In a draft proposal, the chairmen of President Obama's bipartisan deficit reduction panel are recommending a gradual increase in the retirement age for full Social Security benefits and decreased benefits for wealthier Americans.  The proposal also calls for deep cuts in domestic and military spending and a gas tax hike.  We speak with Howard Gleckman, resident fellow at the non-partisan Tax Policy Center.

Facebook and email make it easier for families to keep track of loved ones serving in the military in Afghanistan and Iraq, but when a soldier dies, does the Internet also muddle the process of notifying next of kin? The military shuts down web access for units when they suffer casualties. Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post reports that the policy can leave families in the dark about whether their loved ones have survived.  Jaffe reports on one incident that involved several military wives at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.

The results of Afghanistan's parliamentary elections are still unclear, a month and a half after the vote. The country's election commission is looking into reports of fraud, and yesterday there were protests in the streets. The BBC's Quentin Sommerville brings us the story from Kabul.

Burma held its first elections in two decades this past Sunday and the military-backed party says it won by a landslide.  The elections have been widely condemned as a sham designed to cement military rule in the country that's officially known as Myanmar.  Today we get a view from inside secretive Burma from Boston-based filmmaker John Baynard.  Baynard recently traveled to Burma to report for the website GlobalPost, despite restrictions on foreign journalists.