TIME And CNN Release The Most Underreported Stories 
Thursday, December 13th, 2007

TIME, in partnership with CNN, has published 50 Top Ten Lists of 2007.  One of the most interesting of the lists, to us, was the "Top 10 Underreported Stories" of 2007.

1)  The Other Darfur:  Infighting in Somalia has been so bad for so long that reader — and editor — fatigue set in years ago. Which is why many Americans were surprised to hear that more than 1 million Somalis had fled their homes in 2007 in a refugee crunch whose scope and severity rival that of Darfur. "We have a major crisis," Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the top U.N. envoy for Somalia, told TIME. "And it's being ignored." The violence hampering humanitarian efforts has also kept U.N. forces at bay. It's a Catch-22, Ould-Abdallah says. "We cannot go there because there is no security, and because we don't go there, there isn't security."

2)  A Nuclear Six-Pack:  In August, when six nuclear weapons were accidentally loaded onto the wing of a B-52 bomber and flown from North Dakota to Louisiana, it was not so much a case of imminent danger — experts agree that if the plane had crashed, fail-safe devices would have prevented the warheads from detonating — but rather a glaring display of how easily our nuclear safeguards can fall apart. In violation of security protocol, the crew only checked the missiles on the wing that contained dummy warheads. And the mistake, which marks the first time in nearly 40 years that nukes have flown over U.S. airspace on the wings of a bomber, went unnoticed for more than 36 hours.

3)  U.N. Dials Back AIDS Estimates:  The United Nations revealed it had overestimated the number of people infected with HIV by some 6.3 million worldwide and lowered the 2007 total to 33.2 million. The reduction is based on better reporting methods, particularly in India and sub-Saharan Africa. Efforts to curb the disease also appear to be working, with the new report noting that annual infection rates likely peaked in the late 1990s. But public-health advocates worry these signs of improvement could lead to complacency. Dr. Andrew Zolopa, an HIV expert at Stanford, warns against "lowering our guard," adding that 33.2 million is "still a very big number."

4)  Undue Influence At The White House:  In July a Congressional oversight committee revealed that despite a law prohibiting most federal officials from engaging in partisan political activities, the White House praised high-ranking officials at the Office of National Drug Control Policy for appearing on behalf of as many as 18 Republicans in competitive races in the three months leading up to the 2006 election. For example, during this time period, officials appeared at two events for Missouri Senator Jim Talent, who ended up losing the election. These findings — coming just after former Surgeon General Richard Carmona testified that the White House had barred him from speaking out about such issues as stem-cell research, and amid an investigation into the firings of several U.S. Attorneys — raise even more questions about the White House's political influence over federal agencies.

5)  Coming To Grips With TB:  Tuberculosis — as a plane-hopping honeymooner reminded Americans this summer — isn't restricted to the developing world. According to the World Health Organization, to date 41 countries have confirmed cases of extensively drug-resistant TB. And the region with the highest level of TB treatment failures? Europe. As a result, 15% of new TB cases in Eastern Europe, the Baltic States and Central Asia are multi-drug-resistant, a rate three times higher than in any other part of the globe. Yet most doctors are still forced to use TB treatments that are some 50 years old and even more antiquated detection methods.

For the rest of the Top 10 Most Underreported News of 2007, and for the 50 Top Lists of 2007, visit TIME/CNN here.

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