Dashboard

GLASGOW Investigating failed U.K. terrorist attacks

GAZA CITY bbc reporter Alan Johnston is freed

KENNEBUNKPORT, MAINE Bush and Putin hope "lobster summit" will ease tense relations

ASALUYEH, VENEZUELA Hugo cH- Mahmoud

FREDONIA, KANS. Midwestern floods engulf homes

CONEY ISLAND, N.Y. New hot-dog champ

BAQUBA, IRAQ Dressing up like Uncle Sam for Fourth of July

THE MAP Opiates for the Masses

According to the latest U.N. World Drug Report, the production of illegal opiates from poppy plants reached record levels in 2006. Heroin, which accounts for 71% of opiate abuse, continues to be the main problem drug worldwide. While poppy cultivation has fallen sharply in Burma, Afghanistan now supplies 92% of the world's opiates. Top Opium Poppy Cultivators In hectares, 2006 Mexico 3,300 (2005) Columbia 1,000 Afghanistan 165,000 Pakistan 1,545 Burma 21,500 Laos 2,500 Source: UNODC World Drug Report 2007 THE USERS Opiate abusers, 2005 Asia 54% Europe 25% Americas 14% Africa 6% Oceania 1%

MONEY

World's Wealthy

Nine and a half million people worldwide were millionaires in 2006, an 8.3% increase over 2005, according to the annual World Wealth Report, put out by Merrill Lynch and consulting firm Capgemini.

PHILANTHROPY The world's millionaires gave less than 1% of their net worth to charity, though the net amount of money --and time--donated has increased. For the rich:

Assets are up 11.4%

Total worth $37.2 tril.

Charitable giving $258 bil.

RISING RICH Singapore, India and Indonesia had the highest growth in the population of millionaires. Russia, the U.A.E. and South Korea also saw increases

Singapore 21.2 %

India 20.5 %

Indonesia 16.0 %

ULTRA-AFFLUENT Latin America has the highest level of the superrich (at least $30 million), when defined as a percentage of the total number of rich individuals living in a region

Latin America 2.4%

Africa 2.0%

North America 1.2%

LUXURY The world's rich dedicated about 1.8% of their net worth last year to "investments of passion," spending the most on collectibles like yachts and private planes

Luxury collectibles 26%

Art 20%

Jewelry 18%

LEXICON

commute

DEFINITION kuh-myoot[CLOSE_P]

v: To reduce a criminal penalty

CONTEXT Instead of going for a full-fledged pardon, President Bush commuted Scooter Libby's sentence, leaving the fines and criminal record intact but keeping him out of prison.

USAGE Commutations often have qualifiers. Nixon reduced Jimmy Hoffa's jail term in 1971, provided the Teamster didn't run the union for 10 years.

pardon

DEFINITION par-don[CLOSE_P]

v: To completely forgive a crime

CONTEXT Clinton notoriously issued 140 pardons on his last day in office, including one to tax evader Marc Rich--whose lawyer at the time just happened to be Scooter Libby.

USAGE Bush's father has given the fewest pardons since Franklin Pierce, but W. isn't far behind, with 113 in two terms.

MEDIA WATCH

Good Morning, Tehran

WATCH OUT, CNN? On July 2, Iran launched Press TV, an international satellite-news channel in English. The station will present newscasts--with an Iranian spin, no doubt--and reports from its 26 correspondents in cities like Beirut and Gaza City as well as New York, Washington and London. Newcomers to the 24-hour English-language news market since 2005 include Russia Today, France 24 and al-Jazeera International.

ARTIFACT

Gandhi's Last Lament

THE MISSIVE Mohandas Gandhi's final letter before his 1948 murder was to be auctioned off in London on July 3.

A NATIONAL TREASURE? After delicate negotiations, the document will instead be heading home to a national archive in India.

PLEA FOR UNITY The letter, written to an Indian newspaper, begs Indians to eschew religious violence and warns that the millions of Muslims who still called India home could "become aliens in their own land"--a concern as pressing now as it was six decades ago.