Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng left the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Wednesday after a deal was negotiated by his American hosts, despite concern over his ultimate fate in the hands of the Chinese government and uncertainty about the circumstances of his release. However, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing seems confident enough that they can ultimately file this episode in their "wins" folder that they have released photos of Chen's stay through the embassy's official Flickr stream. 

In the carefully choreographed photo above, Chen clasps hands with Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for Asian and Pacific Asian affairs, while U.S. ambassador to China Gary Locke beams in the background.

Here, Campbell gives the Chinese dissident a crushing bear hug. Campbell led negotiations for Chen's release with Harold Koh, legal advisor to the Department of State, after being dispatched by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, currently in Beijing for high-level negotiations.

While driving to the hospital where he was to reunite with his family, Chen reportedly called Clinton to thank her for her role in facilitating the release. While one senior administration official reported that Chen told Clinton he wanted to "kiss her," others have said he was saying "see her" in broken English. 

In an interview with the AP, Chen claimed that he left the embassy only after he was told by U.S. officials that Chinese authorities had threatened his wife's life. However, Campbell insists that Chen left willingly.

Whether or not Chen will now be free from house arrest remains unclear. In an interview with Britain's Channel 4 from his hospital room, Chen expressed fear. "Nobody from the [U.S.] Embassy is here. I don't understand why. They promised to be here," he said.

U.S. officials say that Chen will be allowed to study at a university of his choosing as part of the release. Hopefully, the intense media interest generated by the case may help to keep him and his family safe.

When selecting the 2011 best covers of the year,  the Food Issue's "Corn Rocket" was a staff favorite. Turns out, we aren't the only ones enamored by our cosmo-cob. The print version of the cover has been nominated for a "Cover of the Year" award on Amazon.com. Readers can vote until April 21, when voting will enter a second round. FP Creative Director Dennis Brack designed the cover, while Deputy Art Director Erin Chrisinger Aulov directed a shoot with photographer Renée Comet and food stylist Lisa Cherkasky. We think their collaboration became one of our most inspired images -- if you agree, vote for us!

Iran suspended accreditation for Reuters today, but not, as one might expect, over reporters prying into the country's nuclear activities or besmirching the good name of the Supreme Leader. Instead, Reuters is reportedly being sued by a group of female Iranian ninjas, like the one pictured above.

A video produced by Reuters about the thousands of women learning ninjutsu was unfortunately titled, "Thousands of female Ninjas train as Iran's assassins." The inference that the women -- whose interest in the ancient martial art is primarily motivated by "staying fit," according to one participant -- are violent marauders offended the athletes, who are overseen by the Ministry of Sports' Martial Arts Federation.  In case it wasn't obvious, you don't want to offend a highly-trained cadre of Iranian ninjas. Anger these black-belted beauties and they'll ... take their legitimate complaint to the appropriate authorities who will suspend your press credentials. Hiiiii-yah!

Reuters released a statement about the gaffe, saying, "We acknowledge this error occurred and regard it as a very serious matter. It was promptly corrected the same day it came to our attention." The agency is currently in negotiations with Iran to regain accreditation (There are 11 accredited Reuters employees in Iran). However, the ninjas argue that the damage has already been done.    

"It can harm our chances to travel to other countries to take part in global tournaments and international championships because Reuters is considered by many to be a reliable source," Raheleh Davoudzadeh told PressTV, Iran's semi-official news agency.

While the assassins line might not seem like the highest order of business for a country facing sanctions and potentially an armed attack, glibly labeling a group in a way that plays into stereotypes about violence is no laughing matter. As poll after poll shows, language matters tremendously when people are asked to consider military action. 

Don't believe us? Why don't you tell her that.

Above, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will give the keynote address at Davos tomorrow, receives an effigy of a golden goose during Germany's annual carnival season. What you can't see is the crowd of Greek pensioners hovering in the background, plotting to steal the goose in the hopes of extracting magical golden eggs from within it.

With the news of Gilad Shalit's release from five years of captivity at the hands of Hamas, we found ourselves talking about the remarkable changes over the past half decade -- and what he's missed. It's not quite Charlton Heston waking up in a room full of talking apes,  but there's a lot that Shalit might find surprising. Upon his release, he said during an interview that he looked forward to "not doing the same things all day long." There's certainly plenty to keep him busy.

1. The iPhone

Remember that morning in January 2007, when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone? For many people, life has been divided into pre- and post- iPhone since that moment. No word yet if Shalit was a Nokia man or a clamshell guy, but we're betting that he's never unlocked a smart phone with the swipe of his finger, never beheld Google Maps in the palm of his hand, and never tapped out a text message on a touch screen. Apple, get this man a 4S.

2. Twitter/Facebook

Back in the dark days of 2006, people still relied on phone calls and email to communicate. How anything was accomplished is lost to history, now that Facebook and Twitter have changed the manner -- and speed -- with which information is delivered. Facebook launched in 2004, but it was still a limited network when Shalit was abducted: Facebook did not open its doors to everyone over the age of 13 until Sept. 26, 2006. Twitter launched just one month after Shalit was detained, in July of 2006, and now boasts over 200 million users. Indeed, the platform was used extensively to spread word of Shalit's capture and any news of his release. The hashtag #GiladShalit spread around the globe, with the Jewish Week arguing it eclipsed the fame of the soldier himself.  

3. Barack Obama

When Shalit was imprisoned, George W. Bush was president. Two years later, the U.S. elected its first black president, Barack Obama. In 2006, Obama was a senator from Illinois, arguing against the war in Iraq and raising the debt ceiling. After two years in office, Iraq is peaceful and U.S. debt is under control. Just kidding! Shalit actually didn't miss much here.

