Chatter: What we're hearing

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. 

Want to know: The U.N. General Assembly has declared that Afghanistan's presidential election was both credible and sound, despite allegations of widespread fraud that led critics to question the vote's legitimacy.

The mother of a dead British soldier has called Gordon Brown's letter of condolence to her "disrespectful", partly because of his handwriting. The spelling mistakes in Gordon Brown's solemn letter to Jacqui Janes were not the only shortcoming, the BBC reports.

Dull but important: Iraq's Kurdish-Arab tensions in the disputed Nineveh province may create a human rights catastrophe for minority groups that have faced rising attacks since the 2003 U.S. invasion, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

Just because: An unemployed mechanic and his wife have been revealed as winners of 45.5 million pounds (about $76 million) on the Euromillions lottery. When he bought his ticket, Les Scadding, 58, a cancer survivor and grandfather of six, was 68 pounds overdrawn at the bank. The BBC has a neat list of links, including 10 things you cannot buy with 45.5 million pounds.

Wacky: A Brazilian university student has been expelled after violent protests by students outraged at the short outfit she wore on campus. Yes, we're talking Brazil... land of the barely-there bikini.

And no, we definitely won't be trying this:

http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/general/091110/chatter-what-were-hearing