The president of the United States may be the most powerful person in the world, but there are still things he's not allowed to do -- like trade stocks while knowing insider information, or throw Naked Thursday dinner parties at the White House.

Now, add to those taboos shaking hands with leaders of certain countries.

It was only recently at the G-20 summit that Barack Obama was "bending his tall frame" to the king of Saudi Arabia. But on Friday, Obama shook hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at a summit in Trinidad and Tobago.

As the fair and balanced network Fox News objectively told us in a headline, "Handshake With Obama Belies Chavez's Contempt for America."

And Dick Cheney, who like Santa Claus apparently has a list of things that are naughty and nice, told that same award-wanting news network that the handshake "was not helpful."

It's difficult to take a country's court system seriously when it convicts defendants in secret trials. It also doesn't help when the president of that country is a Holocaust denier and suspected terrorist. And it really doesn't look professional to accuse the defendant -- a journalist -- of "espionage" without providing a single piece of real evidence.

But such is the perplexing case of Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American reporter who was convicted of spying by Iran's shady court this week. The prosecutors accused the 31-year-old journalist of passing along secret information to U.S. intelligence agencies.

Spying is a pretty serious career choice, not to mention time-consuming. For Saberi to successfully spy on the Iranian government, she would have to maintain a cover, make contacts and stay under the radar for most of the six years that she's lived in the country (at least, according to the Spy Museum tour I took in D.C.).

So if suspected spy Saberi was supposed to lay low, why was she filing dozens of stories each month for news organizations like the BBC, NPR and Fox? In June 2007, she was on the front line in Tehran when Iranians burned down gas stations in opposition to fuel rationing. And she was on the scene when the Islamic country banned women from soccer games the year before, too.

Either Roxana Saberi is a terrible spy, or she's not a spy at all.

Two American journalists face five to ten years' detention in a North Korean labor camp after being seized by border guards and charged with "illegal entry" and carrying out "hostile" activities, according to a Reporters Sans Frontièrs (Reporters Without Borders) report dated March 31.

RSF, an international organization advocating and monitoring freedom of the press, reports that the journalists were near the Chinese border with North Korea investigating the smuggling of North Korean women into China for sale. RSF cites multiple anonymous sources that suspect that the American journalists were on the Chinese side of the Tumen River when North Korean border guards crossed into China to capture them on March 17, which contradicts North Korea's assertion and refutes their jurisdiction.

Euna Lee (pictured, left) and Laura Ling (pictured, right), of the San Francisco-based Current TV Web site, a media outlet chaired by former Vice President Al Gore, are detained in North Korea while their guide, an ethnic Korean with Chinese citizenship, is detained in China. A fourth member of the group arrested in the incident, cameraman Mitch Koss, was detained in China then deported.

RSF calls the detention of the two American journalists by North Korea "diplomatic blackmail," timed conspicuously around the scheduled missile launch to send a satellite into orbit, which some -- including Japan and the United States -- are concerned will be a test of long-range missiles capable of carrying warheads.

An anticipated report announcing changes in elementary school curriculum in England will add the study of Wikipedia and Twitter while allowing schools to opt out of teaching the Victorian era or World War II, which are taught extensively in secondary education.

Former Office for Standards in Education chief Sir Jim Rose assessed the existing British primary education curriculum and prioritized the study of blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as "sources of information and forms of communication," according to The Guardian, which the BBC cites as breaking the story.

In The Guardian's article, head of education of Britain's National Union of Teachers, John Bangs, comments that "computer skills and keyboard skills seem to be as important as handwriting in [Rose's report]. Traditional books and written texts are downplayed in response to web-based learning."

TOKYO -- At 6 feet 3 inches, and only 169 pounds, right-hander Hisashu Iwakuma kept the Koreans at the plate for most of the game.

On the offensive side of Japan's lineup and earning his spot as the championship's hero was Ichiro, who at 5 feet 9 inches and 160 pounds drove in two runs with an up-the-middle line drive after a patient, samurai-like at-bat.

There is no denying that Japan is likely the skinniest baseball team not only to win the World Baseball Classic (twice in a row), but probably to even play in it. Coming from a country whose main foods are noodles and fish, most of these players would probably scoff at the notion that injecting their bodies with steroids would make them better athletes.

As if somewhat proving this point, Japan firmly manhandled the United States in the semifinals, 9-4, like a horde of miniature players overtaking a country that boasts baseball as its national pastime. But in truth, there is no country that loves baseball more than Japan.

At the crack of Ichiro's swinging bat as it drove the ball into center field, bringing two runs home in the top of the 10th inning yesterday, the room full of some 40-odd Japanese students I was in erupted in riotous cheers. "Pressure's on, Korea!" one student yelled.

President Barack Obama will respond to policy critiques from former Vice President Dick Cheney in televised interviews aired a week apart.

