To book guests, contact Brenda Velez at 212-445-4078-Brenda.Velez@Newsweek.com-or Grace Huh at 212-445-5831-Grace.Huh@Newsweek.com. Read the issue at  www.Newsweek.com. 

INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS: HIGHLIGHTS AND EXCLUSIVES, JUNE 30, 2008

COVER: How The Quake Changed China (Latin America and Pacific edition). Special Correspondent Mary Hennock and Beijing Bureau Chief Melinda Liu report that the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that flattened parts of Sichuan also shattered parts of the traditional social order-for worse but also for better. New forces are now emerging from the rubble that will determine how China is ruled and perceived far after the crisis has passed. The official scramble to assist disaster victims has been accompanied by an unusual display of government transparency and openness, creating new opportunities for old rivals such as Taiwan and Japan; breaking down some barriers between rich and poor; injecting new levels of trust between the Communist Party and the people it rules; and offering those people new liberties.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/142563

COVER: Sarko's Comeback Plan (Atlantic editions). Special Correspondent Tracy McNicoll reports on how French President Nicolas Sarkozy will change the country over the next few months despite his low approval ratings. Last summer, Sarkozy appointed a commission led by Jacques Attali to devise ways "to liberate growth," and in January it came back with 316 measures including immigration, harnessing the digital age and tightening public spending-and Sarkozy responded. "The fact that half the reforms we gave have been launched is very, very good," says Attali. "But the easiest has been done." Now, with his poll numbers near their bottom, Sarkozy is actually speeding up the pace, and in some instances fighting against his own party and his core constituents. Many of the tougher reforms are now moving toward completion this summer in part of the biggest surge of economic reform Europe has seen since Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain in the 1980s.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/142564

      Drawing The French Battle Lines. Paris Bureau Chief Christopher Dickey reports Nicolas Sarkozy's radical overhaul of his nation's military could resurrect its role as a global player. Last week Sarkozy announced a radical restructuring of the French armed forces, and at the beginning of July, France will take over the rotating presidency of the European Union with an agenda intended to put Paris front and center in the Union long after it gives up its six-month seat in Brussels. The plan would make it the first among (un)equals in an ever-tighter alliance for defense as well as trade.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/142565

'He Should Never Have Gone to Iraq' Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Dan Ephron reports on the case of Pvt. David Dietrich, a soldier with a history of cognitive problems who was sent to Iraq and killed by sniper.  In Iraq, it's unclear whether his cognitive issues had something to do with his death. Yet his superiors had serious misgivings about the troubled soldier. According to records made available to Newsweek, the attrition rate for GIs with health, performance or conduct problems in their first months of army service has dropped by as much as 45 percent since 2004.  In other words, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan strain the Army more and more, fewer problem soldiers are getting weeded out in basic training, Ephron reports.   

http://www.newsweek.com/id/142640

  WORLD VIEW: What Obama Should Say on Iraq. Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria writes that Barack Obama needs to give a speech about Iraq. "The most important reason to do this is not political. Iraq is fading in importance for the public and, to the extent that it matters as an electoral issue, most people agree with Obama's judgment that the war was not worth fighting," Zakaria writes. Should he be elected, "the war would be his biggest and most immediate problem. He will need to implement a serious policy on Iraq, one that is consistent with his long-held views but is also informed by the conditions on the ground today."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/142642

Microsoft After Gates (And Bill after Microsoft.) Senior Editor Steven Levy reports that after stepping away from Microsoft, Bill Gates, the icon of the tech world, will focus on philanthropy. It was spring 2004 when the Gateses began discussing the possibility that if he increased his role at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-making as big a donation in brainpower as he has in dollars-he could save or improve many lives. The question now is whether Microsoft can compete as effectively without its founder. Steve Ballmer, who took over as CEO from Gates in 2000 after 20 years as Bill's key exec, is confident it can.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/142672

HEALTH FOR LIFE: Your Lifestyle, Your Genes, And Cancer.  In this installment of the ongoing Health for Life series, Newsweek and Harvard Medical School look at the connection between cancer rates, lifestyle and genetics. The strongest evidence of the importance of lifestyle in cancer is that most common cancers arise at dramatically different rates in different parts of the globe.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/141495

Houston, We Have No Problems. Senior Editor Daniel Gross writes that to find a hot spot where soaring oil and commodity prices, and the booming economies of the developing world, are keeping cash registers ringing and construction crews fully employed, travel to Houston, Texas. "Houston's good fortune is largely a function of the current oil boom. But this isn't the type of gusher that led to busts in 1981 and 1986," Gross writes. "Instead, Houston is experiencing a 21st-century boom fueled by a weak dollar and global growth."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/142633

WORLD VIEW: Justice for Our Justice. Guest Columnist Aitzaz Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan and the leader of the Lawyers' Movement, writes about the ongoing struggle to have Pakistan's ousted Supreme Court Justices reinstated. Since the first bloody protest in November 2007, public outcry has become louder and more common. After the June 14 protest, Ahsan writes that he found himself "wondering if the governing coalition, the general or his backers in America had been listening."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/142567

THE LAST WORD: King Abdullah of Jordan. Abdullah tells Newsweek's Special Diplopmatic Correspondent Lally Weymouth that the greatest threat to the region is lack of peace and not necessarily Iran. "For the first time, I think Iran is less of a threat. But if the peace process doesn't move forward, then I think that extremism will continue to advance. When it comes to Iran, I am quite supportive of what I see in Europe and the West-people who want to engage." 

http://www.newsweek.com/id/142645

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