Facing imminent impeachment charges, President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation on Monday, after months of belated recognition by American officials that he had become a waning asset in the campaign against terrorism.

The decision removes from Pakistan's political stage the leader who for nearly nine years served as one of the United States' most important — and ultimately unreliable — allies. And it now leaves American officials to deal with a new, elected coalition that has so far proven itself to be unwilling or incapable of confronting an expanding Taliban insurgency determined to topple the government.

"Whether I win or lose the impeachment, the nation will lose," Mr. Musharraf said, explaining his decision in an emotional televised speech lasting more than an hour. He will stay in Pakistan and will not be put on trial, government officials said. The question of who will succeed Mr. Musharraf is certain to unleash intense wrangling between the rival political parties that form the governing coalition and to add a new layer of turbulence to an already unstable nuclear-armed nation of 165 million people.

"We've said for years that Musharraf is our best bet, and my fear is that we are about to discover how true that was," one senior Bush administration official said, acknowledging that the United States had stuck with Mr. Musharraf for too long and developed few other relationships in Pakistan to fall back on.

Tom Foreman: Even if we consider that though, what do we make of moves like this talk about the missile shield in Poland? Certainly the Russians say that is a direct slap at them over this problem in Georgia. Is it, to your read and is it a smart move?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well no, it's not a direct slap at them, and it's something that's been on the books for a long, long time. We've talked about this for a decade, and they've been consulted on it. They've met with it. They know what the capabilities of the system are. This is just an example of Russian rhetoric aimed at intimidating Europe. It doesn't intimidate the United States. But the United States' reaction then can either bring Europe together with the United States or we can chill the relations with Europe. So, we want to be careful. This, this is not something that the Russians have a right to respond on, and their response is unjustified. But on the other hand, we want to make sure our European allies all see it our way.

Tom Foreman: How do you read Putin's intentions right now when you look at Georgia and you look at his response to the rest of the Western world over issues like Iraq and Iran and oil supplies and everything?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Putin believes in re-establishing Russia's power. He wants Russia to be an important factor in every issue in the world. He'd like to regain the empire that Russia lost with the breakup of the Soviet Union. He'd love to see the reintegration of Ukraine. Belarus wants to be reintegrated. The Russians've put that on hold, because it's such a basket case. But with Ukraine and Belarus together, then the absorption of some of these other countries, he believes, that are on the periphery could happen, and Russia would once again be a, a much great- it'd be a superpower - unlike what it is today except through the nuclear capacity of course. And so, Georgia, in Putin's mind is probably the first step. They've long prepared Ossetia, South Ossetia and, and Abkhazia along with other areas on the periphery of Russia as, as, a-as grips into the near, what they call 'the near abroad'. This is a strategic crisis. It's been building for a long time. It just broke out into the open now, but we've seen its roots back more than a decade.

The president, speaking at the White House with Ms. Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, criticized Russia and called on it to "keep its word and act to end this crisis." Mr. Bush said that a transport plane with medical supplies was already on its way to Georgia, and that American air and naval forces would carry out the aid mission. And he said pointedly that Russia must not interfere with aid arriving in Georgia by air, land or water.

But while Mr. Bush said the United States "stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia and insists that its sovereignty and territorial integrity be respected," his remarks contained no hint of an American military role in Georgia, other than providing humanitarian assistance. However, minutes after Mr. Bush's comments, President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia characterized the import of the American aid as "definitely an American military presence" and called it a "turning point."

In a telephone interview, he said of Mr. Bush's statement: "We were unhappy with the initial actions of the American officials, because they were perceived by the Russians as green lines basically. But this one was very strong." "What I expected specifically from America was to secure our airport and to secure our seaports," he went on, concluding that the American presence would do so. "The main thing now is that the Georgian Tbilisi airport will be permanently under control."

TIME's Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world-for better or for worse. It is ultimately about leadership-bold, earth-changing leadership.

Putin is not a boy scout. He is not a democrat in any way that the West would define it. He is not a paragon of free speech. He stands, above all, for stability-stability before freedom, stability before choice, stability in a country that has hardly seen it for a hundred years. Whether he becomes more like the man for whom his grandfather prepared blinis -- who himself was twice TIME's Person of the Year-or like Peter the Great, the historical figure he most admires; whether he proves to be a reformer or an autocrat who takes Russia back to an era of repression-this we will know only over the next decade. At significant cost to the principles and ideas that free nations prize, he has performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it and brought Russia back to the table of world power. For that reason, Vladimir Putin is TIME's 2007 Person of the Year.

Boris Yeltsin's family has frowned upon a design for an unofficial monument to the late Russian leader dubbed the "biomorphic black monster". In a letter carried by Russian media, Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana said the family would object to the erection of the black metal memorial. Sculptor Dmitri Kavargi's design topped an internet poll conducted by art4.ru, an avant-garde modern art museum.

The museum is said to be seeking permission to install it in Moscow. Yeltsin, who played a key role in the Soviet Union's demise and became Russia's first president, died of heart failure aged 76 on 23 April.

"This is a monument to the destruction and disintegration... without which new creation is absolutely impossible. "It is customary to record in the memory the formation or destruction of the latest illusion with the leader's name. Boris Yeltsin accomplished his role with distinction..." Museum director Igor Markin, who used the term "biomorphic black monster", said the design was the most radical of those submitted. The Yeltsin family, his daughter Tatyana Yumasheva stressed, had no involvement in the competition. "We would object if the issue were raised of erecting a monument like this anywhere," she wrote in excerpts from her letter published by Russian news agency Ria-Novosti. The museum is believed to be seeking permission from Moscow's city authorities to erect the memorial on Lubyanka Square, home of Russia's secret police since Soviet times.

