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Police in Moscow clash with protesters at the inauguration of Vladimir Putin, who took office May 6 for his third term as President after spending four years as Prime Minister. Once he completes this six-year term, the former KGB officer, who has angered Russians seeking a more transparent democracy, will be the longest-serving leader in Moscow since Stalin.
Where Do Moms Have It Worst?
5 | NIGER
This poverty-racked West African country replaced Afghanistan at the bottom of Save the Children's Mother's Index, which ranked 165 countries in categories including child nutrition, access to medical care and maternal mortality, which measures the likelihood of death due to childbirth and other motherhood-related causes. The U.S. was 25th on the list, between Belarus and the Czech Republic. Afghanistan improved its position slightly, thanks to a growing number of girls in school, but it has much to do to lower its hideous rates of infant and maternal mortality.
[The following text appears within a chart. Please see hardcopy or PDF for actual chart.]
SWEDEN 11,640
DENMARK 10,990
ICELAND 9,400
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
NORWAY 7,600
Lifetime risk of maternal mortality (1 out of x)
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
NEW ZEALAND 3,800
AFGHANISTAN 11
MALI 22
YEMEN 91
NIGER 16
GUINEA-BISSAU 26
SOURCE: SAVE THE CHILDREN
WORLD
100
Number of times by which the amount of small pieces of plastic garbage circling in the North Pacific has grown over the past 40 years, according to a California oceanographic institute
Journalist Gets the Boot
6 | CHINA
Authorities expelled a correspondent for al-Jazeera English, the first foreign journalist booted since 1998, forcing the Qatar-based broadcaster to close its Beijing bureau. Officials, who refused to renew the visa and credentials of Hong Kong--born American journalist Melissa Chan, also denied visas to other reporters from the satellite news channel. The network allegedly angered Beijing with a documentary about re-education camps and its general editorial content. The country's increasingly sensitive rulers, who face a once-in-a-decade leadership transition later this year, are grappling with the embarrassing flight of blind activist Chen Guangcheng and his six-day stay at the U.S. embassy as well as the scandal-plagued downfall of leading party official Bo Xilai.