Chatter: What we're hearing

To receive the morning chatter by email, let us know at editors@globalpost.com.

Need to know: Iran says it will start producing higher-grade nuclear fuel on Tuesday and add 10 uranium enrichment plants over the next year. Iran's nuclear agency chief Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran would start to raise the enrichment level from 3.5 percent to 20 percent on Tuesday, in the presence of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Analysts say the move may be a negotiating tactic to prod the West into accepting Iranian terms for a nuclear fuel swap.

Want to know: The lookout from the world's tallest tower in Dubai has been unexpectedly shuttered just a month after opening. The Burj Khalifa was intended to be a major tourist draw in the Gulf city, which has recently been fending off negative publicity caused by more than $80 billion in debt it is struggling to repay. The exact reason for the closure is unclear, though it may be due to high traffic or electrical problems.

Dull but important: Costa Rica has elected its first woman president. Ruling party candidate Laura Chinchilla won in a landslide after campaigning to continue free market policies in Central America's most stable nation.

The ladies weren't so lucky in Ukraine. Come Monday morning, Yulia Tymoshenko still refused to concede defeat in Sunday's runoff vote for the presidency, even though all signs point to opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych's victory.

Just because: Prime Minister Boiko M. Borisov of Bulgaria, a thick-necked former karate instructor, bodyguard and onetime fireman, may seem an unlikely feminist. But the former tough guy mayor of Sofia has in recent months promoted a legion of women, heralding what some are calling a sexual revolution in the politics of this abidingly macho Balkan country. “Women are more diligent than men, and they don’t take long lunches or go to the bar,” insisted Borisov.

Dive into Harar, the ancient walled city in Ethiopia that held Rimbaud under its spell during the last 10 years of his life, and continues to bewitch travelers with a riot of sensory experiences. Harar is where Islam meets Christianity, where Arabia and Asia join Africa, and where hyenas roam the streets at night. Flourishing trade between regions and cultures for 1,000 years culminates in this city on narcotics, where the markets are still brisk.

Wacky: And this just in: You really can be bored to death. A University College London study found that those who live tedious lives are twice as likely to die young. Of more than 7,000 civil servants who were monitored over 25 years, those who said they were bored were about 40 percent more likely to have died by the end of the study than those who did not.

http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/general/100208/chatter-what-were-hearing