A surveillance camera caught a group entering the museum, located on the Left Bank of the French capital along the Seine River and housing a major collection of Impressionist artists like Monet. An alarm sounded and the group left, but not before damaging the painting, an aide to Culture Minister Christine Albanel said by telephone. No arrests were immediately made.

Albanel told France-Info radio that the painting could be restored, but she deplored what she said was an attack on "our memory, our heritage." "This splendid Monet painting (was) punched right in the middle," the minister said with emotion. According to the aide, a 10-centimetre tear was made in the Monet, perhaps with a fist. The official, not authorized to speak publicly of the matter, asked not to be named.

*****

The break-in occurred as Paris held its annual all-night festival, which brings thousands of people into the streets for music, exhibits and fun.

Savvy young bloggers in Burma are breaking through the military junta's tight internet controls to post photos and videos of swelling anti-government protests. The government blocks almost every website that carries news or information about the South-East Asian country, and even bars access to web-based email. But an army of young techies in Rangoon works around the clock to circumvent the censors, posting pictures and videos on blogs almost as soon as the protests happen. Many of these images have been picked up by mainstream news organisations because bloggers have managed to capture images that no one else can get.

Aung Zaw, editor of Irrawaddy, a news magazine for expatriate Burmese living in Thailand told The Age bloggers and underground journalists in Burma were risking arrest in communicating with the outside world. He said Irrawaddy had several reporters in Burma who used the internet, email and mobile phones to send stories and images to their colleagues in Thailand. "It's a huge risk," he said. "We cannot identify them and (must be) extremely cautious because they could be imprisoned for sending information to us." Aung Zaw said a friend had been imprisoned for seven years in the mid-1990s after posting a letter that was opened by the military.

He said images and information for Irrawaddy about the current protests were also being gathered from blogs posted by people inside Burma. One prolific blogger, Moezack, whose photos and words about the protests were used extensively by the international media, has slipped back into the darkness after his blog, http://moezack.blogspot.com, went blank last week.

The president of Iran opened his remarks by objecting to the scolding he got from Columbia University's president.

After sitting through the blistering introduction by Lee Bollinger - in which he was lambasted for calling for the annihilation of Israel, denying the Holocaust and supporting the execution of children - Ahmadinejad said it was insulting to be spoken about that way.

"At the outset, I want to complain a bit about the person who read this political statement made against me," Ahmadinejad said. "In Iran, we don't think it's necessary to come in before the speech has already begun with a series of complaints ... It was an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here."

In his scathing introduction to the much-anticipated on-campus event, Bollinger told the leader of Iran that he resembled "a petty and cruel dictator."

Bollinger levied repeated criticisms against Ahmadinejad, calling on him to answer a series of challenges about his leadership, blasting his views about the "myth" of the Holocaust "absurd" and saying that he doubted he "will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions."

"Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," Bollinger said, to loud applause.

He said Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust might fool the illiterate and ignorant.

"When you come to a place like this it makes you simply ridiculous," Bollinger said. "The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history."

Ahmadinejad rose, also to applause, and after a religious invocation, said Bollinger's opening was full of "insults and claims that were incorrect, regretfully."

*****

On the Holocaust - which the Iranian leader has called a "myth" - he said that "if the Holocaust is a reality, why don't we let more research be done on it? ... Where did the Holocaust happen to begin with? It happened in Europe, and given that, why is it that the Palestinian people should be displaced? Why should they give up their land?"

And the Iranian leader denied that homosexuality exists in his country when asked to explain the execution of homosexuals in Iran.

"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country," he said, to laughter and boos from the audience. 'In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have this."

Right now, Mattel is facing a crisis of monumental proportions for both its brand and its bottom line. The costs of the recalls still have to be calculated and will probably extend out for many years, particularly from lawsuits that will linger on. Of more immediate concern is the coming Christmas holiday and convincing consumers that its products are safe.

Mattel isn't alone in the recall category, as rivals Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) and RC2 (Nasdaq: RCRC) have also initiated recalls. And many other companies outside the retail world are being negatively affected from China's tainted goods. Yet the size of Mattel's recalls and the fact that they continue to crop up every few weeks are a concern.

Problems with Chinese-made goods first appeared with the recall of Thomas the Tank Engine products made by RC2. Parents were initially outraged, and probably promised to swear off any tainted brand indefinitely. But as the list of recalled products grew, even to include well-known products such as Barbie and Disney's "Cars" line of toys, alternatives are shrinking. Mattel and its Fisher-Price division are considered particularly vulnerable, after recalling millions of toys because of lead paint concerns or pieces of toys that might be hazardous to children. Hasbro (NYSE: HAS), too, had to recall its popular Easy-Bake Ovens because of injury concerns.

Disney licenses its characters to some 2,000 companies, and it says it will test the 65,000 toys already on the shelves at a cost of several million dollars. In future, when the cost will run the company several million dollars annually, Disney intends to pass along those fees to toymakers in contract negotiations.

With the critical holiday period coming up fast, companies are working hard to reassure parents that its toys are safe to buy. Viacom's Nickelodeon announced in July it was adopting similar independent testing procedures in the wake of the Thomas & Friends recall. And retailers like Wal-Mart are also hiring independent laboratories to check the toys they sell.

That said, what is a reader to make of a Vuitton ad, coming in the big September books, that stars Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union? A decade ago, Mr. Gorbachev's appearance in a Pizza Hut commercial was generally greeted as a low point in his career.

The Vuitton ad, however, is part of a campaign to emphasize the company's heritage in luggage and travel accessories. Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, the ads include other celebrities using Vuitton bags: Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf cuddling in a hotel room, their bags not yet unpacked; Catherine Deneuve resting on a trunk in front of a steaming locomotive; and Mr. Gorbachev in the back of a car with a duffel bag on the seat next to him. Of the group, Mr. Gorbachev appears the least comfortable. He is holding on to a door handle, as if the bag contained polonium 210.

It seems unlikely he will be approached by L'Oreal.

