Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, President Barack Obama's Asia tour will conclude this week with a visit to South Korea-the world's last Cold War frontier. Even as he ponders critical next steps in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, the president in Asia faces a region on the cusp of fundamental change. More so than any of Mr. Obama's predecessors, how his administration chooses to help shape Asia's rise throughout the first quarter of the 21st century is going to have a critical impact on America's own future as a superpower.

PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu has gone to the locker room with a left knee injury following Cincinnati's opening drive. The team said his return to the game was doubtful.AFC North blogESPN.com's James Walker writes about all things AFC North in his division blog.

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It was not immediately certain when Polamalu was injured. He was on the field throughout the Bengals' first possession, which ended with Shayne Graham's missed 51-yard field goal attempt.

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Sands China Ltd., the casino companyseeking to raise as much as $5.15 billion, will open most of itsstalled resort in Macau by December 2011, almost tripling itshotel rooms in the world’s biggest gambling hub.

The project is a “quantum leap for Macau” as Las VegasSands Corp. bets that more convention space, hotel beds andshopping malls will entice visitors to prolong their stay inMacau, Michael Leven, chief operating officer of Sands China’sparent, told reporters yesterday.

Argentina manager Diego Maradona has been banned from football for two months and fined by FIFA as punishment for his rant at journalists following Argentina's qualification for the World Cup finals.

The ban, announced by a FIFA disciplinary committee after a hearing with Maradona, extends to any "football-related activity" and is effective immediately, meaning the Argentina manager is suspended from November 15 to January 15.

Militants in Pakistan have attacked the homes of two pro-government elders in the country's northwest, killing one of them in apparent retaliation for a government offensive in a Taliban stronghold.

Pakistani police say gunmen shot and killed anti-Taliban tribal elder Malik Sher Zaman at his home in the Bajur tribal region on Sunday and blew up the building.

In the other attack, police say militants approached the home of a village mayor near the city of Peshawar. Some of the attackers were covered by burqas traditionally worn by local Muslim women.

ROME, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Before opening a summit on world food issues, a U.N. official announced a 24-hour hunger strike in solidarity with the world's 1 billion malnourished people.

In Rome, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jacques Diouf participated in the hunger strike to signal the summit's goal of ending hunger as earlier as possible and establishing the right of adequate food for all humans, the U.N. reported.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Obama administration was seeking greater accountability from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, suggesting future civilian aid to the country could be tied to more aggressive action to combat corruption.

"President Karzai and his government can do better," Clinton told ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." She said the U.S. wanted to see "tangible evidence that the government ... will be more responsive to the needs of the people."

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- China’s banking regulation chiefjoined Hong Kong’s leader in blaming the Federal Reserve’sinterest-rate policy for fueling speculative capital flows thatmay spur asset-price inflation.

“The continuous depreciation in the dollar, and the U.S.government’s indication that, in order to resume growth andmaintain public confidence, it basically won’t raise interestrates for the coming 12 to 18 months, has led to massive dollararbitrage speculation,” Liu Mingkang, chairman of the ChinaBanking Regulatory Commission, said in Beijing yesterday.

ROME—Iran's first lady made rare public appearance and even more rare, a speech, at a Rome forum on the eve of a U.N. summit to fight hunger beginning Monday.

The wife of Iranian Mahmoud Ahmadinejad almost never appears in public with her husband and is believed never to have previously addressed a public gathering.

First Lady Azam al-Sadat Farahi came to the forum of wives of heads of state on Sunday, before the start Monday of the three-day summit on strategy to fight world hunger at the Rome headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO.

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The Pittsburgh Steelers face the Cincinnati Bengals at 1:00 PM ET on CBS (only in certain regions). The match-up could have major playoff implications for the entire AFC, as both teams are 6-2 and in the running for a first-round bye. Pittsburgh is favored by seven points.

It is unusual for the division foes to play each other in a meaningful game. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes that in just three instances during the past 30 years have the two teams played each other with winning records. Joe Reedy at the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that this Bengals team seems to be more able to handle success than in past years. To follow this and the rest of today's games, check out HuffPost's live NFL Twitter coverage.

BERLIN (AP) - Racing in an old-style swimsuit and on little practice, Michael Phelps had to settle for second place in the 200-meter individual final behind Darian Townsend of South Africa, who broke one of the 16 world records set in two days of competition at a short-course World Cup meet.

