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This week, San Diego State University was one of five sites around the nation testing new emergency response technologies. The exercises demonstrated tools developed for the military that are now available for civilian first responders. A lot of money is being invested in powerful new surveillance tools, but are these making us any safer?

Steve Inskeep speaks with NPR's Scott Horsley, who is traveling with President Obama in Asia, about the Group of 20 summit in Seoul, South Korea. Horsley says the leaders agreed to develop yardsticks to help detect when a country is running too big of a deficit or too big of a surplus.

The U.S. and others say they are ready to broaden the leadership of key international institutions, but the emerging powers may not be satisfied with a share of the leadership. They may want to change the institutions themselves and the principles that guide them.

The goal of this week's two-day summit in Seoul, South Korea, is to create a joint plan to rebalance the global economy. But tensions are building over currency manipulation and trade, and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to flood the economy with more money through quantitative easing hasn't helped.

President Obama on Tuesday heralded a "comprehensive partnership" between the United States and Indonesia, a fast-growing country with the world's largest Muslim population.

Tunisian and Egyptian political activists used Facebook and Twitter to organize protests and publicize breaking news. Harvard's Jillian York discusses the use of social media platforms for digital activism, and cases in which governments have blocked the services or compromised user privacy.

Researchers at MIT have developed a laptop computer they say will cost $100 and could be used by millions of children in developing countries. Some critics, including Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates, say it's the wrong approach.

A disclosure before proceeding: I am an omnivore, preferring my animal flesh charred over an open flame though I seldom eat red meat since a little round of prostate cancer and radiation a few years back. I also believe responsible research using animals has probably saved my life and the lives of many other humans, and I have no objection to that.

California Propositions Require Some Homework

The recent emergence of Kim Jong Un as the designated successor to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il once again put the spotlight on the secretive communist nation. Yet little has been said about U.S. efforts to re-engage North Korea.