Global Briefing, Mar. 2, 2011: Ten Stories to Start Your Day

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Another Assassination:  TIME’s Aryn Baker links the killing of Pakistan’s minister for minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, to the country’s controversial blasphemy laws.

Taking Tripoli — Abigail Hauslohner visits a resistance camp in “Free Libya,” where a rag-tag group of volunteers are readying for battle; Tony Karon considers the obstacles to western military intervention.

Fighting Words — The Financial Times plays up Mukesh Ambani’s critique of Manmohan Singh’s “meaningless” reforms. In 2007, TIME named Ambani one of India’s most influential people.

Sputnik Moments — An education expert debunks the myth that Chinese kids are stealing America’s future. America’s Tiger moms would never let that happen.

Rainbow Flags — TIME explains how the same-sex marriage debate is shaking up Peru’s presidential race.

Cost Cutting —Getting out of Afghanistan would solve the budget crises plaguing Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Idaho, argues Amy Goodman in the Guardian.

Beautiful Losers — Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, praises Mikhail Gorbachev and F. W. de Klerk, calling then men who made history “by gracefully getting out of its way.”  Nudge, nudge.

Train Wrecks — China’s most influential business magazine, Caijing, investigates the powerful players caught up in a railway graft probe. TIME’s Austin Ramzy wrote about the magazine’s former editor, Hu Shuli, in 2009.

Gaddafi’s Africa — Howard French describes how Gadaffi’s “impassioned pan-Africanism” was sidelined by megalomania and greed.

Avian Army — What’s China’s latest stealth weapon ? Messenger pigeons, reports Chengcheng Jiang from Beijing. But can they compete with militant monkeys? We think not.