The United States is continuing to make large payments of roughly $1 billion a year to Pakistan for what it calls reimbursements to the country's military for conducting counterterrorism efforts along the border with Afghanistan, even though Pakistan's president decided eight months ago to slash patrols through the area where Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are most active.

The monthly payments, called coalition support funds, are not widely advertised. Buried in public budget numbers, the payments are intended to reimburse Pakistan's military for the cost of the operations. So far, Pakistan has received more than $5.6 billion under the program over five years, more than half of the total aid the United States has sent to the country since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, not counting covert funds.

Some American military officials in the region have recommended that the money be tied to Pakistan's performance in pursuing Al Qaeda and keeping the Taliban from gaining a haven from which to attack the government of Afghanistan. American officials have been surprised by the speed at which both organizations have gained strength in the past year.

But Bush administration officials say no such plan is being considered, despite new evidence that the Pakistani military is often looking the other way when Taliban fighters retreat across the border into Pakistan, ignoring calls from American spotters to intercept them. There is also at least one American report that Pakistani security forces have fired in support of Taliban fighters attacking Afghan posts.

*****

The White House would not directly answer the question of why Pakistan is being paid the same very large amount after publicly declaring that it is significantly cutting back on its patrols in the most important border area. But Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, emphasized Pakistan's strategic importance in the region.

The contents of the panel's findings were not made public. People who are familiar with the panel's report said that it reviewed extensive documents and testimony before concluding that Mr. Wolfowitz breached his obligations in arranging for Ms. Riza's reassignment from the bank to the State Department.

The report, as transmitted to Mr. Wolfowitz, did not recommend a punishment for Mr. Wolfowitz. Bank officials, speaking anonymously because the proceedings are supposed to be confidential, said that the special committee was still working today on what to recommend. It was not clear whether the committee, consisting of 7 of the bank's 24 board members, would remove Mr. Wolfowitz from his post or, more likely, express a loss of confidence in his leadership in a manner that might persuade him to resign. Bank officials say that a majority of the bank board has concluded that he should go.

In another sign of Mr. Wolfowitz's difficulties, his top communications aide, Kevin Kellems, resigned today, saying that "the current environment surrounding the leadership" at the bank made it "very difficult to be effective in helping to advance the mission of the institution." Mr. Kellems said in a written statement that he had "tremendous respect and admiration" for the bank's staff. He made no mention of Mr. Wolfowitz, with whom he had a close association when the bank president was deputy secretary of defense. European officials at the bank said that if Mr. Wolfowitz resigns, either now or some time in the future, Europeans may be willing to let the United States continue to exercise its customary prerogative of choosing the next bank president.

Paul D. Wolfowitz's struggle to remain as president of the World Bank was dealt a crippling setback on Sunday when its most powerful oversight committee delivered an unusually public rebuke of his leadership, expressing "great concern" about the institution's future and the need to preserve its credibility and staff morale.

*****

The extraordinary exchange between Mr. Wolfowitz and the oversight committee, which consists of 47 of the world's finance ministers and leaders of other international organizations, deepened the uncertainty over Mr. Wolfowitz. His future had earlier been thrown into doubt by the disclosure that he played a direct role in granting a pay raise and promotion to a female companion when she was transferred in 2005.

Bank and finance officials said they could not recall any time in the history of the bank when there was such an open and rancorous rift between its president and the people who are supposed to run the institution in cooperation with him. The events of the day, in which top officials took time out from discussing issues like poverty and development strategies, set up a clear impasse between Mr. Wolfowitz and the leadership of the bank, as represented by what seemed to be most of the world’s finance ministers and most of the members of a separate 24-member executive board that governs its day-to-day affairs.

The rebuke of Mr. Wolfowitz came in the form of bureaucratic language in a series of sentences in the board's communiqué that asserted "the current situation is of great concern to all of us," an unusually blunt statement for a circumspect institution. "We have to ensure that the bank can effectively carry out its mandate and maintain its credibility and reputation as well as the motivation of its staff," the committee said. "We expect the bank to adhere to a high standard of internal governance." Though the language was indirect, the message it sent was unmistakable, according to officials who have been meeting in Washington the last few days. "Words like 'concerned,' 'credibility' and 'reputation' are pretty unprecedented for a communiqué from a place like the World Bank," said an official involved in the drafting of the statement.

At issue in these statements was a crisis arising from Mr. Wolfowitz's involvement in decisions to transfer his companion, Shaha Ali Riza, to a new job and give her a raise. Officially, Mr. Wolfowitz and the bank are now to wait for a full report by the bank's board on his leadership and charges of favoritism in dealing with Ms. Riza, who was employed at the bank until 2005. But bank officials said that in delaying a finding, the board seemed to be buying time for Mr. Wolfowitz to consider resigning.

North Korea now faces the threat of U.N. sanctions which, diplomats said, are tailored after existing sanctions imposed by the United States. A draft resolution attempts to target the country's weapons and illicit drug trade to punish Kim's regime and not civilians, Bolton said. North Korea's people often go hungry, with the government unable to provide for basic needs after decades of economic mismanagement. (Watch what life is like at the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas -- 2:06 )

"Our aim in the sanctions we proposed is precisely not to do anything to worsen the terrible condition of the people who have suffered under this regime," Bolton said. "Our draft resolution, in fact, carves out explicit exemptions for humanitarian supplies. To the extent that we are able to, we will try to keep that flowing to the North Korean people who need it." Japan has tacked on additional sanctions to the draft resolution. How stiff possible sanctions would be in the end is unclear. Although they joined other nations in condemning Monday's test, the ambassadors of veto-wielding Security Council members Russia and China -- who have opposed sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program -- have been vague on whether they would also oppose such a move against North Korea.