4. The Beatles

In all fairness, Shalit most likely knew a few Beatles tunes. However, he wouldn't have seen them play in his native Israel: The group was barred from the country --  over fears that they would corrupt Israel's youth -- until 2008, when the government apologized for the national ban, instituted in 1965, and invited the surviving members to play a concert for Israel's 60th anniversary. In Sept., 2008, Paul McCartney finally took the stage in Tel Aviv. That said, it was only McCartney, so it doesn't really count.

5. Economic Collapse

In 2006, when Shalit was taken hostage, the global economy was humming along, buoyed by a strong real estate market and easy credit. By 2008, the boom was over and a recession was sweeping the globe, shifting international power, both politically and economically, perhaps irrevocably toward the developing world. The United States was hit hard by the slump, as was Europe, both of which continue to be plagued by protests and government infighting. China, on the other hand, saw its economy boom, while other emerging economies, including Brazil and India, avoided the worst of the dip and recovered relatively quickly. Shalit doesn't need to worry too much, though: While Israel did feel some of the effects of the recession in 2009, its economy has more than bounced back as its technology sector continues to grow.  

What other major milestones did Shalit miss over the last five years? Let us know in the comments.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced to NBC on Tuesday that U.S. citizens Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, sentenced by an Iranian court in August to eight-year prison sentences for spying and entering the country illegally (the prisoners maintain that they were hiking and crossed into Iran accidentally), would be allowed to return home in the next few days. While the U.S. government has not confirmed their return, it now seems likely that the two will not be serving the entirety of their sentence in notorious Evin prison.

The release is not without a caveat, however: A $500,000 bail must be paid for each prisoner. Masoud Shafiee, the pair's attorney in Tehran, said that the hikers' families are currently trying to find the money for the bail. But the business of posting bail to a hostile foreign government under U.S. sanctions is not so simple. 

The precedent for this case is Sarah Shourd, who was arrested with Bauer and Fattal in July 2009. Shourd was released in September 2010, in part due to health concerns, and was also required to make a $500,000 bail payment.

There was some speculation at that time that the U.S. government would pay the bail. However, then- U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley made it very clear that, "the United States government does not fund prisoner bail." This put the onus back on the families of the detainees, who said that they could not afford the steep payoff. On the other hand, Crowley also made it clear that a bail payment would not necessarily violate U.S. sanctions against Iran.

"There are transactions all the time between Iran and the rest of the world," Crowley pointed out, according to Al Jazeera. "Some of them violate sanctions, others don't."

Eventually, the money was deposited into an Iranian bank in Oman (which helped to arrange the details of the payment, according to U.S. officials). At the time, it was unclear who paid the bail, although there was some speculation that the benefactor was the Sultan of Oman. Oman, while rarely in the headlines, maintains strong ties to both Iran and the U.S., giving it a unique ability to facilitate behind-the-scenes interactins between the two antagonistic powers. The AP quoted a U.S. official saying that neither the families nor the U.S. government fronted the money, but declined to say who did.

With the payment (called bail by Iran, but dubbed everything from ransom to blackmail elsewhere) now doubled as both Bauer and Fattal await their release, it remains to be seen if a mysterious third party will intervene to free them. It also remains to be seen if the move will prove a boon to the embattled Ahmadinejad, who has been mired in domestic infighting against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for months. Ahmadinejad reportedly intervened to help free Shourd, only to be rebuked by the Iranian judiciary. Whatever the outcome, Iran is unlikely to end its habit of seizing foreigners anytime soon.

When pro-Qaddafi forces were uprooted from Tripoli, regime loyalists from across the country began massing in the sleepy town of Bani Walid, which has stayed loyal to the Libyan leader throughout the conflict despite its proximity to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. Now, the international press has swarmed the town as rebel forces attack. Why is Bani Walid, which kept a relatively low profile during the previous few months, now so critical?

Bani Walid has long maintained strong ties to the Brother Leader. He spent years re-enforcing connections to the Warfalla tribe, which makes up the majority of the town, by emphasizing historic alliances between them and his own tribe, the Gaddadfa. Writing in the New Republic, Barak Barfi describes a visit the Libyan leader made to the town shortly after a 1975 uprising against him:

"... when Qaddafi visited Bani Walid, Warfalla elders slaughtered sheep in his honor and presented him with a gold sword. Qaddafi celebrated the occasion by demonstrating his equestrian skills. His pact with the tribe sealed by the ceremony, he recruited its members to staff the most sensitive positions in his security establishment."

Those links may have been enough to keep Bani Walid from recognizing the rebels, but the Warfalla's allegiance may not be permanent. Mahmoud Jibril, the Libyan transitional council's interim prime minister, is from the tribe, and members of the clan lead an unsuccessful uprising against Qaddafi back in 1993. The rebels cited this lapse in loyalty when urging residents of Bani Walid to support their cause.

Some rebels believe that if the town agrees to join the rebel cause, other loyalist bastions will fall as well. "If Bani Walid had fallen to us on Feb. 17th," Jamal Gorgy, an anti-Qaddafi Bani Walid native, told the New York Times, "by Feb. 18th Qaddafi would have fallen too."

Additionally, and probably more importantly, the town is a critical strategic priority. After months of fighting "every conceivable military target in and near the town has been destroyed in NATO airstrikes," according to the New York Times, but the city remains a critical target due to its location. As the Wall Street Journal reports, "its strategic location at a crossroads between the capital and areas to the east, west and south" make it vital to controlling the country.  

With Qaddafi nowhere to be seen and pro-regime resistance quickly dwindling, the town will most likely be under the control of the National Transitional Council soon, raising the question of how its population will be reincorporated into society. On Friday, Abdullah Kenshil, chief negotiator of the rebel forces, told the AP, "The population is afraid so we have to go and protect civilians." Whether the civilians wish to be protected by the TNC forces remains to be seen.