Jen Poyant

Over our nearly decade-long war in Afghanistan, we've become accustomed to hearing stories of death and destruction—loss of life has become the price of this war. Former Foreign Service officer Patricia McArdle has written a story of re-birth and a second chance at life, based on her time in Afghanistan. Her new novel, "Farishta," tells the story of Angela Morgan, whose husband died in the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut in 1983. After mourning for 20 years, Angela is sent to an isolated British Army compound in Afghanistan, and it's there that she is reborn.

Volatile food prices are making the survival of the small farmer in developing countries nearly impossible. As the developed world weathers the storms of rising food prices through sophisticated commodities markets, smaller operations in Latin America, Asia and Africa are left to the mercy of massive price fluctuations.

On Wednesday evening President Obama will unveil his exit strategy from Afghanistan. We’ll hear exactly how many of our troops will be coming home and when the U.S. military will hand over power to Afghan security forces. This comes nearly a decade after the first U.S. military campaign against Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. There has been mounting political pressure on the president to instigate a significant withdrawal and many people are hoping this marks the closing chapter of the War in Afghanistan. 

Students have been complaining about their teachers and principals, probably since the first schoolhouses opened. But in the Internet age, it's easy for students broadcast their frustrations publicly via social networks, and courts are now having to step in and define whether their online back talk is protected free speech.

UK authorities have arrested a 19-year-old under suspicion for his potential connection to the hacking group LulzSec. The group has claimed to have pulled off attacks on PBS, Sony and the Senate.

The group has a mischievous persona. It has set up a hotline for people to call in and suggest sites that should be attacked. The recorded voice that answers claims, in an exaggerated French accent, that "Pierre Dubois and Franvois Deluxe" are not available because they’re out hacking websites. Yesterday, they announced that they're teaming up with Anonymous, another hacking group with a deeper political bent.

The first big deadline for presidential candidates to report their campaign fund raising donations is approaching at the end of June.

Among the GOP hopefuls, Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-Minn) is getting a lot of attention for her past ability to turn big political statements into campaign cash. She welcomed a million dollar windfall into her campaign coffers the day after a 2008 appearance on "HardBall" with Chris Matthews, where she described the Obamas as anti-American. Many are calling these controversial statements and sloganeering "Money Blurting." But will Bachman’s blurts be enough to siphon donations away from the money making machine that is the Mitt Romney campaign and other candidates?

The White House and Congress are butting heads over who authorizes military action in Libya. The 60-day deadline for President Obama to get approval from Congress to go to war passed on May 20th.

Tuesday, the White House offered its first public argument on why the administration thinks it has not violated the War Powers Resolution. The White House Press Secretary said that President Obama’s actions are consistent with the War Powers Act. However, ten members of Congress, led by Representative Dennis Kucinich filed a lawsuit Tuesday, effectively asking a judge to order an end to U.S. involvement in the war.

As Republicans reacted to Monday's GOP debate, another candidate entered the fray. Jon Huntsman, former Utah governor and ambassador to China under President Obama, said that he will announce his candidacy for president. Huntsman only recently left his post as ambassador.

The banking industry, like basically all commercial industry, is always looking for ways to innovate their products and services. Take ATMs or the kind of innovation that allows customers to view the image of their check right on their banking receipt - those cost money to develop. And the banking industry has been lobbying to change the patent laws tied to these sorts of business innovations.

In China, factory workers and their families are speaking out about a growing public health scandal for the Chinese government. Mass lead poisonings are showing up in factory towns across the country. Lead is showing up in high levels in homes situated near factories, as well as in the blood of factory workers and their families.

Earlier this week, we told you that hackers had infiltrated Citibank’s security system and gained the sensitive account information of more than 200,000 of their customers. What we didn’t know then was that Citigroup officials had discovered the security breach three weeks earlier and failed to notify their customers.

Thousands of Syrian refugees spilled into Turkey as a violent government crackdown unfolded over the weekend.  The crackdown was carried out by elite Syrian troops in reaction to reports of dozens of military defections in the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour.

As a rising tide of unrest swept across the Middle East this past Spring many authoritarian regimes in the region initially reacted by shutting down the Internet and social networking sites.

The tactic was used in Egypt, Libya and recently Syria. However, protesters have continued to risk their lives to broadcast stories of brutal repression and violence. Meanwhile, the United States has been working on creating a shadow mobile network, with the idea of providing a secure network for protesters.

Alabama has become the latest state to enact very strict new immigration policy.  The new law, signed by Governor Robert Bentley, is said to be the most severe in the country, including Arizona’s controversial SB1070. The new Alabama law will require public schools to verify the immigration status of all elementary and secondary students and will bar enrollment to illegal immigrants seeking to attend college.

Yesterday, a half-dozen senior advisers on the Newt Gingrich presidential campaign team resigned. Gingrich’s campaign manager was among the six. At the very least they’ve made the political comeback that Gingrich was working on a bit more complicated. At worst, they’d destroyed his hopes for unseating President Barack Obama in the 2012 election. 

Thousands of Mexicans have gathered for a 900-mile march to protest against the drug cartels and the violence that has gripped the country. Their caravan started last weekend in Cuernavaca, a resort and industrial city south of Mexico City. Mexican poet Javier Sicilia—whose son was killed by members of the Mexican drug cartel two months ago—is leading the march. It will conclude when the marchers cross the border from Ciadad-Juarez into El Paso, Texas.

It’s been more than a year since the explosion aboard the Deep Water Horizon oil rig that led to the deaths of 11 workers and millions of barrels of oil being spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the widows of those killed on the Horizon are pushing for a new law that would allow them to sue for pain and suffering. 

The Senate Commerce Committee approved the bill on Wednesday. It would change long-standing Maritime laws that limit the liability in the case of death on the high seas.

After being held in detention for six weeks, the Libyan government announced on Wednesday that they will release four foreign journalists. Just a day earlier, the Libyan government had sentenced the journalists to one year of captivity on charges of illegally entering the country. And a fifth journalist, Dorothy Parvaz who works for Al Jazeera, arrived safely at the network’s headquarters in Doha after disappearing in Syria and being sent to Iran. We talk with Diane Foley, the mother of James Foley, a reporter for the Global Post who was among the four detained in Libya.

As the summer season comes closer and closer, one question abounds: where are you going for vacation? If you have a large car and a large family, the answer might be closer to home. Gas prices are at a nearly all-time high around the U.S. So, is it really affecting behavior? We've been asking listeners to weigh in with the prices at the pump in their own communities, and whether or not that will have an impact on summer travel. John Manrique, Takeaway listener on WLRN in South Florida talks about his expensive commute. And other listeners weigh in.

The crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Syria has worsened. Plain clothes police have been pulling protesters off the streets and throwing them into vans, and threatening imprisonment to those who have video of protests on their cell phones. We get an update on the situation in that country from Anthony Shadid, reporter for The New York Times. Shadid explains that Syria's government is "in survival mode and it has signaled it's intention in brute force." Is it time for international intervention?