But on Tuesday, Wang Guangya, China's ambassador to the United Nations, signaled that his country may be willing to support limited sanctions. "There has to be some punitive actions, but also I think these actions have to be appropriate, so we will discuss with others," he said. Asked what measures China would support, he said, "It is punitive. I think that implies something." Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov indicated there was some difference between his country's approach to Iran and its dealings with North Korea.

"What's the difference between the situation in North Korea and Iran? In my opinion -- according to all information available -- Iran doesn't have a nuclear device, not even any enriched uranium or plutonium, while North Korea does," Ivanov said. "That's the primary difference between the two countries, and I hope you agree with me that it's substantial, very substantial." Pak Kil Yon, North Korean ambassador to the United Nations, scoffed at the idea of sanctions Tuesday. "Sanctions will not solve the problem at all," he said.

"The devil came here yesterday," Chavez said, referring to Bush, who addressed the world body during its annual meeting Tuesday. "And it smells of sulfur still today." Chavez accused Bush of having spoken "as if he owned the world" and said a psychiatrist could be called to analyze the statement.

"As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world. An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: 'The Devil's Recipe.' " Chavez held up a book by Noam Chomsky on imperialism and said it encapsulated his arguments: "The American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its hegemonistic system of domination, and we cannot allow him to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated."

Chavez also blasted the United Nations, calling the General Assembly "merely a deliberative organ" that meets once a year. "We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world," he said. Chavez called the veto power shared by the five permanent members of the Security Council "anti-democratic," and cited the U.S. veto of a resolution that would have demanded the Israelis halt their bombing of Lebanon this summer.

That move "allowed the Israelis with impunity to destroy Lebanon in front of us all as we stood there watching," Chavez said. He recommended that the world body's headquarters be moved to another country and offered Venezuela as a possible new home. He noted that he recently returned from a summit of more than 50 heads of state from nonaligned nations in Havana, Cuba, and urged his audience to support their efforts for "a world of peace."

At a news conference after the speech, he further lambasted the United States and U.N., saying of the latter, "There is no way to save it." The U.N. was founded in an era of two superpowers, he said. "The Soviet Union collapsed. The United States empire is on the way down and it will be finished in the near future, for the good of all mankind." He also said the U.S. government was the "first enemy" of its people. "Their freedoms are restricted through the Patriot Act. They are sent to die in Iraq for no reason. The people of the United States are being deceived," he said.

Pakistan has begun building what independent analysts say is a powerful new reactor for producing plutonium, a move that, if verified, would signal a major expansion of the country's nuclear weapons capabilities and a potential new escalation in the region's arms race. Satellite photos of Pakistan's Khushab nuclear site show what appears to be a partially completed heavy-water reactor capable of producing enough plutonium for 40 to 50 nuclear weapons a year, a 20-fold increase from Pakistan's current capabilities, according to a technical assessment by Washington-based nuclear experts.

The construction site is adjacent to Pakistan's only plutonium production reactor, a modest, 50-megawatt unit that began operating in 1998. By contrast, the dimensions of the new reactor suggest a capacity of 1,000 megawatts or more, according to the analysis by the Institute for Science and International Security. Pakistan is believed to have 30 to 50 uranium warheads, which tend to be heavier and more difficult than plutonium warheads to mount on missiles.

"South Asia may be heading for a nuclear arms race that could lead to arsenals growing into the hundreds of nuclear weapons, or at minimum, vastly expanded stockpiles of military fissile material," the institute's David Albright and Paul Brannan concluded in the technical assessment, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post.

The assessment's key judgments were endorsed by two other independent nuclear experts who reviewed the commercially available satellite images, provided by Digital Globe, and supporting data. In Pakistan, officials would not confirm or deny the report, but a senior Pakistani official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that a nuclear expansion was underway. "Pakistan's nuclear program has matured. We're now consolidating the program with further expansions," the official said. The expanded program includes "some civilian nuclear power and some military components," he said.

Japan was badly rattled by North Korea's missile tests last week and several government officials openly discussed whether the country ought to take steps to better defend itself, including setting up the legal framework to allow Tokyo to launch a pre-emptive strike against Northern missile sites.

"If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack ... there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense. We need to deepen discussion," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.

Japan's constitution currently bars the use of military force in settling international disputes and prohibits Japan from maintaining a military for warfare. Tokyo has interpreted that to mean it can have armed troops to protect itself, allowing the existence of its 240,000-strong Self-Defense Forces.

A Defense Agency spokeswoman, however, said Japan has no attacking weapons such as ballistic missiles that could reach North Korea. Its forces only have ground-to-air missiles and ground-to-vessel missiles, she said on condition of anonymity due to official policy.

Mexican President Vicente Fox refused to sign a drug decriminalization bill Wednesday, hours after U.S. officials warned the plan could encourage "drug tourism." Fox sent the measure back to Congress for changes, but his office did not mention the U.S. criticism. Fox will ask "Congress to make the needed corrections to make it absolutely clear in our country, the possession of drugs and their consumption are, and will continue to be, a criminal offense," according to a statement from the president's office.

On Tuesday, Fox's spokesman had called the bill "an advance" and pledged the president would sign it. But the measure, passed Friday by Congress, drew a storm of criticism because it eliminates criminal penalties possession of small amounts of heroin, methamphetamines and PCP, as well as marijuana and cocaine. Earlier in the day, the U.S. government expressed a rare public objection to an internal Mexican political development, saying anyone caught with illegal drugs in Mexico should be prosecuted or given mandatory drug treatment.

"U.S. officials ... urged Mexican representatives to review the legislation urgently, to avoid the perception that drug use would be tolerated in Mexico, and to prevent drug tourism," U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Judith Bryan said. There are concerns the measure could increase drug use by border visitors and U.S. students who flock to Mexico on vacation. Bryan said the U.S. government wants Mexico "to ensure that all persons found in possession of any quantity of illegal drugs be prosecuted or be sent into mandatory drug treatment programs."

