This shift was reflected in some tough talk this weekend by the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, as the annual meeting of China’s parliament drew to a close.

For more about China’s increasingly assertive tone, Daljit Dhaliwal interviews Michael Kulma, Director of Global Policy Initiatives at the Asia Society.

Our German partner Deutsche Welle reports on Wen’s defiant speech.

All three of the dead were connected to the U.S. Consulate there, underscoring the risks of living and working in that city.

The State Department has authorized the families of its diplomatic personnel across northern Mexico to leave the country.

But, as Tom Ackerman of Al Jazeera English reports, the killings were just a few of dozens in Mexico this weekend.

The latest chapter involves allegations of such abuse against children in a boys’ choir dating back to the time when the Pope’s brother was in charge of that choir.

Church officials say that while the Pope was the Archbishop of Munich in the 1980’s, he approved the transfer from one city to another of a priest convicted of sexually abusing children. That priest has since been suspended.

For more on the sex scandal, Daljit Dhaliwal speaks with Nikolaus Piper, senior correspondent for the German daily newspaper Süeddeutsche Zeitung.

And as Deutsche Welle reports, the latest revelations are fueling a debate on whether the German statute of limitations should be extended so that those who committed sex abuse might still be prosecuted.

Mongolia’s three million people and forty million animals are now being tested by a brutal winter that followed a drought last summer.

Tony Birtley of Al Jazeera English reports how grazing, the backbone of the country’s economy, is under threat.

Mongolia battles severe weather yearly, but this year, the UB Post reports that Mongolia is experiencing a “dzud,” which is a summer drought followed by an even harsher winter”

Before this winter (2009-2010), Mongolia had not experienced a dzud since early 2002. This winter, Mongolia is experiencing unusually cold weather with temperatures dropping well below minus 20 [-4 Fahrenheit] as early as mid-December. It is expected temperatures will fall to minus 48 [-54 Fahrenheit] as northerly weather brings bitter snow storms from Siberia.

Roughly 47% of Mongolia’s 2.7 million people rely heavily on herding livestock. A blog from the World Bank reports:

Around 35 percent of Mongolia’s work force is dependent on herding for a substantial part of their livelihoods and about 63 percent of rural household’s assets are livestock; livestock herding accounts for about a third of employment in Mongolia. Food security is also worsening, poverty levels are likely to rise and these factors may cause an increase in rural-to-urban migration. Compounding the problem is the poor condition of many pastures as a result of last year’s drought and overgrazing. In addition heavy snowfall started earlier than usual in October 2009.

According to AFP:

More than 3.5 million animals — cows, sheep, goats, yaks, horses and camels — have died so far, with 60 percent of the country still buried under deep snow.

Hundreds of thousands of livestock have perished due to lack of nourishment because the winter weather has made the ground infertile. Dead livestock in the region poses a potential threat for disease and has already directly impacted the economic and physical conditions of the Mongolian nomadic peoples.

The United Nations recently launched a campaign to provide funding to clear out dead livestock. In an effort to boost economic livelihood as well as to avoid further disaster, The Guardian reports that many Mongolian nomads are being paid to clear out the dead livestock in the affected regions.

The United Nations has launched a $4 million dollar carcass-clearing appeal for Mongolia as millions of camels, goats, yaks and horses perish across the steppe from a climate double whammy of summer drought and winter snow.

The international body will pay nomads to collect and bury dead livestock to ease the risks of disease, soil contamination and a worsening humanitarian disaster in a nation where one-third of the 2.7m population depends on animal husbandry.

As an initial step, [the United Nations Development Programme] has allocated $300,000 and will raise more fund to pay herders $4 a day to clean and bury carcasses. Eventually, it hopes to reach 60,000 of the worst affected families.

- Stephanie Savage

Some studies predict sea levels could climb six feet by the end of the century due to climate change. For the Maldives, an island chain off the southwest coast of India with a population of about 300,000, such a change would be disastrous.

For a look at how the Maldives are trying to deal with the problem, Worldfocus producer Megan Thompson traveled there recently as part of an 18-day trip sponsored by the U.N. Environmental Program.

But there were nonetheless more scuffles as Palestinians tried to enter Jerusalem’s Old City to attend Friday prayers.

The recent upswing in violence was sparked by Israel’s decision to include two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites.

This week, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited the region, meeting with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to push the peace process forward.

To discuss the issues, Daljit Dhaliwal speaks with James Rubin, an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a former assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration, and Ian Bremmer, the president of Eurasia Group, in our weekly roundtable.

In this extended interview, he talks about why he believes his nation faces grave danger from climate change — and how the Maldives hopes to set a positive example by becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral country.

Watch our signature story, Creeping seas threaten tiny island chain of Maldives.

At least 43 people were killed, including about 10 soldiers, and 100 more were wounded. Insurgent groups are still very much a force in Pakistan, a year after the army claimed it defeated them.

For more, Daljit Dhaliwal interviews Ahmad Kamal, a Pakistani diplomat for 40 years.

Hashem Ahelbarra of Al Jazeera English obtained unusual access in the Swat Valley.

For more on the rising number of super-rich in Asia, Daljit Dhaliwal speaks to Roben Farzad, senior writer for Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

And China — whose economic power rests largely on its manufacturing might — now faces labor shortages in its manufacturing heartland.

As Rob McBride of Al Jazeera English reports, young workers want more money and better opportunities.