During Cheney's March 15 appearance on CNN's State of the Nation he stated that "When you go back to the law enforcement mode, which I sense is what [the Obama administration is] doing, closing Guantanamo and so forth... they are very much giving up that center of attention and focus that's required, that concept of military threat that is essential if you're going to successfully defend the nation against further attacks."

During Obama's Sunday night appearance on CBS' 60 Minutes he will respond to Cheney's criticism: "How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney? It hasn't made us safer. What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment," according to a CBS release from Saturday.

Regarding the changing of anti-American sentiment through policy, Hamas Chairman Khaled Mashal told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper that "a new language toward [the Middle East region] is coming from President Obama. The challenge for everybody is for this to be the prelude for a genuine change in U.S. and European policies. Regarding an official opening toward Hamas, it's a matter of time," as reported by Reuters on Sunday.

An American nuclear submarine collided with another U.S. Navy vessel which spilled 25,000 gallons of oil into a strait in the Persian Gulf before dawn on Friday.

Fifteen of the 110 sailors aboard the USS Hartford, the Los Angeles class attack submarine, were injured. The Hartford also made international headlines in 2003 when it ran aground near Italy. Aside from the ruptured fuel tank, no injuries were reported aboard the USS New Orleans (pictured), the transport vessel struck by the Hartford, which was submerged at the time of the collision.

This is the second collision in the Strait of Hormuz involving an American nuclear submarine in the past two years. In January of 2007, the USS Newport News, another Los Angeles class attack submarine, collided with a Japanese oil tanker, causing a hull breach. Although there were no injuries in that collision, the commander of the Newport News was relieved of duty.

The Strait of Hormuz is 34 miles wide at its narrowest point. The New Orleans, the larger of the two vessels involved in the recent collision, is only 684 feet long.

Friday's collision occurred just six weeks after British and French nuclear submarines collided in the Atlantic Ocean in early February.

The Obama administration is finalizing a new focus in the continuing war on terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan: civility.

While increasing the military personnel deployed in Afghanistan by 17,000 to 55,000 in 2009, the United States also plans to increase the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and other provincial reconstruction teams, or PRTs, by nearly 300, a policy that the Washington Post has called a "civilian surge." Few of the 1,055 existing members of PRTs to date are civilians.

Rather than continuing simply to saturate Afghanistan with U.S. soldiers, the focus on its civil development will include policy reform and instruction from specialists in federal departments of Agriculture and Justice, among others, in effect utilizing the United States government as a public global consulting firm, nation-building the third world, one nation at a time, on U.S. taxpayers' dollars.

This is an attempt to stave off Afghanistan's digression toward the status of a "failed state," as the U.N. has warned in the last few years (pictured: U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, left, and Afghanistani President Hamid Karzai).

Afghanistan ranked seventh on 2008's failed state index, having continued to rise since coming in at 11th in 2005.

Former TV news journalist Mauricio Funes (pictured) of the Social-Democrat FMLN party defeated rival presidential candidate Rodrigo Ávila in the first ruling party change in El Salvador in nearly two decades during Sunday's election. Sitting Salvadoran president Antonia Saca of the rival conservative ARENA party was also a former journalist. Incumbent presidents may not run for re-election.

Note: one out of two former journalists to become president of El Salvador in the past decade is conservative.

Would "a rose by any other name still smell so" rebellious?

Fox News' syndicated AP story ran with the headline "Leftist Ex-CNN Reporter Wins El Salvador Presidency."

The Huffington Post's syndication of a Washington Post story ran with the headline "Mauricio Funes Wins El Salvador Election In A First For Leftist Ex-Rebels," while the original Washington Post story ran with the headline "Leftist Declares Victory In El Salvador Election.

Even the BBC ran their story with the headline "Left-Winger Wins El Salvador Poll."

Although Funes represented the FMLN party, which was founded by Marxist guerillas in the Salvadoran civil war that ended in 1991, the AP story states that he is "a moderate plucked from outside the ranks of the rebel-group-turned-political-party," who won with 51 to 49 percent of the votes. How left-of-center can a two percent popular vote victor in a country that hasn't had a non-conservative ruler in nearly two decades be?

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao expressed concerns about the increasing U.S. debt and the lasting recession in a news conference on Friday.

Roughly 70 percent of China's $2 trillion foreign exchange reserves are U.S. government loans. China is the biggest holder of the $10.9 trillion U.S. government debt in the world, followed closely by Japan who, along with the United Kingdom share more than 50 percent of it.

"We have lent a massive amount of capital to the United States, and of course we are concerned about the security of our assets," a recent Reuters article quoted Wen as saying on Friday.

"To speak truthfully, I do indeed have some worries. I would like [...] to once again request America to maintain their creditworthiness, keep their promise and guarantee the safety of Chinese assets."

Wen also expressed concern for the key interest rate, which the Federal Reserve bank has held at virtually zero percent for the past three months, which is decreasing the value of China's U.S. bond holdings. The rate dropped from one percent to an unprecedented quarter of one percent on December 16.

