Chatter: North Korea fires 6th missile in 3 days

NEED TO KNOW:

Stop me if you've heard this one, but North Korea is engaged in provocative militaristic behavior. On Monday, the North fired its sixth short-range missile in three days into the sea off its east coast. While the North says what it's doing is normal, the launches fly in the face of the international community, which has, several times, asked the Hermit Kingdom to stop.

The North had toned it down after the US and South Korea completed their military exercises in April — if you count intermittently threatening nuclear war toning it down. However, these most recent launches are probably in response to the arrival of the USS Nimitz, an American aircraft carrier, says GlobalPost's Geoffrey Cain.

But don't worry too much, at least not today. Cain says Seoul is quiet. "People are fatigued from the recent two-month round of war rhetoric. … I suspect these provocations won't lead to another bout of threat-singing," he said.

Also today, horrifying news in Iraq, where bombings across the country killed nearly 50 people, and Afghanistan, where a suicide bomber took out 14 including a prominent local politician.

And very important people hold extremely important meetings. China and India are putting their heads together over border tensions, and in a landmark visit the head of Myanmar pays Obama a visit.

WANT TO KNOW:

The world's largest crack market in the world's largest Catholic country. Welcome to Brazil. In February, the state introduced a mandatory treatment program for the country's one million "crakudos," as the addicts are called. But it's the Evangelical Christians who are actually making headway. Watch video.

Air pollution in East Asia has become so pervasive that it has joined the list of diplomatic issues on the table between three fractious nations: China, which produces much of it, and Japan and South Korea, on its receiving end.

STRANGE BUT TRUE:

A Filipino student has enrolled with a rather lengthy name — a 41-word name, to be exact. Apparently, the boy's father felt limited by how short the line was on the birth certificate where he was supposed to write his son's name. He felt this represented a lack of imagination, and in response, decided to make his son's life a pain in the ass. Forever. Click here to read the full name.