Jerry Saunders, mayor of San Diego — just a short drive from the border town of Tijuana, Mexico — applauded Fox's decision, saying he was "appalled" by the bill because it could increase drug availability north of the border. "We have been a partner with Mexico in fighting against illegal drugs, and this will only help in the long-term in that relationship," he said. The legislature has adjourned for the summer, and when it comes back, it will have an entirely new lower house and one-third new Senate members following the July 2 elections, which will also make the outgoing Fox a lame duck.

[T]he per-person amounts approved for possession by anyone 18 or older could easily turn any college party into an all-nighter: half a gram of coke, a couple of Ecstasy pills, several doses of LSD, a few marijuana joints, a spoonful of heroin, 5 grams of opium and more than 2 pounds of peyote, the hallucinogenic cactus. The law would be among the most permissive in the world, putting Mexico in the company of the Netherlands. Critics, including U.S. drug policy officials, already are worrying that it will spur a domestic addiction problem and make Mexico a narco-tourism destination. Even the Netherlands, famous for coffeehouses that sell small quantities of potent marijuana and hashish, forbids the possession and sale of narcotics. Colombia allows personal use of marijuana, cocaine and heroin, but not LSD or PCP.

Selling drugs or using them in public still would be a crime in Mexico. Anyone possessing drugs still could be held for questioning by police, and each state could impose fines even on the permitted quantities, the bill stipulates. But it includes no imprisonment penalties. Lawmakers who voted for decriminalization, some of whom have expressed surprise over the details of the bill, said it would for the first time empower local police to make drug arrests and allow law enforcement in general to focus on intercepting large drug shipments and major traffickers. The bill also would stiffen penalties for selling drugs near schools and authorize state and local police to detain users to check whether amounts were over the legal limit.

"The law constitutes an important step forward by the Mexican state in its battle against drug dealing," said Eduardo Medina Mora, secretary of public security and Mexico's top law enforcement officer. Presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said Tuesday that Fox would sign the measure, calling it an important tool in the fight against drug trafficking. Fox has avoided public comments on the bill and did not attend a news conference about it Tuesday.

Since the vote by Congress last week, lawmakers have said they are unsure who amended the bill, originally aimed at legalizing possession of small quantities of drugs among addicts, to make it apply to all "consumers." The Bush administration is refraining from public criticism of Mexico. But in private meetings Monday with Mexican officials in Washington, U.S. officials tried to discourage passage of the law, U.S. Embassy officials here said.

"Because of the strong relationship between the United Arab Emirates and the United States and to preserve that relationship ... DP World will transfer fully the U.S. operations of P&O Operations North America to a United States entity," Edward H. Bilkey, DP World's chief operating officer, said in a statement. The announcement did not specify which U.S. company would be involved.

*****

A source involved in talks between the White House, Congress and DP World said the exact meaning of the UAE firm's statement is unclear, in part because the details of the transaction have not been worked out. "The next steps are very hard to predict at this point, either in terms of who they'll actually sell to and in terms of what it means for U.S. relations in the region," the source said. A source told CNN that the White House believes DP World's American assets would be sold to a U.S. firm.

*****

Because of sparse information about the transaction, Senate Democrats reacted cautiously to the company's announcement and continued to press for a Senate vote that would kill the deal.

"If the U.S. operations are fully independent in every way, that could, indeed, be promising," said Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. "If, on the other hand, there is still ultimate control exercised by DP World, I don't think our goals would be accomplished, and obviously, we'll need to study this agreement carefully."

Elected officials from New York and New Jersey are vowing to block a controversial plan that many say places our ports at risk. The Bush Administration is allowing an Arab company to assume control of several major ports including several in this area.

Governor Pataki wants the Port Authority to explore the state's legal options as the federal government goes ahead with plans to let a Saudi Arabian based company take over six major U.S. ports, including one in New York and one in New Jersey.

Senator Charles Schumer and Long Island Congressman Peter King are expected to announce emergency legislation to try and put a stop to this. Critics do point out that two of "9/11" hijackers did come from the United Arab Emirates. Rep. Peter King, (R) New York: "I'm confident, certainly very hopeful that if we speak loudly enough and really focus on this issue, we can get the contract delayed, get it frozen, get it held."

The port deal is said to be worth seven billion dollars.

• The Pakistan Medical Association is now refusing to prescribe any drugs from firms based in European countries where the Mohammed cartoons were published. The Association will boycott drugs from from Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Germany and France to protest the "blasphemous" drawings. That means no Tamiflu for Pakistanis -- Tamiflu is made by Roche in Switzerland. Roche also manufactures the breast cancer drug Herceptin, the HIV drugs Fortovase and Invirase, the Cystic Fybrosis drug Pulmozyme and the acne drug Accutane -- just to name a few. Hey, what a great idea -- make sure your own people don't get their cancer drugs just to spite a bunch of Danish cartoonists.
• In India riots broke out over the cartoons. The riot police used tear gas and water cannons to quell the protest -- four students were injured.
• Four are dead in Kabul where 2,000 armed protesters tried to break into a U.S. army base outside Bagram, the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan. They must not have gotten the sniveling memo from the U.S. State Department condemning the cartoons.
• British Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed has declared that the Danish cartoonists should be tried under Islamic law and then (after it's proven that they committed the crime of blasphemy) they should be executed. He noted with dismay that this did not appear to be legal under British law. Bummer.
• Meanwhile, American Muslims peacefully protested against the Philadelphia Inquirer for reprinting the cartoons; they also have threatened a boycott of the newspaper if the newspaper does not apologize. The demonstrators carried signs that said, "Freedom of Speech, Not Irresponsible Speech," "No to Hate" and "Islam=Nonviolence." Not a death threat or burning effigy in sight so far, just civilized, non-violent protests -- the way citizens of enlightened nations tend to do.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will press U.S. allies today in London to deprive the incoming Hamas-led Palestinian government of financial support unless it abandons terrorism and accepts the existence of Israel.

