Chung Sung-jun / Getty Images

South Korean students take their College Scholastic Ability Test at a school on Nov. 18, 2010 in Seoul, South Korea. More than 700,000 high school seniors and graduates sit for the examinations at 1,100 test centers across the country. Success in the exam, one of the most rigourous standardized tests in the world, enables students to study at Korea's top universities.

Ahn Young-joon / AP

A South Korean student runs for a gate, which is about to close, while heading to her College Scholastic Ability Test in front of an exam hall in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010.

Chung Sung-jun / Getty Images

South Korean students take their College Scholastic Ability Test at a school on Nov. 18, 2010 in Seoul, South Korea.

Chung Sung-jun / Getty Images

South Korean high school boys and girls cheer for their senior classmates taking the College Scholastic Ability Test on Nov. 18, 2010 in Seoul, South Korea.

Chung Sung-jun / Getty Images

Parents pray for their children's success at the College Scholastic Ability Test at Chogye Buddhist temple on Nov. 18, 2010 in Seoul, South Korea.

Ahn Young-joon / AP

South Korean parents pray during a special service to wish for their children's success in the upcoming Colleague Scholastic Ability Test at the Jogye Temple in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010. Traffic control and anti-noise measures were ready across the nation Wednesday on the eve of the College Scholastic Ability Test.

How do you feel about this type of tests for college?

From Wikipedia:

College Scholastic Ability Test also known as Suneung, is a type of standardized test accepted by all South Korean universities. The CSAT is managed by the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Examination. The test is offered on the second Thursday of November. On the test day, government employees arrive to work later than the ordinary time to avoid traffic jams that could prevent students from getting to testing sites. The CSAT is one of the most rigorous standardized tests in existence, and students start preparing for it as early as elementary school. Since South Korea has one of the highest number of post-secondary degree holders in the world, the extreme pressure felt by students culminate to teenage depression and high rates of suicide. Oftentimes, students are escorted by police, especially if students don't think they will arrive at the test centre on time. Since the test is almost literally a life-and-death exam for students, the preparation for it is so secure and strict that since its beginning from 1993, Suneung questions were never leaked. Questions are made by chosen professors and teachers, who are locked in a hotel with blacked windows, no communication and a full library of questions until the end of Suneung.

 

Today was a good day for GM. The company announced the stock price for its initial public offering. It’s the biggest U.S. IPO in history. The shares could raise almost $23 billion for the company.

And in more interesting news, today GM unveiled its 2011 convertible Camaro at the LA Auto show. Click here to see a slideshow from the auto show.

Reed Saxon / AP

The 2011 Chevrolet Camaro convertible, due in dealer showrooms in February, debuts at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Nov. 17, 2010.

Msnbc.com story: It's official: GM sets stock price for massive IPO

More about this situation here.

KHALED AL-HARIRI / Reuters

Sheikh Ghazi Rashad Hrimis touches dried earth in the parched region of Raqqa province in eastern Syria, November 11, 2010.

KHALED AL-HARIRI / Reuters

A sign is seen on the road to the city of Raqqa in the semi-desert region of eastern Syria November 11, 2010.

KHALED AL-HARIRI / Reuters

A view of a water canal running from the Euphrates river into the semi-desert region of eastern Syria November 11, 2010. The ancient Inezi tribe of Syria reared camels in the sandswept lands north of the Euphrates river from the time of the Prophet Mohammad. Now water shortages have consigned that way of life to distant memory. Drought in the past five years has also killed 85 percent of livestock in eastern Syria, the Inezis' ancestral land. Up to half a million people have left the region in one of Syria's largest internal migrations since France and Britain carved the country out of the Ottoman Empire in 1920.

In the second and third images, you can see how development has lined the Nile and Mississippi rivers. (In the bottom image, the Mississippi appears at top, above the ISS, angling upward and to the right from the bright blob of New Orleans).

NASA via EPA

A handout photograph made available by NASA on 17 November 2010 showing Sicily and the 'boot' of Italy, at night with the Mediterranean Sea representing most of the visible water in the view and the Adriatic Sea to the right of centre. Tunisia is partially visible on the left in this night time image shot by one of the Expedition 25 crew members aboard the International Space Station flying 354 km above Earth on 28 October 2010.

NASA via Reuters

A night time photograph made by an International Space Station Expedition 25 crewmember shows the bright lights of Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt on the Mediterranean coast as well as the Nile River and its delta which stand out clearly in this image released by NASA and taken October 28, 2010.

