In 1990 the emblems of rebellion that once set teenagers apart have grown frayed. Their music now seems more derivative than subversive. The provocative teenage styles of dress that adults assiduously copied no longer automatically inspire emulation. And underneath the plumage, teens seem to be more interested in getting ahead in the world than in clearing up its injustices. According to a 1989 survey of high-school seniors in 40 Wisconsin communities, global concerns, including hunger, poverty and pollution, emerged last on a list of teenage worries....

It’s a blending of cultures that Marvel Comics sees as natural–and profitable. “India is very rich in graphical mythology, and that plays well to the superhero ethos,” says Marvel Comics president Gui Karyo. At the same time, India–with a population of 1 billion–has a rapidly growing middle class and a burgeoning interest in Western culture. In 2002, 32-year-old Sharad Devarajan launched Bangalore-based Gotham Entertainment to publish Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Warner Brothers comic books on the Indian Subcontinent....

But something strange happened when the dreaded moment of truth finally arrived. In one stroke last week, President George W. Bush called an end to a 30-year era of arms-control treaties. Bush made good on a campaign promise and announced that the United States would withdraw from the antiballistic-missile treaty in six months–in order to test missile defense systems that are now prohibited. It was the first time any country had unilaterally abrogated an arms agreement since World War II....

Another sure way to seize attention in Israel is to level accusations of racism. And that’s exactly what the Ethiopian protest amounted to. The list of grievances by the Ethiopians, many of whom came to Israel in two dramatic airlifts in 1984 and 1991, is a long one. They complain of weak education, poor housing; a disturbing number of suicides in the army and discrimination by the Orthodox rabbinate that makes them feel like second-class Jews....

In last week’s vote on the 1992 Pentagon budget, the House did indeed cut back the Strategic Defense Initiative, including all funds for “Brilliant Pebbles,” the scheme to put 1,000 small missile killers in orbit. But overall missile defense spending for 1992, at $3.5 billion, was a cool $1 billion than what the House voted last year. Meanwhile, a deal is being brokered in the Senate to get bipartisan support for an SDI program stripped of space weapons and scaled back to counter only limited missile strikes....

Now, after years of research and verification, “The Cruise of the Vanadis” is being published in France. The fictionalized travel narrative–one of Wharton’s first literary efforts–is based on a cruise she took to Algeria, Italy, Turkey and Greece when she was 26. The manuscript wound up in Hyeres because Wharton had a home there. When she died in 1937, her heirs donated some of her papers to the local library....

“There are many places in Moscow where young people can have fruit drinks and relax,” he offers, a bit tamely. OK, how ‘bout the fun stuff? Well, we could go to Dolls, says Vlad, loosening up. It’s dark, pulsating and saunalike. No chance of running into Dad here. But no dancing, Jenna and Barbara–that’s reserved for the strippers. Next stop? The Up and Down Club, a dinner destination for the rich and glitzy....

In September, federal agents arrested a 30-year-old Sudanese taxi driver named Mekki Hamed Mekki on immigration violations in Greensboro. A former airline pilot for Sudan’s national carrier, Mekki yesterday pleaded guilty to three minor immigration infractions in a Winston-Salem, N.C., federal district court, and the plea bargain deal was immediately sealed on the presiding judge’s orders. Last month federal authorities also arrested a 36-year-old Moroccan national named Abel-Ilah Elmardoudi at the Greyhound bus terminal in Greensboro....

It’s a picture of a lighthouse on a rocky outcropping, surrounded by water. At times I would look at it and see a tranquil picture filled with greenery, a lone pine tree, and ocean breezes; other times, I could see the waves coming up the rocks and slamming into that little island. The caption of the picture reads, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” And that is how I see my life with diabetes: always a journey, sometimes with breezes and sometimes with crashing waves that threaten to undo me....

“What do you think you’re doing?” shouted a guard. “Just fixing my bike,” I called back. I spoke as calmly as I could. But I felt breathless with fear, in danger of being plunged back into the hellish world of the camps-a world I had not so long ago escaped. For I spent 19 years as a political prisoner in China’s labor reform camps, five and a half of them in this very Tuanhe camp....

Bush was feeling his way toward what became the ending and big applause line of his stump speech: “To usher in the responsibility era… to restore honor and dignity to the Oval Office.” During the primaries, Bush occasionally sounded Clintonian about his past. Last January in New Hampshire, my colleague Howard Fineman and I interviewed Bush aboard his campaign bus. The subject turned to his two college-age arrests, one for stealing a large Christmas wreath from a hotel, the other for ripping down the Princeton goal posts after the Princeton-Yale game....

Recent, breathtaking Ukrainian military gains may be unsettling Russian politics. Hardliners are casting blame, and some low-level minions are calling for President Vladimir Putin to resign. Regime change has long seemed only a distant prospect, but perhaps no longer. The West may need to reassess its defensive posture toward such change. On March 26, President Joseph Biden said Putin “cannot remain in power,” but then he backtracked, saying he was voicing only “moral outrage....

That intensity was on display last Wednesday as he sat and stewed at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The panel was considering a resolution condemning President Bush’s proposal to send 21,000 additional troops to Iraq; Hagel, a cosponsor of the resolution, would be the only Republican on the committee to vote for its passage. As he listened to his colleagues make their cases for and against the president’s plan, Hagel told NEWSWEEK he noticed something missing: an acknowledgment that the Senate was talking about committing real troops, the men and women whose “fighting and dying” make a war....

The new story lines reflect that approach. In one, an unfamiliar woman suddenly materializes in a village, asking a local resident for food and water. She’s fled her home fearing an outbreak of war, and her family has found shelter in a ruined fort. But the abandoned building is surrounded with land mines, so locals call a team to help clear them away. In the end, the newcomers emerge from the minefield safely....

For the 90-minute flight from northern Somalia, as the Ilyushin growls and lurches, Yaacob Haji Abdo relentlessly works to convert me. He speaks in parables, inducements (four wives!) and dark warnings about the wrath of God. He sings poetic verses from the Koran in a haunting voice that strains to reach the higher registers, and one of his bearded companions rubs sweet perfume on my wrist. All of which is harmless enough....

In all honesty, the fantasy impact probably is not equal to the media impact that this story is having. Even though the third base position isn't running rampant with high-end talent, Rodriguez has appeared long past his prime and was not likely to be a particularly profitable fantasy option this season anyway. Not only had his health begun to deteriorate (he's failed to play in 150 games since 2007), but his production was alson on a steady decline (his OPS has dropped each year since 2007 and was below ....