The U.S., reacting to the setback to its Middle East policy posed by the surprise victory of Hamas in parliamentary elections Jan. 25, is seeking to build a consensus on withholding aid. European Union foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels today, said Hamas deserves time to embrace peace before a decision is made to cut off money.

"The United States is not prepared to fund an organization that advocates the destruction of Israel, that advocates violence," Rice said while traveling to London. Rice, who arrived late yesterday in the U.K., today plans to review the Palestinian elections with representatives of the United Nations, European Union and Russia. That group, known as the Quartet, has been working on negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis intended to lead to a peace agreement.

"We are looking to Hamas to renounce violence," U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said as he arrived for the EU meeting in Brussels. European governments "have an opportunity to pause and to think about" putting conditions on EU financial support. Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said that "we still have three or four weeks to make up our minds."

As China's manufacturing industries flood the world with cheap goods, the Chinese central bank has invested roughly three-fourths of its growing foreign currency reserves in U.S. Treasury bills and other dollar-denominated assets. The new policy reflects China's fears that too much of its savings is tied up in the dollar, a currency widely expected to drop in value as the U.S. trade and fiscal deficits climb.

China now boasts the world's second-largest cache of foreign exchange -- behind only Japan -- and is on pace to see its reserves climb past $1 trillion later this year. Even a slight diminishing of the dollar as a percentage of those holdings could exert significant pressure on the U.S. currency, many economists assert.

In recent years, the value of the dollar has been buoyed by major purchases of U.S. Treasury bills by Japan, China and oil-exporting countries -- a flow of capital that has kept interests rates relatively low in the United States and allowed Americans to keep spending even as debts mount. Some economists have long warned that if foreigners lose their appetite for American debt, the dollar would fall, interest rates would rise and the housing boom could burst, sending real estate prices lower.

The comments of the Chinese senior economist, made on the condition of anonymity because the government disciplines those who speak to the press without express authorization, confirmed an analysis in Monday's Shanghai Securities News stating that China is inclined to shift some its savings into other currencies such as the euro and the yen, or into major purchases of commodities such as oil for a long-discussed strategic energy reserve.

Both men came to Britain as so many immigrants do, fleeing something else. The circumstances of their arrival, as well as the disclosures that both received social security benefits and state housing, incensed critics of a government asylum policy that, many say, has allowed anti-Western extremists to proliferate in Britain.

"Welcomed here as the dependents of asylum seekers, educated in our schools, taking full advantage of all the benefits this country so generously offers - now they want to destroy us," The Daily Mail, which has long fulminated against what it calls a too-generous asylum system, said in an editorial on Wednesday.

"Could there be a more chilling snapshot of the madness of a system implemented by successive governments that has left this country at the hands of murderous fanatics?" the editorial said.

While Rice and el-Bashir were meeting, journalists were taken inside in groups to see the meeting for a photo opportunity. At first, only Sudanese journalists, not those from the United States, were allowed in. Later, U.S. journalists were allowed access in two separate groups. In the first group, authorities pulled one journalist's microphone out of her tape recorder.

Afterward, Sudanese officials came and apologized to the media. But when a journalist in the second group attempted to ask a question, she was pulled away and authorities intended to kick her out. CNN's Andrea Koppel said journalists and Rice's staff members were "pushed and pulled" in attempts to keep them out of the meeting. One of Rice's aides eventually said, "We have a free press in the U.S.," and a Sudanese official responded, "Well, we don't here," Koppel reported.

CNN chief Jon Klein, who took over in November, says the changes are not meant to directly counter Fox News Channel, which continues to trounce onetime ratings leader CNN, now marking its 25th year. "There are many tactical things we could do to try to beat Fox, but we're trying to be ourselves: Roll up our sleeves and report the news, don't talk about it," Klein says.

News analyst Andrew Tyndall says that in making the changes, CNN chose to "counterprogram against Fox rather than compete." But, says Klein: "I don't think of CNN as being up against Fox and MSNBC anymore than we're up against 500 choices on cable, millions of choices in iTunes, 10 million blogs, video games, DVDs. Our competition is every medium." "Everyone talks in talking points these days," he said. "It's not just on cable news. It's radio. It's everywhere. The entire political world is no longer talking ideas, but talking points."

"What's vital in the morning is chemistry between anchors," Klein told The TV Column. "Watching Miles handle Live From, where he was paired with a smart, vibrant, fun, female anchor" -- Kyra Phillips -- "and seeing how generous he was in sharing the spotlight and supporting and helping the co-anchor to shine; to me he's the perfect complement to Soledad, who is smart, vibrant, fun . . . and the mother of four."

On the decision to move Cafferty, Klein said they were going to surround Blitzer "with a lot of bright bulbs who have something to say and know how to say it." Blitzer will play the part of "sober center of gravity in the midst of a rollicking situation room."

Consultative Council member Mohammad al-Zulfa's proposal has unleashed a storm in this conservative country where the subject of women drivers remains taboo. Al-Zulfa's cell phone now constantly rings with furious Saudis accusing him of encouraging women to commit the double sins of discarding their veils and mixing with men. He gets phone text messages calling on Allah to freeze his blood. Chat rooms bristle with insulting accusations that al-Zulfa is "driven by carnal instincts with 454 horsepower."

There even have been calls to kick al-Zulfa from the council and strip him of his Saudi nationality. The uproar may be astounding to outsiders. But in Saudi Arabia, where the religious establishment has the upper hand in defining women's freedoms, the issue touches on the kingdom's strict Islamic lifestyle.

