the U.K. from BP's catastrophic mess in the Gulf of Mexico. The woes of Britain's second-largest company are sure to spill into the country's already faltering economy. Last week Business Secretary Vince Cable warned of "major, indirect effects on the British economy" from the spill, with investors among the principal victims. Last year BP accounted for about 14 percent of all dividends paid out in the U.K., a total of $10 billion. Nearly every leading U.K. pension fund holds BP stock; by some reckonings, 18 million Brits own some type of stake in the company. That's 30 percent of the population, and they can all expect to take a hit.

How Western Supporters Hurt Iran's Green Movement

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:17:44 GMT

By imputing to Green Movement protesters a desire to overthrow Iran's government, their Western supporters did them more harm than good.

Will Israel's Flotilla Probe Be a Whitewash?

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:00:28 GMT

Three ways to gauge whether Israel's flotilla probe will be serious.