NASA via Reuters

A night time photograph made by an International Space Station Expedition 25 crewmember shows a view of the northern Gulf coast in this image provided by NASA and taken October 29, 2010. The lights of Mobile Bay, New Orleans and Houston are visible as well as the Interstate Highway 20 cities of Jackson, Shreveport, Dallas and Fort Worth as the view extends northward (left) to Little Rock and Oklahoma City.

Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

Afghan female prisoners spend time inside the courtyard of the women's prison on October 22, 2010 in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.

Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

Sakina (L) , 4, and Khujesta,5, play inside the women's prison where they live with their mothers in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.

Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

Shawal Jamila,19, smokes a cigarette inside the women's prison in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan. Accused of bad behavior, she ran away from home with her boyfriend and has been in prison for five-months.

Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

Zuhra holds her son Sahil, five-months-old, inside her room at the women's prison in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan. Zuhra has been accused of killing her husband and unless lawyers can reverse the sentence she will have to serve at least five years.

Paula Bronstein, a senior staff photographer for Getty Images based in Bangkok, has traveled to Afghanistan every year since 2001. I asked her to comment on a photo essay she recently did on an Afghan women's prison in Mazar-e-Sharif.

Here's what she told me:

I rarely choose to embed with the military, preferring to focus on the daily life of Afghans. I wanted to visit women’s prisons where the stories highlight the problems that women face in a country where basic human rights and the rule of law don’t work in their favor. Often the courts defer to Islamic Sharia law, which has wide variety of interpretations, rather than following the laws in the books. In October, I wanted to follow up on the state of women and the legal system so I chose to visit a women’s prison that I hadn’t been to before in Mazar-e-Sharif, a smaller city where gaining access was more manageable. Many of the incarcerated females are being held for moral crimes, some even for bad behavior. These crimes include such offenses as running away from home, refusing to marry, marriage without proper family consent and attempted adultery. In the worst cases, women are detained for many years. Children are allowed to live with their mothers at the prison up to a certain age, residing in small dormitory rooms. Upon their release, many of the women have no home to go to and end up at a woman’s shelter until a more permanent solution is found.

I was impressed by these women -- they were brave. Just the act of smoking cigarettes was a surprise to me because you rarely ever see women smoke here.  I brought small gifts of shampoo, soap, washing powder and toys for the children. The women were delighted to have a strange guest even though we had to speak through a translator.  I took as many pictures as I could because I wasn't sure when they were going to usher me away. Though I only spent a few hours at a time in my three visits, I sensed their loss of hope and a sadness. I tried to imagine running away from home, then being jailed just because of a boyfriend or an unhappy marriage. The women have no real freedom, even when not imprisoned. I hope by telling their story I can help them in some way.

Karim Ben Khelifa

Yemen’s profile rose dramatically following a cargo bomb plot on two planes bound for the United States on October 29, 2010. The parcels were intercepted by Dubai and Britain, and several days later the Yemen-based group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility. The Muslim nation has increasingly gained a reputation as a safe haven for Islamic extremists. Here, men wearing traditional dress stand on a path through cactus trees. Most of the villages in the countryside are made of local stone and surrounded by natural vegetation, making it difficult to distinguish them from the surrounding wilderness.

As Yemen is thrust into the American consciousness following last month’s package bomb scares, we’ve been trying to put context around this physically and culturally distant country.

Photographer Karim Ben Khelifa helps shed some light with images from his time living in and visiting Yemen over the past decade.

Khelifa feels like the perception of the country is very different from the situation on the ground and that motivates him. “What is interesting as a photojournalist is to go behind what is assumed by the Western world,” Khelifa says.

It's certainly not the easiest or safest place to work. He points out that like the United States, it’s one of the most armed countries in the world. Cultural differences and a suspicion of Westerners also make it difficult to move freely in some areas. But Khelifa’s background is an asset. He grew up in both Belgium and Tunisia, so he speaks Arabic. Khelifa also grows a beard to help him blend into the society physically.

His other method of immersing himself in the country has been to “get a car, travel around, get stuck and see the country.” And it’s been getting stuck on the side of the road in his old 1977 Toyota Land Cruiser, time and time again, that has shown him the softer side of Yemen. The locals have never allowed him to stay broken down for long. If they can’t fix the car, they invite Khalifa into their homes and shower him with hospitality, he says.

