Looking back at my first impression of Nujood Ali and her incredible act of defiance, I was very naive.

Nujood Ali rebelled against culture, religion and government.

Like Nujood herself, I thought the mere act of demanding a divorce and getting one would 'fix' her life and allow her to return and remain in the embrace of her family.

The complexity of Nujood's life is quite daunting to fathom now. At the age of 10, she defied her husband, his family and crucially, her own family to divorce her husband and return to the innocent life she so missed.

But after following Nujood's story for more than a year now, it is far from a simple portrait of victory and triumph.

The key to Nujood's life now is that she lives very much like an outcast in her community. The fame and the media attention have made her a choice topic for gossiping neighbors.

The fact is, some in Yemen see nothing wrong with marrying off a 10-year-old girl. And so what she did, and the notoriety that followed, was seen by some as a threat to how things are and how they should stay.

While we in the Western media celebrated Nujood's courage, some in her own extended family questioned her rebellious act.

Nujood has said that her father, her brothers and her uncles have all expressed their displeasure at having her story exposed and publicized.

So where does all this leave Nujood now? I'm not quite sure. CNN producer Elwazer Schams has followed Nujood's story now for months.

In repeated calls to concerned human rights campaigners, lawyers, the judge involved in the case and government officials there has been precious little clarity about Nujood’s future.

Apparently, there is some type of a scholarship fund set up for education, but Nujood's school attendance has been sporadic in part because, her attorney says, her family has not supported her education whole-heartedly.

It's clear Nujood and her family believed being famous would earn them a fortune. It hasn't. Some have said to me that Nujood has been victimized twice by her family.

First, Nujood was forced into an early marriage she did not want and later into a publicity frenzy that her family believed would make them thousands of dollars.

Whatever the truth, Nujood has been hurt and very little in her life has changed for the better.

This has been a difficult but important story to tell for all these months. Verifying the facts of what happened to Nujood has been daunting but it has been insightful.

At its core, though, this is a real and gritty story about what it means to rebel against cultures, religion and government.

Nujood is very confused and angry and is far from living out the childhood all young girls deserve.

THAILAND-MYANMAR BORDER - The Shan State Army has been fighting for more than 50 years. Their battle, both victories and losses, no longer make the news.

Their struggle against the hard-line military dictatorship of Myanmar is committed,­ but the border of Thailand and Myanmar is hardly a strategically significant area for the West. So the long, guerrilla conflict continues out of the spotlight of the world.

Shan State Army warlord Colonel Yawd Serk.

Every day men, women and children are forced from their homes by the fighting. The SSA claims 10,000 have been displaced in recent months.

When I got a call from the assistant to their commander, on a crackling phone from the distant jungles of Myanmar, it was clear they had a message that they wanted to get out.

We traveled to a remote and secret rendezvous promising not to reveal where Colonel Yawd Serk was planning to brief us.

I wasn't sure what to expect,­ but we found a slightly comical scene at the end of a rough dirt track in the middle of the steaming, lush jungle. The warlord of the Shan State Army was waiting patiently besides two dirty white plastic chairs with a presentation of photos and information carefully displayed on pieces of cardboard, nailed to two teak trees.

He was quiet, patient and exuding a polite, earnest concern for his people and their untold plight. But what he told me was anything but amusing.

He spoke about raped women, destroyed villages, massacres, forced labor and summary executions. A litany of abuse that has gone on for decades without the kind of moral indignation that features in other trouble spots around the world.

It¹s perhaps partly because the SSA and the other ethnic groups that make up the patchwork of fiefdoms along the Thai-Myanmar border have in the past funded their armies through drug production. In the 1970s and 80s, the golden triangle was an infamous opium production centre.

Now the SSA tells me it's turned its back on drug production, even giving us footage of its soldiers ambushing drug dealers and raiding methamphetamine factories.

It wants to focus world attention on the ethnic cleansing it claims is going on every day. Yawd Serk says next year's planned elections in Myanmar are meaningless, a crude attempt by the junta to improve their image and reduce the considerable international pressure on the regime.

The resounding message from my half hour chat with this softly spoken warlord was simple: our fight goes on, irrespective of elections.

I left him as I found him ­ a camouflaged figure, who's devoted his life to a war that few know about, that could easily be waged for another 50 years far from the gaze of the world's media.

We shook hands and he disappeared back to the jungles where he's fought for most of his life.