These two rapidly growing economies have formally agreed this week to be part of the climate change accord that was worked at last December’s climate change conference in Copenhagen.

The nonbinding document calls for limiting the rise in global temperatures.

Andrew Potter of Al Jazeera English reports on the significance of the news.

For more on the Middle East negotiations, Daljit Dhaliwal speaks to two specialists on the region: Ghassan Shabaneh, assistant professor of international studies at Marymount Manhattan College, and in Washington, Steven Cook, senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The AP says preliminary estimates show that the coalition led by the current prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is doing well in Baghdad and in the Shiite south of Iraq.

In the capital’s green zone, ballot boxes were delivered today to the independent election commission as the counting process began.

Despite a wave of violence Sunday that killed at least 26 people, 62 percent of 19 million eligible voters turned out — lower than during the last Iraqi parliamentary election.

Both the top U.S. general and the American ambassador praised the election process, echoing what President Obama said yesterday. And General Ray Odierno re-affirmed the phased withdrawal of the 96,000 U.S. troops currently in Iraq.

For more, Daljit Dhaliwal speaks with Michael Wahid Hanna, a fellow at the Century Foundation.

Mike Hanna of Al Jazeera English followed one elderly woman who was voting for the future.

While many societal barriers against women have been broken, we were struck by the results of a global survey by Reuters/Ipsos. It found that one in four people around the world still believes that a woman’s place is in the home.

In India, Turkey and Japan, almost half said women should stay at home, with little difference in attitude between men and women.

For more, Daljit Dhaliwal interviews Anne Marie Goetz, chief adviser for governance, peace and security at the U.N. Development Fund for Women.

And Jason Overdorf reports for our partner GlobalPost on how class differences influence attitudes about gender in Delhi.

We also examine what has changed in the Middle East in the seven years since the Iraq invasion.

Daljit Dhaliwal interviews Gideon Rose, managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine, and Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University.

But, as John Jensen reports, sex is being used to promote better health, and in the process, these advertisements are also breaking some taboos.

Turkey supports the U.S. in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and has had a long military relationship with the U.S.

By a margin of one vote, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a non-binding resolution calling the World War I-era killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks a “genocide.” Turkey contends that the death toll is inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war.

Ironically, the vote comes as relations between Turkey and Armenia have recently improved.

For more, Daljit Dhaliwal speaks to Bulent Aliriza, director of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Tarek Bazley of Al Jazeera English reports on Turkey’s reaction.

As the battle for Marjah goes on, NATO is making plans for an even larger campaign in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city and a center of the Taliban insurgency.

To help manage that growing effort, the Wall Street Journal reports the U.S. and its allies will create a new U.S.-led command in Southeast Afghanistan.

For more on the challenges that lie ahead, Daljit Dhaliwal interviews Marvin Weinbaum, a scholar at the Middle East Institute and former State Department analyst on Afghanistan.

To shed light on the legacy of conflict in Afghanistan, our German partner Deutsche Welle reports on the lessons of Russia’s long war there through the experience of one former soldier.

Back in 1990, when fast food arrived in Moscow, Russians considered the items to be delicacies. Today, Russia boasts the busiest McDonald’s in the world.

Oksana Boyko of Russia Today reports on how McDonald’s offered more than just fast food — it represented Western values.

Watch a 2003 commerical for McDonald’s - the Russian version of “I’m Loving It.”

The Private Sector Development Blog, which is maintained by the World Bank Group’s Rapid Response knowledge service, noted another important aspect of the anniversary.

McDonald’s is celebrating its 20th anniversary in Russia this week. One of the most interesting aspects of McDonald’s’ Russian adventure is the evolution of its supply chain, which has developed remarkably in the past 20 years. Today, McDonald’s sources all of its ingredients from outside purveyors, an 180 degree shift from when the company opened its first outlet in 1990:

The company celebrated a different milestone earlier this year by outsourcing the last product — hamburger buns — it had made at a proprietary factory outside Moscow called McComplex. It was built before the chain opened its first restaurant. Nearly everywhere else, McDonald’s buys ingredients, rather than making its own. But in the Soviet Union, there simply were no private businesses to supply the 300 or so distinct ingredients needed by a McDonald’s outlet.

Everything — from frozen French fries to pie filling — had to be made from scratch at a sprawling factory.

In the 20 years since McDonald’s arrived in Russia, enough private enterprises have sprung up to supply nearly every ingredient needed to operate one of its restaurants.

Today, private businesses in Russia supply 80 percent of the ingredients in a McDonald’s, a reversal from the ratio when it opened in 1990 and 80 percent of ingredients were imported.

Today, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that the talks could begin as early as Sunday.

Few people know the Middle East as well as Martin Fletcher, a former NBC News correspondent who spent nearly 20 years as the Tel Aviv bureau chief. Daljit Dhaliwal speaks to Fletcher about the latest developments in the peace process.

With national elections now only days away, today saw three separate suicide bombings, which killed at least 30 people in the the northeastern provincial capital of Baqouba today.

For more on Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Iraq and what they mean for the country’s long-term stability, Daljit Dhaliwal interviews Michael Wahid Hanna, a fellow at the Century Foundation. Hanna discusses the key players in the upcoming elections and the influence of sectarian rivalry on the process.

Anita McNaught of Worldfocus partner Al Jazeera English reports on the violence.