Khelifa calls Yemen “a very complicated puzzle.” There is a widening disparity between rich and poor. Poverty makes people an easy target for al-Qaida recruiters. Water is growing ever scarcer, and there is pressure from being at the crossroads of the Arab world and Africa since the country lies just across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia. Yet it's also what he considers one of the "purest" forms of Arab culture, from the architecture to religious customs.

His goal in continuing to work in Yemen is to try to help people notice the commonalities between East and West. He sees a danger in “people focusing on what puts people apart than what puts people together.”

See the slideshow of Karim's work. 

Michael Kamber

Photojournalist Karim Ben Khelifa in his 1977 Toyota Land Cruiser as he works in Yemen.

Mike Stone / Reuters

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice introduces former Vice President Dick Cheney at the ground breaking ceremony for the George W. Bush Presidential Center on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, Nov. 16, 2010.

I was taken aback this afternoon when I saw pictures of former Vice President Dick Cheney. He is noticeably thinner, and he walked with a cane. My mental image of Cheney has always been one of a strong, old-guard, cold warrior. Seeing him today was another reminder of how time slips away.

Remi Ochlik / Polaris

Haitians hold anti-U.N. protests in Cap-Haitien, yelling anti-U.N. slogans, hurling stones at U.N. peacekeepers and setting up burning barricades. The protesters are accusing Nepalese of bringing cholera to Haiti.

Hector Retamal / AFP - Getty Images

A woman lies on the pavement near the General Hospital where people infected by cholera are being treated, Nov. 16, 2010, in Port-au-Prince.

AP’s Jonathan M. Katz reports:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — An outbreak of cholera has killed more than 1,000 people, the Haitian government said Tuesday as it sent top officials to the country's north in hopes of quelling violent protests against U.N. peacekeepers accused of spreading the disease.

Read the full story: Haiti's cholera death toll grows, fueling riots

This morning’s announcement feels oddly familiar. The first thing I thought about when I heard the news of the engagement was the marriage of Charles and Diana. Let’s hope the happiness that eluded the parents will be attainable by the son and his fiancée.

EPA file (left) / Ben Stansall / AFP - Getty Images (right)

Charles Windsor, Prince of Wales, and his then fiancée Lady Diana Spencer, Feb. 24, 1981, on the day their engagement was announced in the gardens of Buckingham Palace in London. (Right) Prince William and his fiancée Kate Middleton pose for photographers in St. James Palace in London, Nov. 16, 2010, to mark their engagement. Britain's Prince William has given Kate Middleton the engagement ring that belonged to his late mother. The blue sapphire and diamond ring was given to Diana by William's father, Prince Charles, when they became engaged. Charles and Diana divorced in 1996, and she was killed in a car crash in Paris the following year.

Today show slideshow: See the fashionable similarities between Kate and other royal family members.

Newsweek reports that this princess will be different

She looks good on camera, there’s no known scandal in her background, and she’s never acquired a serious profession. So much for the points of similarity. In almost every other respect, Kate Middleton—whose engagement to Prince William was announced today—shares nothing with the last young hopeful to marry an heir to the British throne. And if Diana Spencer’s marriage to the Prince of Wales back in 1981 had the throwback quality of a dynastic union, Kate Middleton’s looks like a very 21st-century affair.

Click to read the full story.

Here's the full story.

YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP - Getty Images

A baby giant African pouch rat is rewarded with a banana by its trainer after accurately finding a dummy mine during a training exercise at the grounds of a pioneering Belgian NGO in Morogoro, Tanzania on October 27, 2010. Light, with an acute sense of smell and easily motivated by food rewards, these kind of rats have been found to be highly effective in mine detection. It takes two human deminers a day to clear a 200 square-metre (2,150 square-feet) minefield, but if they work with two rats they can sweep it in 1.5 hours. So far they have helped re-open almost two million square metres of land

YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP - Getty Images

A baby giant African pouch rat is is watched by its trainer as it learns to correctly identify the scent of tuberculosis in sputum samples during a training exercice at the grounds of a pioneering Belgian NGO in Morogoro, Tanzania on October 27, 2010.

YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP - Getty Images

A baby giant African pouch rat is carried in a cage by its trainer at the main grounds of the center.

YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP - Getty Images

A baby giant African pouch rat sits on the shoulder of the Bart Weetjens, the founder of APOPO, the Belgian NGO that's teaching the rats to smell out landmines.