Chatter: What we're hearing

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:57:59 +0000

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Need to know: After spending $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since 2003, the U.S. is concerned that Iraqis won’t be able to maintain the facilities once the Americans have left.

Chatter: What we're hearing

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:18:05 +0000

Need to know: Norwegian scientists have raise concerns about a mutated form of swine flu found in two patients who died and one who became severely ill, but they say it does not appear to be circulating in the general population. For more information, visit washingtonpost.com

Chatter: What we're hearing

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:49:35 +0000

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Need to know: EU leaders have chosen the Belgian Prime Minister, Herman van Rompuy, to be the first permanent European Council President. Van Rompuy, 62, had crucial French and German support. He has a reputation as a coalition builder, having taken charge of the linguistically divided Belgian government and steered it out of a crisis.

Chatter: What we're hearing

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:07:20 +0000

Need to know: Tainted by a flawed election and allegations of high-level corruption in his regime, President Hamid Karzai was inaugurated Thursday for a second term, saying the Afghan Army should assume full control of the country’s security within five years.

Chatter: What we're hearing

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:57:18 +0000

Need to know: As President Obama wrapped up his Asia trip, he and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak sent a unifed message over the border to North Korea: return to the negotiating table and end nuclear ambitions. In return, they promised economic aid.

Chatter: what we're hearing

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:45:18 +0000

Need to know: U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in South Korea on Wednesday for talks that will focus on how to tempt North Korea back to nuclear disarmament talks and a delayed trade pact between Seoul and Washington.

And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has started an unannounced visit to Afghanistan to see Hamed Karzai be sworn in to a second five-year term as president on Thursday. She will also meet with U.S. General Stanley McChrystal.

Chatter: What we're hearing

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:58:24 +0000

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Chatter: What we're hearing

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:59:39 +0000

Need to know: President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged a reluctant China to let its currency, the yuan, rise in value. Chinese President Hu Jintao, meantime, meeting Obama in Beijing, emphasized the need to avoid trade protectionism, in a thinly veiled reference to China's irritation over new U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made products.

Chatter: What we're hearing

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:48:09 +0000

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Need to know: International inspectors who gained access to Iran’s newly revealed underground nuclear enrichment plant raised questions in a report about whether the country may have also concealed other nuclear factories.

Chatter: What we're hearing

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:38:00 +0000

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Need to know: President Barack Obama ever so slightly stoked the coals in Shanghai when he admitted to an audience of Chinese students at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum that he's never used Twitter, but that he believes a free internet should be available to all.

Chatter: What we're hearing

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:32:14 +0000

Need to know: Russia and the United States are well on their way to reducing their nuclear stockpiles, President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday after meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Singapore.

Chatter: What we're hearing

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:49:18 +0000

Need to know: President Barack Obama says the U.S. "does not seek to contain" China's rise as a big player on the world stage. He was speaking in Japan's capital, Tokyo, a leg of his Asian tour that is being covered by GlobalPost's Justin McCurry, a day before flying to Shanghai.

Chatter: What we're hearing

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:54:27 +0000

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Need to know: Doctors in Iraq's war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting

Chatter: What we're hearing

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:28:03 +0000

Need to know: U.S. President Barack Obama headed into talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Friday in which he will likely try to smooth strained ties as the allies adjust to a rising China. Reuters has more, but meantime GlobalPost's Josh Chin takes to the streets of Beijing to get a local take on the visit.

Chatter: What we're hearing

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:10:10 +0000

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Chatter: What we're hearing

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:42:44 +0000

Need to know: A man who stabbed a pregnant Egyptian woman to death in a German courtroom, provoking outrage in the Muslim world, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday. Alex Wiens, 28, was convicted of murdering Marwa El-Sherbiny by stabbing her 16 times with a knife in front of her husband and three-year old son, in a case that shocked Germany and sparked protests in Egypt and Iran.

Chatter: What we're hearing

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:57:11 +0000

Need to know: President Barack Obama was on Wednesday considering a new compromise plan for adding troops to Afghanistan that would deploy 30,000 to 35,000 new forces, including as many as 10,000 military trainers, over the next year or more.

Chatter: What we're hearing

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:29:53 +0000

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Chatter: What we're hearing

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:59:24 +0000

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Chatter: What we're hearing

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:39:58 +0000

Need to know: Warships from North and South Korea have exchanged fire in disputed waters off the western coast of the Korean peninsula, leaving one North Korean vessel engulfed in flames. The two Koreas, which remain technically at war, accused each other of violating their territorial waters to provoke the two-minute skirmish, the first border fighting in seven years. Veteran Asia correspondent Bradley K. Martin predicted as much in an article for GlobalPost in June.