Top 10 News

#1. Transition in Pakistan

The tensions in Pakistan had been building all year, and President General Pervez Musharraf was getting it from all sides. The Taliban gradually solidified control in the northwest of the country, and Islamic extremists, who had holed up in Islamabad's Red Mosque, led to a violent standoff in July. Musharraf imposed emergency rule on Nov. 11. He has since faced protests in support of the independent judiciary that he sacked, with white collar workers — who benefited most from the economic reforms he passed — taking to the streets calling for his removal. Grasping for legitimacy, Musharraf gave up his military leadership and has scheduled parliamentary elections for Jan. 8.

#2. The Mortgage Crisis

The housing bubble finally burst. Defaults on mortgages — high and adjustable-interest rate home loans for people who don't qualify for the lowest market rates — had been rising slowly for a couple of years and by this summer were up 93% from the year before.  The Bush administration just announced a five-year freeze on mortgage rates for some subprime borrowers facing the threat of default.

#3. The Saffron Protests

It was the junta-led government's decision to raise the price of fuel — and, therefore, the costs of transportation and food staples like rice and cooking oil — that sparked the largest protests in Burma, also known as Myanmar, in August and inspired monks to take to the streets en masse a month later. The government says 15 people died during the September violence (diplomats say the toll was much higher) and 3,000 were jailed. Many monks have now fled to China and Thailand; though the rallies have ended, arrests are continuing because the U.N. and foreign governments keep pressing the junta to negotiate with the pro-democracy movement.

#4. Goodbye, Harry Potter

The most satisfying book of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, came on the heels of the premier of the fifth and most highly acclaimed movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Deathly Hallows sold a record 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours in the U.S. Author J.K. Rowling didn't disappoint; critics unanimously loved it. What's next for Rowling? The author has handwritten seven copies of a companion Potter book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard; she will give away six copies privately and has auctioned one through Sotheby's. The winning bid, by Amazon.com: nearly $4 million.

#5. Petraeus Under Fire

Shortly after naming Gen. David Petraeus the top commander in Iraq, President Bush announced plans to send in an additional 20,000 troops to quell the sectarian fighting. Petraeus faced hostile questioning when he returned to Washington in September to brief Congress on his slow progress. But recently the relative calm and the drop in American casualties has kicked Iraq from the front pages, at least temporarily, while the first significant pullback of troops — a brigade of 5,000 — began just after Thanksgiving. That's got pundits wondering how much of a role the war will play in next year's presidential election.

#6. Chinese-Made Toy Recall

It started in June with Thomas the Tank Engine, but soon after, more than 20 million toys, all made in China, were recalled for containing lead paint or loose magnets — or giving some kids third-degree burns (the oven). In September, Mattel (the manufacturer of many of the affected toys) issued an official apology to China for overreacting and damaging the reputation of Chinese-made toys, which make up 80% of playthings sold in the U.S. Two months later, however, in November, several kids got sick from swallowing Aqua Dots, small sticky beads that can be molded into shapes, prompting yet another recall of "made in China" toys.

#7. The Virginia Tech Tragedy

At around 7 a.m. on April 16, after Cho Seung-Hui shot two students in a dorm at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg,  he went calmly to a post office and mailed his multimedia manifesto to NBC News. By 9:45 a.m., Cho was back on campus and had begun shooting his way through Norris Hall, a classroom building. In the end, 33 were dead: 27 students, five professors and the gunman. Cho had nonetheless purchased his arsenal of weapons legally — sparking debate over gun control, mental illness and campus security.

#8. Stem Cell Breakthrough

In November, two groups of scientists in Japan and Wisconsin announced that they had found a way to reprogram human skin cells to behave like embryonic stem cells — without having to make or destroy any embryos. Embryonic stem cells are capable of turning into any of the 220 types of cell in the human body, so scientists have long touted them as a potential medicinal cure-all, from facilitating organ transplants to curing Alzheimer's. It's hoped that the new discovery could appease both sides of the stem cell war, paving the way for medical breakthroughs that do not require killing embryos.

#9. Bonds Breaks a Record — Gets Indicted

With his 756th long ball during a home game against the Washington Nationals on Aug. 7, Barry Bonds surpassed Hank Aaron's record to become the new home-run king. Bonds was indicted in November for perjury and obstruction of justice, and faces up to 30 years in prison. (He has pleaded not guilty.) While Bonds waits to see how his case and his career play out, his record-breaking home-run ball seems destined for a similarly cloudy fate: It was bought for $752,467 by fashion designer Marc Ecko, who plans to brand it with an asterisk and donate it to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

#10. iPhone Mania

By the time the combo phone-iPod-PDA- camera-computer hit Apple and AT&T stores on June 29, the frenzy had reached a fever pitch, and customers waited in line to snap up the 200,000 units made available.