While the North Korea nuclear test and Kim Jong Il succession drama has global dimensions, it has become intensely personal for American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, whom North Korea sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for entering the country illegally. The two were working on a story near the border with China for Current TV, co-founded by Al Gore. Now their employer, the Obama administration, and potential negotiators Gore and Bill Richardson have all gone strategically silent. But Ling and Lee’s families and friends, professional journalist and human rights organizations, and similarly-seized reporter Roxanna Saberi have kept the issue in the public eye. And while the two may be spared the worst of the North Korean penal system, there is no guarantee for political pawns. —JB

Shades of Grimm Brothers. Footwear from boots to flipflops kept going missing in the German town of Fohren. Such effrontery! What kind of fiendish fetish was afoot? But one day, more than a year after the first pair disappeared, a forest worker stumbled upon a find: A fox's den full of footwear.

Yes, a naughty vixen had stashed at least 120 pairs. The town's resident royalty, Count von Kesselstat, theorized the fox took them as playthings for her cubs. The count kindly laid out the recovered booty in his castle so that the locals could retrieve their goods. The incorrigible vixen, however, is still on the loose. The count's sage advice: "People should simply make sure they take their shoes in at night." —VC

The story of 22 Uighurs, part of a Muslim minority group from northwestern China, sounds like a tale out of a novel: A group of men caught up in a post-9/11 sweep, sent to prison, cleared of any crimes, and then...trapped. Five were released to Albania in 2006, but politics kept the rest at Guantanamo Bay. This week, four entered Bermuda's guest-worker program, and the rest may go to Palau, known as an idyllic dive spot, although not all the islanders are happy about the decision. Palau, an independent nation still reliant on U.S. support, will be receiving $200 million, but its president says the aid is not related. As for Guantanamo's other 230 inmates, the youngest has returned to Chad, another's on trial, and the rest await other nations (perhaps six EU countries) to take them...anywhere but U.S. soil. —VC

The death of David Carradine sent two shock waves: the first after he was found hanging in a Thai luxury hotel, the second after findings that he didn't commit suicide. Alternate theories aren't any less startling: The "Kill Bill" actor died of autoerotic asphyxiation or a criminal act. The plausibility of the first has been strengthened by leaked forensic photos of Carradine dressed in suggestive outfits, plus media reports of his enthusiastic patronage at an LA sex shop. One ex revealed that bondage was his "meditation" style, an image at odds with his "mean, serene" TV icon Kwai Chang Caine, the Shaolin monk who practiced the deadly arts and pledged peace. His death has drawn massive Web attention to himself and his famous family, as well as tributes, as people reconcile a wild side beneath a masterly calm. —VC

The way banks rushed to repay funds to TARP this week, one might think the money was loaned by the Mafia. But it wasn’t broken kneecaps that had them so eager to make good—it was the restriction on executive pay, among other limitations, that was tied to the money. The government deemed Citibank and Bank of America too weak to return the payments, however, and now some argue that Citibank, still $63 billion in the red, should be allowed to fail, thus reinstating moral hazard—the consequences of wreckless risk. Since the U.S. has designated certain banks too big to go under, the theory goes, they enjoy the implicit backing of the Treasury and will have no reason to act prudently. Meanwhile, the bank lobby is still fighting greater governance. —JB

Young, hardscrabble cowboy buys a windfall lottery ticket in a South Dakota town called Winner. Hollywood script? Maybe later, but a true tale for Neal Wanless, 23, who won $232 million–Powerball’s ninth-largest payout. Wanless lives with his parents on their subsistence ranch, in a county that ranks seventh-poorest in the nation. The family doesn’t own a phone, and their mobile home was repossessed last year. Since claiming the $85 million lump-sum payout, Wanless has been lying low, and the ranch’s gates have been padlocked to keep out fortune hunters. “Sudden wealth” experts say so far he’s following the best advice to avoid the fate of lotto casualties. Another way: Pay it forward. The “humble, kind kid” has pledged to give back to those who saw his family through tough times. —DH

Baseball types think San Diego State pitcher and No. 1 draft pick Stephen Strasburg is a combination of Nolan Ryan and Zeus the Thunder God. With a 98–100 mph fastball and hellacious slider, the righty has the doormat Washington Nationals who drafted him licking their lips. But before Nationals' fans pop the cork, something to keep in mind: Strasburg's agent, Scott Boras—legendary for his success in negotiating astronomical salaries—might ask for an unheard of $50 million in bonus money, giving any team pause. Besides, if Strasburg's a once-in-a-generation find, what do you call 16-year-old Bryce Harper, a high school player so prized he made the cover of Sports Illustrated? Reportedly, Harper once hit a ball a Roy Hobbs-like 575 feet. Note to the wide-eyed: Phenoms often don’t pan out. —JB