In the West he was mocked for his bouffant, his pudgy belly and his platform shoes. Former U.S. President George W. Bush called him a pygmy. He was even parodied in the parody movie Team America: World Police as a dictator who …
After Kim Jong Il: A Look at the Kim Family Tree
The heavy-jowled Kim Jong Un looks poised to succeed his father. But he was not always the most likely: TIME looks at those in the Kim clan who may have had (or still possess) designs on the Hermit Kingdom’s top job.
Kim’s Death: Jitters in Northeast Asia
On Monday afternoon, a black-clad newscaster in Pyongyang, sitting in front of a bucolic backdrop of pine trees and snow-capped mountains, was barely able to get out the news. North Korea’s long-time leader Kim Jong Il, she …
Story Problem: Gingrich’s “Dead Jews” Textbook Example Doesn’t Exist
It made for dramatic television, Newt Gingrich’s screed against the Palestinians. Defending his earlier assertion that they are “an invented people,” the former House speaker kicked things up at notch at a Dec. 10 debate in Des …
Japan Says the Worst Is Over, but Fukushima Faces Long Road to Recovery
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced in a televised address on Friday that the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant has officially reached a state of ‘cold shutdown,’ bringing the most urgent phase of the world’s …
Swept Away: Flash Floods Ravage Unprepared Philippines
The water came at night, sending waves racing through sleeping cities, sweeping entire villages out to sea. On Saturday, flash flooding on the island of Mindanao, displaced tens of thousands and killed at least 650 people. The …
The French on a Credit Downgrade Threat: Pick on Britain
Tis the season—for painful downgrades by credit agencies that is, as Thursday’s move by Fitch targeting six of the world’s largest banks again shows. And indeed, because such action is now so common, the big question …
Russia’s Dissidents: Opposition Figures Speak Out Against Putin
Recent protests in Russia underscored growing popular dissatisfaction in a country dominated for the past decade by the quasi-authoritarian rule of President (now Prime Minister) Vladimir Putin. TIME presents portraits of …
Christian Bale Roughed Up in Failed Attempt to Visit Blind Chinese Activist
While in China this week on a publicity tour for the new film “Flowers of War,” Academy Award-winning actor Christian Bale attempted to visit Chen Guangcheng, the blind legal activist who is under house arrest with his family. Bale, who visited with a CNN crew, was punched and eventually turned away by plainclothes security guards. …
Ten Grim Lessons Learned From the Iraq War
Despite the upbeat talk of the Obama Administration, the eight-year war that ended this week has done plenty of long-term damage to both Iraq and the United States. And it has bequeathed lessons worth considering ahead of future conflicts
Forty Years After Its Bloody Independence, Bangladesh Looks to Its Past to Redeem Its Future
Forty years ago on Dec. 16, in front of massed throngs in Dhaka, the commander of the eastern wing of the Pakistani army tendered his country’s unconditional surrender to an Indian counterpart. That act signaled the end of a …
A Dam Shame: What a Stalled Hydropower Project Says About Failures in Afghanistan
To be filed under: You have got to be kidding me.
One of US Aid’s biggest projects in Afghanistan, the $128 million rehabilitation of a key hydroelectric power plant launched in 2002, might never reach its potential wattage. …
Former French President Jacques Chirac Convicted on Corruption Charges
[Update: In contrast to what had been the prevailing assumption in France following the verdict in Jacques Chirac’s corruption trial (all detailed below), the former French President announced Thursday night he would not seek …