DALLAS, Texas - You don't go out golfing with the guys without a fair amount of trash talk about each other's bad shots. Even the golfer who just pulled off the impossible doesn't get a fair pass today.

"Ouch," says one of Y.E. Yang's buddies, holding up his fingers an inch apart, as Yang missed a putt on the 12th. Yang flashes him a sideways grin, as if to say he'll get him back on the 13th. Yang is playing with his buddies before our interview, squeezing in time with friends before the media interviews today. We drove up in surprise to see Yang playing, and to our greater surprise, he welcomed us to follow him around.

"Make my friends nervous," he joked to me.

You'd never know by watching these guys joke that YE Yang has just pulled off a historic, and life changing, win last week.

Ranked 110th in the world, Yang faced off with Tiger Woods in the final round of the PGA Championship. The number one-ranked Woods had never lost when entering the final round as the leader, until Yang beat him in one of the sport's greatest upsets, pulling off a feat no other golfer in the world has ever done.

"It will bring peace to the Koreas," joked one of his buddies. Maybe not, but that win catapulted the 37 year old to stratospheric heights of hero-worship in South Korea and across Asia. Yang's victory at the PGA made him the world's first player from Asia to win a major championship, putting a more global face on a sport dominated by Europeans and Americans. Since that win, the relatively unknown golf player has been thrust onto the global stage, chased by international media (we literally chased him onto the golf course today). He even got a personal call from South Korea's president.

Not bad for a kid from a farming family of 8, who couldn't afford to step on a golf course growing up. Yang didn't have the silver spoon background that many golfers have. He taught himself to play at age 19, old by golf standards, hitting balls after-hours at the driving range where he worked. He learned how to grip a club and swing, he tells me, from instructional videos by Jack Nicklaus. Yang never dreamed he'd ever face off with the great Tiger Woods, whom he'd watched on TV for years.

"I woke up that morning and didn't expect to win," Yang said, talking about the final round of the PGA Championship. "So I had this calm in my heart."

That calm helped Yang not crack in the final round, as thousands of spectators watched on the green and millions around the world. But what was notable on that day was how Yang appeared playful, even waving to the live TV camera, as he walked on the fairway of the 15th hole.

"We all saw him smiling throughout the back nine, having fun." said Brian Mogg, Yang's swing coach. "That's the kind of guy he is at all times and it was cool to watch his personality come out, under the heat of playing with Tiger. He's been in some ways, maybe fortunate not to have the spoiled upbringing that many golfers have had and he's been able to have the perspective of, it's a game."

Watching Yang play with his friends on this Dallas, Texas golf course, you can see that love of the game is obvious. Yang later tells me that he hopes to never face off with Tiger again, because he's not sure he'd win again. You get the sense that while wins at the PGA level are important, this game with friends is just as important - and at the heart of why Yang managed to accomplish what no other golfer in the world could.

SEOUL, South Korea– You have to give the late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung credit. Even in death, he seems to be trying to get South and North Korea to become friends.

Honor guard soldiers carry the coffin of Kim Dae-jung for burial during his state funeral on August 23 in Seoul.

For the first time since the current conservative President Lee Myung-Bak took office, the North Koreans sent a high-level delegation to mourn the late Kim.

Before the trip, the North would only contact the late President’s aides. But while in Seoul, the delegation reportedly asked to meet with South Koreans and ultimately the president.

For Seoul’s part, there was a definite chilly reaction to the North’s announcement that it would send a delegation to Seoul.

And the South Korean news agency Yonhap says when the Northern visitors wanted to meet the president there were some in the government that thought it was inappropriate.

But in the end, the delegation got their meeting, and the South Korean spokesman says they conveyed a message from the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.

The details of that message were not made public. But when asked at the airport how their stay in the South went, the head of the North Korean delegation was quoted as saying, “We are heading back in the positive mood.”

The South Korean spokesman said President Lee conveyed a message of his own to the delegation: that South Korea’s position is still firm and that he hopes for sincere dialogue in the future.

Now, will this be the catalyst for improved relations between the two Koreas? It’s hard to predict. But one thing for sure, if they do, someone up there will be cheering on the sidelines.

SUNGI SIPUT, Malaysia - We spent the day with Kartika Shukarno, a 32-year-old mother of two who will become the first woman in Malaysia to be caned under Islamic law. She is a small, fragile woman with a soft, gentle voice who carries guilt, regret and shame heavily on her shoulders. She's also a loving mother who cares for her two children who live each day with their own problems. Her 7-year-old son Mohammed has cerebral palsy and slight autism. Her 5-year-old daughter Wann was born with a hole in her heart and has undergone surgery many times.