Conservatives, who believe women should be shielded from strange men, say driving will allow a woman to leave home whenever she pleases and go wherever she wishes. Some say it will present her with opportunities to violate Islamic law, such as exposing her eyes while driving or interacting with strange men, like police officers or mechanics. "Driving by women leads to evil," Munir al-Shahrani wrote in a letter to the editor of the Al-Watan daily. "Can you imagine what it will be like if her car broke down? She would have to seek help from men."

But al-Zulfa contends neither the law nor Islam bans women from driving. Instead, the ban is based on fatwas, or Islamic edicts, by senior clerics who say that any driving by women would create situations for sinful temptation.

It is the same argument used to restrict other freedoms. Without written permission from a male guardian, women may not travel, get an education or work. Regardless of permission, they are not allowed to mix with men in public or leave home without wearing black cloaks, called abayas.

Vice-president Dick Cheney stepped up America's war of words with North Korea yesterday by calling it a police state run by an irresponsible leader indifferent to the fate of his malnourished people.

His words came just 48 hours after the Pentagon announced that it was sending 15 F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter-bombers to South Korea, a US ally, for an undetermined period. The aircraft crews, trained to seek out targets with precision weapons, needed to familiarise themselves with the Korean terrain, the air force said.

Speaking to CNN in an interview broadcast last night, Mr. Cheney described North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, as "one of the world's more irresponsible leaders."

Mr. Cheney went on to accuse Kim of running "a police state" and of maintaining one of the most heavily militarised societies in the world. He said most North Koreans lived "in abject poverty and stages of malnutrition". The statement appeared to be a reference to the North Korean famine, widely blamed on the country's communist elite, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

The vice-president continued: "He doesn't take care of his people at all, and he obviously wants to throw his weight around and become a nuclear power."

Some Quranic etiquette is intellectual: One should pronounce each word correctly; one should seek to discover what difficult words mean. There are also prestige issues. For instance, one should not place any other book on top of the Quran. This last was a violation that my Cairo doorman Muhammad was ever concerned to root out. Once he had satisfied himself that I had not put the Quran under any other book or item in my apartment, he would instruct me to pour us both a glass of whiskey, after which he would not touch the Quran again until he was sober and had somewhat repented for a clear transgression.

Once, Muhammad discovered in my garbage an exam I had taken that tested knowledge of certain ayat (or verses) from the Quran, and he reproached me for putting the holy book in the trash. I said that it was not the Quran itself, but only words taken from it. His response was astonishing: "You can either burn your exam," he explained, "or do this...." At which point, he tore off a verse, rolled it up, put it into his mouth, and swallowed it. I note that Muhammad was a doorman and not a scholar, but apparently in this particular instance, there was no problem if the Quran was to wind up in the toilet presently.....

At any rate, it is dangerous to invest artifacts with too much metaphysical significance. The fact that many Muslims regard the Quran as the literal word of God, as we have frequently been reminded over the last week, poses an enormous problem. Without reinterpreting or recontextualizing a sacred text that suited the exigencies of an ancient Arabian community, it is going to be difficult for 21st-century believers to get along with non-Muslims on a very small planet.

By the end of the week, the rioting had spread from Afghanistan throughout much of the Muslim world, from Gaza to Indonesia. Mobs shouting "Protect our Holy Book!" burned down government buildings and ransacked the offices of relief organizations in several Afghan provinces. The violence cost at least 15 lives, injured scores of people and sent a shudder through Washington, where officials worried about the stability of moderate regimes in the region.

The spark was apparently lit at a press conference held on Friday, May 6, by Imran Khan, a Pakistani cricket legend and strident critic of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. Brandishing a copy of that week's Newsweek (dated May 9), Khan read a report that U.S. interrogators at Guantánamo prison had placed the Qur'an on toilet seats and even flushed one. "This is what the U.S. is doing," exclaimed Khan, "desecrating the Qur'an." His remarks, as well as the outraged comments of Muslim clerics and Pakistani government officials, were picked up on local radio and played throughout neighboring Afghanistan. Radical Islamic foes of the U.S.-friendly regime of Hamid Karzai quickly exploited local discontent with a poor economy and the continued presence of U.S. forces, and riots began breaking out last week.

In clear daylight, the White House is intimidating Richard Lugar, Chuck Hagel, poor Lincoln Chafee, Lamar Alexander and Lisa Murkowski -- the moderates on the Republican side of the Committee -- much like Bolton intimidated the national intelligence bureaucracy of the U.S. government. In the case of the intel analysts, their bosses saved them from Bolton. But no one is saving these senators from Cheneyesque efforts to completely subordinate the Senate to the whims of the White House.

George Voinovich saved himself by indicating he would not support Bolton's nomination. Despite voting in favor of moving Bolton's nomination to the floor of the Senate without recommendation, Voinovich has assured weeks more of pain for the White House on Bolton and has shored up some Democrats who were beginning to wilt under the pressure of a convincing psy-ops campaign by the White House last weekend claiming the Republicans had assembled a party-line vote "in favor" of Bolton's confirmation -- which was false. And Voinovich has created space for principled internationalists in his own party to defect from the Cheney-Bolton pressure cooker.

When one considers the losses suffered by Britain and France -- hundreds of thousands dead, destitution, bankruptcy, the end of the empires -- was World War II worth it, considering that Poland and all the other nations east of the Elbe were lost anyway?

If the objective of the West was the destruction of Nazi Germany, it was a "smashing" success. But why destroy Hitler? If to liberate Germans, it was not worth it. After all, the Germans voted Hitler in.

If it was to keep Hitler out of Western Europe, why declare war on him and draw him into Western Europe? If it was to keep Hitler out of Central and Eastern Europe, then, inevitably, Stalin would inherit Central and Eastern Europe.

Was that worth fighting a world war – with 50 million dead?

When this city recently doubled the number of garbage categories to 10, it handed residents a 27-page booklet on how to sort their trash. Highlights included detailed instructions on 518 items. In Yokohama, trash that escapes recycling is put in transparent bags and loaded into trucks for incineration. Lipstick goes into burnables; lipstick tubes, "after the contents have been used up," into "small metals" or plastics. Take out your tape measure before tossing a kettle: under 12 inches, it goes into small metals, but over that it goes into bulky refuse.

