COVER: Ready to Change Now? (Atlantic edition). Chillier weather, marches calling for peace and the fact that no rioters or cops were killed in recent confrontations in France helped reduce the scope of violence last week. But a new turn for the worse was feared as police intercepted text messages encouraging riots in the largely untouched center of Paris last weekend, reports Middle East Regional Editor Christopher Dickey. As successive governments refused to look squarely at the issue of racism, ghettos have become no-see zones, then no-go zones, where anger and violence that came to seem "normal" has led straight to the nights of rage that have shaken a continent.

  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10019424/site/newsweek/

  (Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051113/NYSU005 )

It's About Jobs. Unemployment is high in many parts of Europe, but it is particularly so in France, especially among young people. The French riots aren't about a culture clash, reports European Economics Correspondent Rana Foroohar. They are about jobs. The riots present France with a choice, says Morgan Stanley chief economist Stephen Roach. Change and embrace a new socioeconomic model, or stay the course and face continued economic stagnation and even greater social unrest.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10018664/site/newsweek/

COVER: Asia's Growing Poor. (Pacific edition). Asia doesn't have Bono, Bob Geldof and Jeffrey Sachs, the tireless trio that has made eradicating misery in Africa their personal crusade. But one leader acts as if he's bucking for the job: South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun. In the era of regional free trade that emerged after the cold war, national GDPs have risen much more quickly in Asia than national poverty rates have fallen, leading to the dangerous perception that global capitalism punishes the poor. Roh has done a good thing by calling attention to the poverty issue, report Hong Kong Bureau Chief George Wehrfritz, Correspondents Joe Cochrane and Jonathan Ansfield. Now, he and his fellow leaders must seize the moment and follow up, or risk unleashing the forces of discontent that are setting France ablaze.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10019829/site/newsweek/

Battle of the Asian Summits. Two meetings scheduled for December, the first-ever summit of what is being called the East Asian Community and a convention of the WTO, will highlight tensions between regional and global approaches to trade and finance. And the outcomes will provide a clearer picture of how the winds will be blowing in the global economy over the next decade. Message to all leaders with a stake in global economic progress: cheer the peaceful rise of an open-minded East Asia by all means, but recognize that the really big stakes are riding on the success of negotiations in Hong Kong, writes Jeffrey E. Garten, the Juan Trippe Professor at the Yale School of Management.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10017723/site/newsweek/

COVER: Against Torture. (Latin America edition). In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, fearful that another attack was imminent, off came the gloves and the administration formally supported "torture lite." While many Americans probably don't wish to know too much about the "dark side" of intelligence gathering, the horrific images of tortured detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken a terrible toll on America's standing in the world, reports Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas. A number of senior officials are pushing for some clear legal standard on detainee interrogations and even Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been warning President Bush that America's low image in the world requires positive steps to take a stand against prisoner abuse.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10020629/site/newsweek/

Opinion: Torture's Terrible Toll. Senator John McCain writes: "I understand and respect [the Bush administration's] motives just as I admire the seriousness and patriotism of their resolve. But I do, respectfully, take issue with the position that the demands of this war require us to accord a lower station to the moral imperatives that should govern our conduct in war and peace when they come in conflict with the unyielding humanity of our vicious enemy."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10019179/site/newsweek/

Pain in the Middle. The failure of the recent Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, and the unrest in the streets surrounding it were further evidence that despite years of ballyhooed attempts at reform, the political wedge issue in Latin America remains as it has for decades: social inequity. The absolute incomes may be creeping up, but with some notable exceptions, we are doing a very bad job of building the middle classes, writes David Rothkopf, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10019816/site/newsweek/

The Color of New Europe. The violence sweeping through France in the last two weeks is not necessarily a harbinger of what awaits the rest of Europe. Though other European nations are struggling to absorb fast-growing populations of ethnic minorities, France seems to promote a more assimilationist model with the expectation that French identity would trump all other cultural reference points. It might have worked if everyone was, in fact, treated as if they were French and nothing else, reports Contributing Editor Ellis Cose. As unemployment statistics make clear, the reality is rather different.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10017719/site/newsweek/

Into Dangerous Waters. Uncontrolled forces are reshaping the Pacific's western shore faster than Washington can think what to do, report Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe and Tokyo Bureau Chief Christian Caryl. As China conducts an all-out drive to become Asia's No. 1 economic, military and diplomatic power, its smaller neighbors can only do their best to find a way to benefit -- and avoid getting squashed. But a newly unpredictable element may be Japan, which has begun adopting a new assertive military stance. As appalling as the thought of remilitarization may be to many Japanese who still believe in their Constitution's pacifist ideals, a new sense of toughness is growing.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10019733/site/newsweek/

Ryanair's Gamble. It may be cheap to buy a seat on Ryanair, but passengers get hit with extra charges for food, paying by credit card and excess baggage, reports Correspondent Martin Stabe. Now the airline is considering high- altitude gambling in an effort to make more cash off fliers. With Europe's low cost sector developing in a way that nothing is free, how much are passengers willing to pay for?

Travel: And A Room for the Nanny, Too. Bombings, bird flu and business travel: the first two can always wreak havoc on the third. Correspondent Michael Hastings reports how companies are responding to a changing world by enrolling in a new program designed to track traveling employees during a crisis.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10020093/site/newsweek/

WORLD VIEW: Europe Needs a New Identity. The riots [in France] had little to do with Islam. The young men interviewed were irreligious and talked about respect, jobs and discrimination, not jihad, suicide and virgins in paradise. "Solving this problem," writes Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria. "is a matter of survival for Europe. In fact, for Europe to prosper it needs more immigrants."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10019771/site/newsweek/

THE LAST WORD: Worry While You Spend. One puzzle these days is why Americans are so confident at the shopping mall and so glum in the opinion polls. Contributing Editor Robert Samuelson explains why a hangover from the 1990s boom may be to blame for the weakness of consumer sentiment polls.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10019744/site/newsweek/

PRNewswire -- Nov. 13

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