The World
North Korea Keeps 'em Guessing
Winston Churchill famously described the Soviet Union as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." With the Soviet Union gone, that distinction can best be applied to Stalinist North Korea. The leadership thinking in Pyongyang is opaque under most circumstances, certainly so as the United States and others try to discern whether North Korea will fulfill its February 13 commitment to shut down its plutonium-producing Yongbyon nuclear reactor. By some South Korean accounts, satellite imagery showed unusual activity involving people and vehicles, which suggests possible shutdown moves. U.S. officials seem doubtful. Added one: "We're puzzled."
That other focus of nuclear concerns, Iran, reportedly now has 1,300 centrifuges running to produce enriched uranium for nuclear reactor fuel-or, potentially, for nuclear weapons. That's up from several hundred running last year but still far below the industrial-scale production Iran envisions for the Natanz complex.
Message to Sudan: We Mean It, Really
After four years of conflict in Darfur and under intense international pressure, the government of Sudan said it will accept a deployment of United Nations peacekeepers to the troubled region, where they would augment a small African Union force. This ounce of progress, however, is largely offset by the substantial deadweight of past broken promises by Khartoum and the dizzying array of rebel groups. For example, a confidential U.N. report last week accused Sudan of violating a U.N. embargo by flying military weaponry into Darfur using airplanes painted white to look like U.N. aircraft.
President Bush, facing domestic pressure by religious groups to crack down on Sudan, said that he would give Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir "a short period of time" to acquiesce to the full deployment of some 20,000 peacekeepers or he would implement tough new economic sanctions (which have been ready to go for several weeks). "The time for promises is over," Bush said. "President Bashir must act." The Darfur conflict has killed at least 200,000 people and displaced as many as 2 million more.
A Constituent With a Grudge and a Gun
While Americans grieved over the shooting deaths of students in Virginia, the Japanese were shocked at the brazen murder of longtime Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito. In a land where handguns are strictly controlled (there were only two shooting deaths last year), Ito was gunned down as he returned from campaigning. The suspect is a local underboss of Japan's largest and most notorious crime syndicate, the 41,000-strong Yamaguchi-gumi. The gangster reportedly had a grudge against the city government after his car got stuck and was damaged on a road under repair. Mobsters accounted for 36 of the 53 gun attacks in Japan last year.
The Greenback Takes a Pounding
The U.S. dollar has been taking a beating from the British pound for several years now. But the pounding hit a new level of intensity last week as sterling punched through the $2 barrier, hitting a 26-year high of $2.0133. Slow U.S. growth coupled with expectations of an interest-rate rise in Britain doomed the greenback, and analysts don't expect a quick rebound. The pound's strength is bad news for British exporters. But U.S. fans of the Mini Cooper needn't worry: BMW says it isn't passing on the extra costs-for now.
Even without taking account of the dollar's decline, London is a very pricey place. "If something costs $100 in the States, it costs 100 pounds here," says Debra Harrington, who moved to London last June.
Planning a visit? Bring your plastic. The average cost of a London hotel room is $243. A burger and fries at the Hard Rock Cafe: $16.90. A family ticket (up to two adults and three kids) for the Tower of London: $90. Tea for two at the Ritz: $144. One bargain: Most museums are free. But avoid their gift shops, where souvenir T-shirts can set you back $26 to $40.
A Piffle of a Scandal Hits Bollywood
Actor Richard Gere, 57, tripped into a cultural chasm with his public grasping embrace and kiss with Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty, 31, which upstaged their intended message during an AIDS awareness event in India. Three lawyers rushed to court with a complaint about the "obscene" public act. It was disturbing enough, apparently, to provoke crowds to burn Gere effigies in several cities. Leaving that controversy behind, Gere, a campaigner for Tibetan rights, headed for a brief visit to Katmandu.
With Kevin Whitelaw, David E. Kaplan, Thomas K. Grose in Britain and Associated Press
This story appears in the April 30, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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