Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a major address at the Newseum in Washington DC on January 21. She spoke in favor of uncensored access to the Internet and elaborated on the position the U.S. has taken regarding Internet freedom.

My brother-in-law and his wife are expecting a baby in June. After they had the 20 week ultrasound, he called to tell me it was a girl. I asked him how they felt about that. "Actually, we are excited because we both hoped for a girl," he said.

Jean Shinoda Bolen is asking you to sign a petition for a Fifth UN World Conference on Women. Said petition would be delivered to the UN Secretary-General, to the chair of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and to the woman who will be appointed to head the new women's "super-agency" in March 2010. Shinoda Bolen explains:

What happens with a newly-elected Indian minister in the central government starts tweeting? Many hilarious controversies, clashes and headlines.

The general assumption in the climate change circles has been that there can be no substantial outcome at Copenhagen unless the U.S., India and China -- among the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters -- agree to binding norms. Given the current state of the U.S. economy, that will be a tough sell for President Obama and his negotiators, since India and China are unlikely to give in to mandatory targets or trade barriers; they are pushing for developed countries (accused of being prime polluters) to bear the heavier financial burden of keeping Earth from heating over two degrees Celsius, a debt the U.S. has stoutly denied that it owes developing nations. However, both India and China seem to be aware of how crucial it is for them to develop at a fast clip, but sustainably.

Passports with Purpose (PwP) is a collaborative online fundraiser created by four Seattle-based travel bloggers, returns for a second year with the goal of raising USD13,000 to build a school in rural Cambodia through American Assistance for Cambodia (AAfC).  As of this writing, they are just a few hundred dollars way from their goal.

In the build up to President Obama's first state dinner, news anchors wondered in awe and glee what new surprises --- like the now-immortalized Princess Diana-John Travolta twirl --- the occasion would throw up. Given that their guests were the India Prime Minister and his wife, I didn't expect another dance surprise.

First they called her "that girl". Then, "madam". Eventually, they referred to her as "sir."

Much as we would like to believe that the long-drawn West Asian wars will end soon, the fact is that the U.S. now has a third front to its war on terror: Pakistan. And the Pakistan front is likely to be open for a long time. As a Taliban spokesperson reportedly said: "We are prepared for a long war."

For the past four years, the World Economic Forum has studied the gender gap - that is, the amount of resources dedicated to boys and girls and women's opportunities to fully participate in society - in over 100 countries, then ranked them. (In 2009, the Index included data from 134 nations. At least 12 of 14 indicators used for the Index must be available in order for a country to be included.) The goal, according to the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report, is:

The "immigrant experience"  is a phrase I usually associate with the U.S., what with people from across the world streaming in here everyday. A travelogue is what I'd associate with literature by foreigners from India. But the blogosphere is telling a different story. Many American and other Western citizens, who have either got on the love train or are riding the global economy wave that took them to India or simply love living there, are blogging about their experiences in a personal way that travel guides are unlikely to offer. Some are there for a few years.

[Updated to add below new related links to stories about India and climate change]