"I prefer not to lose, but I knew coming in that it would be very, very hard to win anything," Phelps said.

"I raced as hard as I could, I've gotten some racing under my belt and that's what we set out to do. Maybe it's better for me that I lost today, it gives me better motivation for the future," he said.

When he landed a left jab, the fans punched the air in front of them. When he took a blow to the ribs, they cringed in their chairs. And when his combinations brought his opponent to the mat, they erupted with thunderous applause.

"We all have one thing in common," said Tony Enriquez, 51, who hosted a viewing party of the pay-per-view boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto at his home in Centereach on Saturday night. "We take pride in Manny and pride in our heritage. For 36 minutes we're united as a country."

(CNN) -- David Beckham believes the furore that followed his return to the LA Galaxy from his loan spell with AC Milan earlier this year has galvanized the team.

The Galaxy won the MLS Western Conference Championship with a 2-0 win at home to Houston Dynamo on Friday night, Beckham setting up Gregg Berhalter's 102nd-minute opener.

They will face Real Salt Lake, who upset the favored Chicago Fire 5-4 in a penalty shootout to win the Eastern Conference title on Saturday to reach the MLS Cup final in Seattle next Sunday.

The Oscars took a look back, and some Oscar hopefuls took a step forward.

Three lifetime achievement Academy Awards were presented Saturday night to Lauren Bacall, B-movie mogul Roger Corman and The Godfather cinematographer Gordon Willis, and the black-tie bash came packed with some of the biggest names in the business.

Just a few of them: Jack Nicholson, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Tom Hanks, Anjelica Huston, Annette Bening and Kirk Douglas.

WASHINGTON (Nov. 15) - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is waving off rumors that she is considering a run for governor of New York. And former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani says he hasn't decided whether he'll run.

"That's another one of those stories that never will die and I'm hoping we can put it to rest today," Clinton said on ABC's "This Week." "I'm committed to the job that I have. It is an extraordinarily important time to be secretary of state of my country and to work with President Obama to pursue our interests and advance our values around the world, and that's what I'm going to continue doing."

WASHINGTON (AP) - In his visit to Beijing this week, President Barack Obama is expected to tread lightly when pressing China to let its currency rise against the dollar.

Doing so would benefit the U.S. economy by making American-made goods cheaper in China, but Obama is reluctant to upset Beijing.

China is the No. 1 lender to the U.S. at a time when the latest annual budget deficit hit a record $1.42 trillion. That makes for a lot of Treasurys to be sold. China has expressed concerns that the falling dollar threatens the value of its existing U.S. holdings.

According to Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, the government has been "too slow" in providing information to members of Congress in the investigation into Maj. Nadil Malik Hasan and the Ft. Hood massacre.

On CBS' "Face The Nation," host Bob Schieffer asked Hoekstra if he was satisfied with the administration's transparency with members of Congress.

"There hasn't been enough transparency for members of Congress, for the press, or for the American people. You know, I think that we need to move very, very aggressively and do a full-scale investigation as to who knew what and where," Hoekstra responded.

A lot of folks would pay good money to be a fly on the wall at this coffee klatch. In her upcoming memoir “Going Rogue,” former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin says she would welcome a sit-down with ex-Democratic presidential challenger Hillary Clinton.

NBC’s Mike Viqueira offered eye-opening, exclusive excerpts from Palin’s new book on TODAY Sunday, two days before the book’s official release. “Going Rogue” is already a hit out of the gate, with a massive first printing of 1.5 million copies and advance orders putting it at, or near, the top of best-seller lists.

WASHINGTON - In courtrooms barred to the public, dozens of terror suspects are pleading for their freedom from the Guantanamo Bay prison, sometimes even testifying on their own behalf by video from the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

Complying with a Supreme Court ruling last year, 15 federal judges in the U.S. courthouse here are giving detainees their day in court after years behind bars half a world away from their homelands.

Recognizing that the potential instability of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government remains a main obstacle to an effective American strategy in the region, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today touted broad accountability procedures in Afghanistan that will aim to combat corruption.

"I have made it clear that we're not going to be providing any civilian aid to Afghanistan unless we have the certification that if it goes into the Afghan government in any form, that we're going to have ministries that we can hold accountable," Clinton said today on ABC's "This Week...