Pakistan is one of the Obama administration's top priorities. The country has its own special envoy, the President has made speeches on its future, and Americans officials have only debated whether Pakistan is a failed state. Concerns over security in the country run so deep that President Obama is meeting with the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan today at the White House. But the rest of the world may have more confidence in Pakistan. Jonathan Marcus is diplomatic correspondent for our partner the BBC, and he joins us from London to discuss the global view of Pakistan from the rest of the world.

The Justice Department has been investigating the Bush administration lawyers who drafted the so-called torture memos that outlined brutal techniques for gathering information. According to our partners, The New York Times, today the Justice Department will recommend that that lawyers who wrote the memos should not be criminally prosecuted, despite their serious lapses in judgment. To discuss, The Takeaway is joined by Scott Shane, national security reporter for the New York Times.



For more, read Scott Shane's and David Johnston's article, Torture Memos: Inquiry Suggests No Prosecutions, in today's New York Times.

If you feel guilty about eating cows and pigs but have no problem downing a tuna sandwich, we have some bad news: fish feel pain. That's the conclusion of a study conducted at Purdue University on two groups of goldfish. One group, injected with morphine, acted totally normal after being subjected to painful stimuli. The other group, morphine free, showed wary and anxious behavior after the pain was stopped. Researcher Joseph Garner, an assistant professor of animal behavior and well-Being, joins The Takeaway to explain the study and why it's significant.

Ever since this whole "swine flu" thing erupted it's been nothing but talk about humans, humans, humans. But what's it been like to be a virus these last few weeks? Today, we shrink down to take a look at life from the point of view of one of the world's smallest biological toxins. How, really, do viruses get out of one organism and travel to another? (Warning: It's pretty gross.) What perils face a virus that ventures outside the human body? Our microscopic tour guide is The Takeaway's favorite virus hunter, Dr. Susan P. Fisher-Hoch, an epidemiologist at the University of Texas School of Public Health and co-author of Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC.

If you want to see the view of the body a virus sees, all you have to do is watch Fantastic Voyage, a 1966 classic in which "four men and a beautiful lady" were shrunk down and sent into the bloodstream on a submarine (it was not yellow):

Global stock markets have recorded some strong gains in April with the main indices in New York, London and Tokyo rising by between seven and nine percent as investors responded to signs that the economic situation might be stabilizing. Is this the light at the end of the tunnel for the world's economies? Here to talk us through what these figures mean is the BBC's economics and business correspondent Andrew Walker.

New scientific research from China’s National Institute of Family Planning indicates that researchers are one step closer to a form of contraception for men. The shot could be as effective at preventing pregnancies as the female pill or condoms. The monthly testosterone injection works by temporarily blocking sperm production and could revolutionize birth control. But will women trust men to use it?

We’re taking a look at the science and the social implications of this shot with Dr. John Herr, a professor at the University of Virginia. He’s director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health. We’re also joined by Susie Bright, author of The Sexual State of the Union and the host of In Bed with Susie Bright on audible.com.

Tomorrow, government officials will reveal the results of so-called "stress tests" conducted on the nation's largest banks. The tests analyzed the banks’ finances to see how they would hold up in a deep recession. In anticipation of the results, we invited two of our listeners to come on the show to undergo their very own financial stress tests with Gary Belsky, author of Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them. He’ll make some recommendations on the best ways to make sure they keep their heads above water, no matter what happens with the economy.

In a move that has aggravated global tensions, NATO begins a month of exercises in Georgia today, despite the fact that Georgia is not a member of NATO. The war games will involve more than 1,100 soldiers from NATO countries in "crisis response" field exercises. Georgia’s military was devastated in a five-day war with Russia last year, and the country continues to provoke Moscow, even accusing the Russians of backing a military coup last week to overthrow President Mikhail Saakashvili's government. Now Georgia is claiming that the mutiny was meant to disrupt NATO's exercises. Steven Eke is a Russian Affairs Analyst for our partner, the BBC, and he joins The Takeaway with more.

For more on the situation in Georgia, watch the video below.

Detroit voters went to the polls yesterday to elect an interim mayor to finish out disgraced, ousted, and convicted Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's term. The winner? David Bing -- former star of the Detroit Pistons, turned local business leader. Despite trailing in the polls, Bing beat out Ken Cockrel, the man currently sitting in the mayor's office. The new mayor takes on a city in financial crisis. For more we turn to Noah Ovshinsky, a political reporter for WDET in Detroit, who has been covering the mayoral race.

The U.K. has sent more than 8,000 soldiers to Afghanistan, but the account of one soldier, Michael Saunders, has become a local link to the war for residents of Worcester, England. Michael's been sending home stories of his first few weeks in Afghanistan to the local pub where, over a pint, the locals can keep up with his travels. The Takeaway talks about the experience with his sister, Tracy Tyrls.

To read one of Michael Saunders' blog posts, click through.

One of the ongoing mysteries of the H1N1 influenza outbreak is why it killed 26 people in Mexico, but only two people right across the border in the U.S. Is it simply that the virus is less virulant now? Or can we learn something by looking at how each nation handles public health crises? The Takeaway talks to Dr. Julio Frenk, former Mexican Minister of Health and now Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health.

Just yesterday, Detroit voters elected David Bing to be their new mayor. The former basketball star, now turned auto parts businessman, will serve the final eight months of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's term. Mr. Bing narrowly defeated the interim mayor, City Council President Kenneth V. Cockrel, Jr. He is expected to be sworn in next week, but before that, he stops by The Takeaway to talk about his hopes for the future of Detroit.

What else is on David Bing's resume? He was a Detroit Piston with a mean hook shot: