What does the Associated Press ask editors and news directors to do?

At the end of each year, the Associated Press releases a list of the top ten news stories of the year. American editors and news directors are asked to vote for what they consider the top stories. This year, the story with the most votes was the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. An oil rig operated by BP exploded in April. The explosion killed eleven workers. Close to five million barrels of oil were released into the Gulf until the leak was contained in the middle of July.

Despite the number of undernourished people in the world falling between 1990 and 2006, recent years have seen that number creep up, with the data from 2009 showing more than one billion hungry people. The most recent figures from 2010 suggest the number may again be falling, but this data isn’t yet complete.