Tyrants: The World's 20 Worst Living Dictators

From Kim Jong-Il to Gaddafi, the bestselling author of "The People's Almanac" surveys the crimes and characters of today's most brutal dictators. Photos throughout.

Today more than ever, international headlines are dominated by dispatches from the many dictatorships that still dot the globe. Although Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been deposed, North Korea's Kim Jong-il continues to attract attention on the world stage; at the same time, other dictatorships, led by royal families, military juntas, and single political parties, persist in repressing and brutalizing their citizens without ever attracting anything like Saddam's or Kim Jong-il's level of international attention.

In this fascinating, eye-opening read, "New York Times" bestselling author David Wallechinsky offers in-depth portraits of each of the twenty worst dictators -- and the governments they head -- currently in power: exposing their crimes, and revealing their strange personalities and mysterious backgrounds. "Tyrants" also reveals the extent that foreign corporations and governments support these tyrants despite their policies.

Timely and provocative, crafted with the popular touch that has made Wallechinsky a bestselling author, "Tyrants" will awaken you to the criminal regimes of the present -- and pose challenging questions about America's role in curbing (or promoting) their power in the future.

The Tyrant Hall of Shame includes: Kim Jong-il/North Korea Hu Jintao/China Seyed Ali Khamenei/Iran King Abdullah/Saudi Arabia Muammar al-Qaddafi/Libya Omar al-Bashir/Sudan Islam Karimov/Uzbekistan Saparmurat Niyazov/Turkmenistan Fidel Castro/Cuba