Chatter: What we're hearing

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Need to know: In a pair of raids on Sunday, Afghan police and American soldiers discovered a half-million pounds of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that is used in the overwhelming majority of homemade bombs. The seizure of that much fertilizer removed potentially thousands of bombs from the streets and trails of southern Afghanistan, officials said.

Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

Want to know: As the health care debate rages in the US, Tokyo lawmakers set a maximum waist size. Are you too fat for Japan?

Dull but important: The Obama administration nominated a young former executive with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to run the nation's top foreign assistance program, ending months of speculation and complaints about who would take the vacant post. Rajiv Shah's selection would end a 10-month leadership vacuum at USAID.

Just because: Australia's koalas could be wiped out within 30 years unless urgent action is taken to halt a decline in population, according to researchers. They say development, climate change and bushfires have combined to send the numbers of wild koalas plummeting.

Wacky: The designer of the Kalashnikov, sometimes called the world's most lethal weapon, was named a "Hero of Russia" on Tuesday by President Dmitry Medvedev who lauded him for creating "the brand every Russian is proud of."

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