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If satire had an Olympics, The Onion might have won a gold medal this week. The satirical news source announced that its Sexiest Man Alive for 2012 is Kim Jong Un, North Korea's Supreme Leader.

"With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman's dream come true," the news service wrote below a photo that showed the 29-year-old leader in his high-collared, blue party suit — the Communist Party — on a reviewing stand.

"Kim made this newspaper's editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle and, of course, that famous smile," they wrote. Although in the photo, Kim Jong Un looks as stern as Stalin.

But The Onion's ardor was so persuasive that the official Chinese People's Daily English language website not only ran the "Sexiest Man Alive" dispatch word-for-word, but added a 55-photo slideshow of Kim, riding a gray and white stallion and touring factories.

The Two-Way

Attention Chinese Media: Kim Jong Un Is 2012's Most Interesting Man

Mexico's new president is being sworn in Saturday, and Enrique Pena Nieto inherits a country with a mixed record.

Most of Mexico is embroiled in a deadly drug war that has claimed the lives of as many as 50,000 people, but Pena Nieto is also taking over an economy that is doing surprisingly well, many say thanks to the outgoing head of state.

In his final days in office, now former President Felipe Calderon kept a low profile. He did announce he's taking a job at Harvard, and posted a farewell video on the president's official website.

Sitting behind his desk, his hair a little thinner and waistline wider than when he took office 6 years ago, Calderon writes a letter of thanks to the Mexican people.

The somber mood of the video seems at times apologetic, but in the select few interviews Calderon has given he staunchly defends his decision to go after the narco-traffickers with the full might of the country's military.

Unfortunately, the brutal violence and high death toll of that strategy will be Calderon's legacy.

That's unfortunate, says George Grayson, an expert on Mexico at the College of William and Mary. He says expectations were so high when Calderon took office, but he failed to tackle the tough issues facing the country.

"It turned out that he was unimaginative [and] that he surrounded himself with sycophants," Grayson says. "He never really configured a consistent strategy to fight the cartels."

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The Two-Way

In Mexico: Cartel Leader May Be Dead, Key Lieutenant Captured

First it was Egypt, at the height of the protest against the Mubarak regime in 2011, authorities shut the Internet down.

This week, it was Syria. Just as rebel forces there were making big gains, someone pulled the plug on the Internet and Syria went dark.

Andrew McLaughlin, who until last year a White House adviser on technology policy, expects we'll see more of this.

"The pattern seems to be that governments that fear mass movements on the street have realized that they might want to be able to shut off all Internet communications in the country, and have started building the infrastructure that enables them to do that," McLaughlin says.

The key to shutting down the Internet is building that infrastructure in such a way that the Internet service is provided by a government company subject to government orders. You could also have the service providers housed in facilities where the government could shut off the power. Technically, it's not hard.

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The Two-Way

In Syria: Battle Rages Outside Damascus Airport, Internet Goes Down

In Istanbul, major public transit projects are back under way after years of paralysis. The problem wasn't a lack of financing, but the layer upon layer of ancient artifacts that turned up every time the earth movers started their work.

The excavation began eight years ago on projects intended to ease Istanbul's notoriously clogged traffic.

The job included building a tunnel under the Bosphorus Strait and linking it to a rail and subway network. When the dig was stopped several years ago, eyes rolled and shoulders shrugged.

Enlarge Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images

Archaeologists in Istanbul work on the remnants of a Byzantine-era ship in June 2006.