A Vatican priest has set Dante's masterpiece "The Divine Comedy" to music. The opera opens tonight in Rome. Correspondent Megan Williams went back stage at the dress rehearsal and has today's Global Hit.

For today's Geo Quiz we were looking for a cricket-loving country being eyed as a potential new pool of pitching talent for major league baseball. The answer is India. India's hosting a new competition called 'The Million Dollar Arm.' The aim is to discover an Indian cricket pitcher with the right stuff. Anchor Ken Bader get details from event organizer Deepak Joshi.

Baseball scouts are looking to a country whose national sport is cricket for a few good arms. For our daily geography puzzler name the country.

There's a new way to pay - not with cash or credit cards but with your fingerprints. The idea's being tried in Germany where more and more customers are using biometric technology to make purchases. The new system could eventually make cash and credit cards obsolete. The BBC's Steve Rosenberg reports from Berlin.

The day after Thanksgiving is the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. Many American retailers are hoping to attract foreign shoppers who want to cash in on the weak dollar. We profile this foreign shopping phenomenon with reports from New York City, Minneapolis, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

European manufacturer, Airbus says the weakness of the American dollar is proving to be deadly to the company's bottom line. The company estimates that every 10 cents the Euro gains against the US dollar amounts to 1 billion dollars in lost profit. The World's Matthew Bell reports.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders head to Annapolis, Maryland, next week for peace talks. Washington hopes the conference might re-start the stalled Middle East peace process. But many Palestinians and Israelis don't hold out much hope. Some say the key to peace may be "personal" rather than "political." as The World's Katy Clark reports.

How are Middle East news correspondents based in the U.S. viewing the prospects for peace at Annapolis? What are their expectations? We get three different views from the following correspondents:
Hisham Melhem, Bureau Chief for Al-Arabiya news in Washington; Munir Al-Maweri, political correspondent for Asharq Al-Awsat, a pan-Arab newspaper; and Shmuel Rosner, chief U.S. correspondent for Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.

Australian voters cast their ballots this weekend. Some polls suggest that Prime Minister Howard's conservative coalition government is in trouble. Phil Mercer reports from Sydney.

The current political crisis isn't the only thing dividing the Lebanese public. People there can't even agree on their shared history. Correspondent Ben Gilbert reports from Beirut.