The World
By Aryn Baker, Harriet Barovick, Gilbert Cruz, Kate Pickert, Tiffany Sharples, M.J. Stephey, Claire Suddath, Ishaan Tharoor
1 | Vietnam The Mekong's Fatal Floods More than 160 people have died in northern Vietnam as a result of what is being called the worst flooding in a century. Two weeks of heavy rainfall swelled the Mekong River and its tributaries, causing mudslides and inundating homes and rice paddies throughout Southeast Asia. At certain points of the Mekong--a 2,700-mile (about 4,350 km) waterway that runs from China through Laos, Cambodia and southern Vietnam before reaching the South China Sea--water levels surged as far as 45 ft. (about 14 m) above the river's dry-season lows. Meanwhile, in Burma, which is still recovering from a cyclone that killed at least 84,000 people in May, torrential rains have forced people to flee their homes--particularly residents of the Irrawaddy delta, one of the areas hardest hit by the deadly spring storm.
2 | Vermont Legalize It? College presidents from nearly 100 U.S. universities, including Duke, Tufts and Texas A&M, have signed a petition to lower the national drinking age, saying current laws encourage a culture of clandestine binge-drinking among students younger than 21. Known as the Amethyst Initiative, the coalition plans to run national ads calling for a debate among lawmakers. Members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, however, say lowering the drinking age would only lead to more fatal car accidents.
AMETHYST: from the Greek a- ("not") and methustos ("drunk"); ancient Greeks thought the stone prevented intoxication
3 | Zimbabwe Real Victims in a War of Words Power-sharing talks between President Robert Mugabe and his political rival Morgan Tsvangirai are in danger of breaking down completely almost four weeks after they began, sources inside the negotiations say. Tsvangirai's party has agreed to convene parliament in an attempt to revive Zimbabwe's moribund government but won't allow Mugabe to appoint a Cabinet until an agreement is reached. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands have fled the country to escape the economic crisis. More than 80% of the population is unemployed; 45% is malnourished. The inflation rate topped 11.2 million percent in June--by far the highest in the world.
4 | The Ocean Living with Dead Zones According to a report published in the journal Science, the number of dead zones--areas of the ocean with oxygen levels so low that marine life can barely survive--has doubled every 10 years since the 1960s as a result of a runoff polluted with nitrogen-rich crop fertilizer. There are now more than 400 such zones--from the Gulf of Mexico to the Black Sea (see map above)--which, the report's authors say, pose as great a threat to coastal ecosystems as overfishing and habitat loss.
5 | New York Bailouts: Bad For Business Rather than reassuring stock markets, a government offer to assist U.S. mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae has spooked investors, who fear that a big government loan or purchase of corporate debt could devalue their own shares. Stock prices for both companies fell sharply in August, while Freddie was forced to sell $3 billion in debt at its highest borrowing costs in a decade.
6 | Nepal A Guerrilla Takes Command Prachanda, the mercurial chief of Nepal's Maoists, was sworn in as the country's new Prime Minister on Aug. 18, four months after his former rebel group won a majority in landmark elections that transformed the Himalayan kingdom into a secular republic. Nepal's new leader now faces food and fuel shortages, opposition from the displaced Old Guard and friction with regional separatists.
7 | Georgia DISPATCH BURNING ANGER After a brief pause, fires have started again in the breakaway republic of South Ossetia, as Ossetian villagers burn and pillage homes belonging to ethnic Georgian residents. "They did this because they don't want us to come back," says Iosif Zadashvili, who claims Russian soldiers stood by while Ossetian irregulars beat him in the courtyard of his home. With many villages reduced to burned-out shells, looters were seen hauling off TVs, refrigerators and other household appliances. On the road to the Russian border, graffiti on the side of a building read THANK YOU, RUSSIA! But in Tbilisi, President Mikheil Saakashvili remained defiant. "They are badly dressed, badly equipped, and many of them are drunk," he told Time. "There are just a lot of them."
8 and 9 | Afghanistan Q+A with: President Hamid Karzai
TIME Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, your longtime foe, stepped down Aug. 18. What does this mean for Afghanistan?
KARZAI Arrivals and departures don't matter much--unless we correct the institutions, unless we change the mind-sets that follow an old policy.
TIME One reason the Taliban is gaining ground is because people are rapidly losing faith in your government.
KARZAI I don't think the Afghan people would prefer the Taliban to the current government. They have reduced faith in the government, yes, definitely ... [But] the Taliban will never be, in the eyes of the Afghan people, an alternative.
TIME You are expected to run for a second term in office in 2009.
KARZAI I have a job to complete.
TIME Why do you think you are the best person to complete this job?
KARZAI I hope there is someone who can do a better job than me ... One of my duties for Afghanistan is to find the next leadership of this country.
Deadly Strike
A Taliban ambush on Aug. 18 killed 10 French soldiers and wounded 21. It was one of the deadliest attacks on non-American troops in Afghanistan since 2001, prompting French President Nicolas Sarkozy to travel to Kabul in an effort to reassure his country's forces. On Aug. 19, a group of suicide bombers tried to storm a U.S. military base near the Pakistan border. Several blew themselves up, but the base's security was not breached.
10 | Washington Live Fast, Die Young(er) Though car-accident fatalities are declining, the number of Americans killed on motorcycles has risen dramatically. Strong sales, boosted by the bikes' fuel efficiency and baby boomers' desire to relive their two-wheeled glory days, have increased the number of motorcycles on the road. Meanwhile, just 20 states now require helmets, compared with 47 in 1975.
[1 star] | What They're Drinking In Italy: Italy's agriculture ministry has announced it will allow wines produced under its DOC (denominazione di origine controllata) quality-assurance label to be sold in boxes, in response to requests from DOC winemakers in the Trentino-Alto Adige region. Vintners note that boxes are cheaper and more eco-friendly than glass and can keep wine fresh longer. But while boxed wine may be losing its lowbrow stigma, hold on to that corkscrew: wines with the tonier DOCG (denominazione di origine controllata e garantita) designation are still bottle-only.
With reporting by John Wendle/Tskhinvali, Andrew Purvis/Tbilisi