Socks? If only one, it is burnable; a pair goes into used cloth, though only if the socks "are not torn, and the left and right sock match." Throw neckties into used cloth, but only after they have been "washed and dried."

"It was so hard at first," said Sumie Uchiki, 65, whose ward began wrestling with the 10 categories last October as part of an early trial. "We were just not used to it. I even needed to wear my reading glasses to sort out things correctly."

To Americans struggling with sorting trash into a few categories, Japan may provide a foretaste of daily life to come. In a national drive to reduce waste and increase recycling, neighborhoods, office buildings, towns and megalopolises are raising the number of trash categories - sometimes to dizzying heights.

Indeed, Yokohama, with 3.5 million people, appears slack compared with Kamikatsu, a town of 2,200 in the mountains of Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands. Not content with the 34 trash categories it defined four years ago as part of a major push to reduce waste, Kamikatsu has gradually raised the number to 44.

According to the book, which will be released to the public on May 17, based on National Security Agency electronic intercepts, the Saudi Arabian government has in place a nationwide, self-destruction explosive system composed of conventional explosives and dirty bombs strategically placed at the Kingdom's key oil ports, pipelines, pumping stations, storage tanks, offshore platforms, and backup facilities. If activated, the bombs would destroy the infrastructure of the world's largest oil supplier, and leave the country a contaminated nuclear wasteland ensuring that the Kingdom's oil would be unusable to anyone. The NSA file is dubbed internally Petro SE, for petroleum scorched earth.

To make certain that the damaged facilities cannot be rebuilt, the Saudis have deployed crude Radioactive Dispersal Devices (RDDs) throughout the Kingdom. Built covertly over several years, these dirty bombs are in place at -- among other locations -- all eight of the Kingdom's refineries, sections of the world's largest oil field at Ghawar, and at three of the ten indispensable processing towers at the largest-ever processing complex at Abqaiq.

Tony Blair promised today to pursue the people's priorities in Labour's unprecedented third term and issued a veiled apology for the shortcomings of the past eight years, as he returned to Downing Street with a much-reduced majority. Standing in front of No 10, Mr Blair acknowledged that Iraq had been a "deeply divisive issue", but said he believed the country was now ready to move on.

He also drew a sharp contrast between the mobbed scenes of triumph in his 1997 victory and today's humble acceptance.

President Bush called Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday to express his regret for the March killing of an Italian agent by U.S. troops in Iraq. The call came days after Washington and Rome issued rival reports about the shooting death.

Berlusconi's office described the conversation as "long and cordial" and said the two countries reaffirmed their commitment in Iraq. Berlusconi, a staunch ally of the United States, sent about 3,000 troops in Iraq after the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

But the March 4 death of Nicola Calipari, hailed as a hero in Italy, has caused friction between Washington and Rome, and Berlusconi's government has come under pressure to reevaluate the Italian troop deployment in Iraq.

Italian government:
-No warning signs to motorists about impending checkpoint
-Car not speeding and did not accelerate after warning shots
-Proper inquiry impossible because vehicles removed and army logs destroyed just after shooting

Fifty-seven percent of those polled said they did not believe it was worth going to war, versus 41 percent who said it was, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of 1,006 adults.

That was a drop in support from February, when 48 percent said it was worth going to war and half said it was not. It's also the highest percentage of respondents who have expressed those feelings and triple the percentage of Americans who said that it was not worth the cost shortly after the war began about two years ago.

Asked how things are going for the United States in Iraq, 56 percent said "badly" or "very badly," up from 45 percent in March. Forty-two percent said "well" or "very well," down from 52 percent in March.

The concentration of American troops and weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan limits the Pentagon's ability to deal with other potential armed conflicts, the military's highest ranking officer reported to Congress on Monday.

The officer, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed Congress in a classified report that major combat operations elsewhere in the world, should they be necessary, would probably be more protracted and produce higher American and foreign civilian casualties because of the commitment of Pentagon resources in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And sometimes, according to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a cigar is an economic prop to a brutal totalitarian regime. Arguing against loosening sanctions against Cuba last year, DeLay warned that Fidel Castro "will take the money. Every dime that finds its way into Cuba first finds its way into Fidel Castro's blood-thirsty hands.... American consumers will get their fine cigars and their cheap sugar, but at the cost of our national honor."

DeLay has long been one of Congress' most vocal critics of what he calls Castro's "thugocracy," which is why some sharp-eyed Time readers were surprised last week to see a photo of the Majority Leader smoking one of Cuba's best—a Hoyo de Monterrey double corona, which generally costs about $25 when purchased overseas and is not available in this country. The cigar's label clearly states that it was made in "Habana." The photo was taken in Jerusalem on July 28, 2003, during a meeting between DeLay and the Republican Jewish Coalition at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

Putin's stop in Cairo was the first state visit to Egypt by a Russian or Soviet leader since Nikita Khrushchev came in 1964 to inaugurate construction of the Aswan High Dam, which the Soviet Union helped finance.

Egypt's close ties with Moscow began waning after Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser died in 1970. Nasser's successor, Anwar Sadat, set the regional powerhouse on a pro-American track that accelerated under Mubarak. Putin's trip to Israel is the first by a Kremlin leader to the Jewish state and is part of his effort to burnish an image as a world leader amid accusations of backsliding on democracy at home.

It comes as increasingly close ties between the two countries are threatened by Russia's determination to push ahead with a missile sale to Syria that Israel considers threatening. Other potential sore points are Moscow's nuclear aid to Iran, signs of rising anti-Semitism in Russia and the Kremlin's push to extradite several former Russian billionaires who have taken residence in Israel.