Bernard Madoff is expected to plead guilty to all 11 criminal charges at his plea proceeding scheduled for 10 a.m. on Thursday, according to the U.S Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York handling his trial. A plea arrangement has not been reached and therefore none of the charges Madoff faces will be waived.

The charges against Madoff, with their maximum penalties, are as follows:

Charge One: securities fraud; 20 years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Two: investment advisor fraud; five years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Three: mail fraud; 20 years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Four: wire fraud; 20 years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Five: international money laundering to promote fraud in the sale of securities, mail fraud, wire fraud, and theft from an employee benefit plan; 20 years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Six: international money laundering to conceal the proceeds of fraud in the sale of securities, mail fraud, wire fraud and theft from an employee benefit plan; 20 years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Seven: money laundering; 10 years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Eight: making false statements; five years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Nine: perjury; five years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Ten: making a false filing with the SEC; 20 years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

Charge Eleven: theft from an employee benefit plan; five years' imprisonment with three years' probation.

The total maximum term of imprisonment for the charges to which Madoff is expected to plead guilty is 150 years. He is 70.

Additionally, for the crimes Madoff has been committing since "at least" the 1980s, he must forfeit $170.8 billion in assets.

The New York Times and The Washington Post both reported on Tuesday that Washington and Moscow are negotiating a joint opposition against Tehran's nuclear program. The catch is that if Iran is kept from breaching their nuclear non-proliferation agreement, the new missile defense system in Europe, supported by the U.S., will not be completed as it will be deemed no longer necessary.

U.S. President Barack Obama sent a letter of proposal, hand-delivered in mid-February although Russian President Dimitry Medvedev (pictured) has not formally responded. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to discuss missile defense with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a meeting in Geneva on Saturday.

One might note that The Times positioned their article above the fold on page A1 while The Post tucked their story on page A02.

One might also note that the day following the election of Barack Obama as president, Medvedev threatened to station short-range missiles along Russia's western border if the U.S. continued developing the missile defense system. Later in the day, after having issued the threat, Medvedev sent Obama a congratulation via telegram.

Also, this just in: the Cold War ended two decades ago.

The BBC reported a violent incident among Tibetan monks in the southwestern Sichuan province on Friday. Tibetans told the AFP that a monk had been shot by police while the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, only reports that the monk had collapsed before being taken to a hospital, but all parties agree that the monk had doused himself with gasoline and had set himself on fire.

Although their meeting on the third day of the Tibetan New Year, February 27, had been banned by Chinese authorities, 1,000 Tibetan monks met in the town of Aba. The burning monk at the center of attention has been identified as Tapey, who allegedly waved a Tibetan flag and shouted slogans of some kind before the immolation attempt.

To quote the BBC article: "It is extremely difficult to independently confirm any information coming out of Tibetan areas," especially extremely peculiar reports like a burning man being shot before being extinguished.

The 50th anniversary of the day Tibet's Dalai Lama (pictured) fled in exile will be March 31 so keep an eye out for more information extremely difficult to independently confirm, and don't play with matches.

A careful New York Times reader would have come across a very curious morsel of information in the fifth paragraph of a short story on page A11 of Feb. 26's edition, "C.I.A. Pakistan Campaign Is Working, Director Says."

The article is ostensibly about the newly appointed director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta (pictured), and his unclassified, quotable, printable remarks about drone aircraft and missile strikes in Pakistan and the recent peculiar Pakistani government negotiations in the North-West Frontier Province, which hosts the Swat Valley Taliban haven.

However, the alarming fifth paragraph reads "[Panetta] also said that the spy agency had begun producing a daily report to the White House about the world financial crisis – another sign that American intelligence agencies are increasingly nervous about how it could affect global security."

That is, the likelihood of an international security breach (i.e. war, somewhere, some way, somehow) because of the global recession is high enough that the C.I.A. briefs the White House Cabinet not on a monthly or weekly but daily basis about what has changed since the last briefing, 24 hours ago.

Just F.Y.I.

The chief minister of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province announced on Sunday that 30,000 rifles will be freely distributed to villagers.

On Monday, Feb. 16, the Pakistani government had announced an appeasement of Swat Valley Taliban, promising to impose Islamic law in the North West Frontier Province if fighting ceases in the region.

It is uncertain, however, if handing out 30,000 weapons to locals, creating yet another militia, will effectively discourage violence from the Taliban, or just add to the number of guns from which bullets can fly.

The firearms had been seized from "terrorists and anti-state elements," according to the province's chief minister, Haider Khan Hoti.

So naturally, terrorists and anti-state elements who have had 30,000 of their weapons taken from them, only to see the weapons handed over to villagers, have no interest in retrieving their weapons, to use them once again in terrorist and anti-state attacks. Inserting thousands of weapons into one of the most volatile of regions in the world, naturally, could only lead to less violence.

Lock and load for peace!