Chatter: What we're hearing

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Need to know: Iranian security officials have unleashed a wave of arrests across the country in an effort to neutralize the political opposition, silence critical voices and head off widespread protests when the nation marks the anniversary of the revolution on Thursday.

Want to know: It will not appear on any listings and will pounce without warning, day or night, on to the airwaves: first a harp playing folk music, then a familiar voice. Welcome to Suddenly Chavez, Venezuela's newest radio show and the latest effort by the country's loquacious president to talk to voters, whether they want to listen or not. Here's a cartoon from the Economist.

Dull but important: U.S. and Afghan forces pushed to the edge of the southern Afghan town of Marjah, poised to seize the major Taliban supply and drug-smuggling stronghold in hopes of building public support by providing aid and services once the insurgents are gone.

Just because: A quietly creative ghostwriter whose crucial role in the production of some of Alexandre Dumas's most famous novels has gone unacknowledged for more than 150 years is finally having his moment in the limelight. A film released in French cinemas tomorrow seeks to shed new light on the man who fans say was the true genius behind The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.

Wacky: A thief in the German town of Hamelin robbed an amusement arcade by threatening the attendant with a cup of coffee. Brandishing the steaming cup he had just ordered, the thief forced the 26-year-old to open the till and fled with cash.

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