Kartika was caught drinking three glasses of beer in a Malaysian hotel in December of 2007. It was the second time she had ever drunk alcohol. She said she wanted to try it. She was there with her non-Muslim friends. They weren't disturbing others, she wasn't making noise or causing any damage, Kartika said. Religious authorities in Kuantan in the state of Pahang surrounded the hotel and asked her to take a urine test. She was arrested after they discovered alcohol in her system.

Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim state; 60 percent of the population is Muslim and under Shariah law it is illegal for Muslims to drink alcohol. In the past, Muslims who were caught drinking alcohol were either fined or simply given a warning. But recently there has been a religious and political push within Malaysia to have Shariah law extended across the country.

For more than 18 months, Kartika has fought this case in the courts - she pleaded guilty and asked for a lenient sentence because she's a first-time offender. Kartika says she has decided not to appeal the sentence because she is tired of the ongoing saga and has decided to accept her punishment.

Her greatest regret is the shame she feels she has brought to her family. They're all extremely close. Her sisters and brothers and all the children and cousins gather at Kartika's father's house to share their last meal together for a while. They're not angry with her, nor are they ashamed. They love this woman who feels sorry for what she's done and has repented. They come together after fasting all day to eat and say prayers to celebrate the end of the second day of Ramadan. They share their meal with my crew - hospitality and warmth that you only ever experience among people where there is genuine love and respect.

Kartika's father, Shukarno Abdul Muttalib, will have to hand his daughter over to authorities when they arrive on Monday. Something I know he will struggle with. He wanted her to appeal her sentence. She will then be driven 250 kilometers (155 miles) to a prison on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. She understands she will receive six lashes on her buttocks, fully clothed. Moderate force will be used by the "whipper" armed with a bamboo cane. She says the pain she will experience doesn't compare to the pain she has already caused her family.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The women of Afghanistan are some of the strongest women I have ever met in the world.

Women have shown up at rallies for candidates hoping for more rights to be implemented by the government.

They have suffered subjugation and abuse, and faced inhumanities on a daily basis. Pain and memories live in their eyes; just one glance can shatter a person's naivete and send chills up your spine.

But there is the other side to real Afghan woman. She is like many other women in the world.

She loves her family, especially her children; they give her the strength to survive in the face of defeat. She is proud of her country no matter how many tears she has shed for it. And there is no one or nothing she loves more than her God; the only reason she believes that a change will come.

Beyond the burqa, the scars, and the remnants of three decades of war - 30 years that has crushed a country and the spirit of a people - it is the Afghan woman who has shaped Afghanistan.

And it is they who can shape a new future for a people who have been isolated and forgotten for decades.

"Young love! If you do not fall in the battle of Maiwand; By God, someone is saving you as a symbol of shame!" the Afghan heroine Malalai yelled as she ripped off her veil.

It was 1880, during the Second Anglo-Afghan war. The Afghan soldiers, who outnumbered the British, kept falling one by one. They could not handle the heavy artillery; they were exhausted and felt defeated. Bodies lay, some bloody and some bruised.

But it was Malalai's words that gave the Afghan soldiers the motivation and spirit to continue in battle and eventually defeat the Anglo-Indian army.

For over a century now, families in Afghanistan have named their daughters Malalai, hoping that they too can one day be as brave as Malalai of Maiwand.

Malalai Kakar of Kandahar lovingly prepared her six children for school every morning; clothing them, feeding them, and kissing them goodbye. She would then put on her police uniform in one of the most volatile southern provinces of Afghanistan - one still infested with a radical ideology. With her Kalashnikov and pistol at her side she was ready for another day at work.

Kakar, like her father, became an officer in Kandahar to help the people and bring justice. And after the fall of the Taliban she worked to help rescue women who needed help; ones who were being tortured and abused.

According to the United Nations Development Fund for Women, 87 percent of women in Afghanistan suffer from domestic violence. It's one of the most dangerous places to be a woman.

But thanks to the increase in female police officers who are constantly threatened and targeted, other women are feeling more comfortable to report abuses and step out of the black hole they have been living in.

Malalai of Maiwand died waving the flag of Afghanistan during battle, not able to see her country in its victory.

Malalai of Kandahar was shot and killed by the Taliban, leaving six children to grow up without a mother.

But to many, she died waving the spirit of a new Afghanistan - one that will lift itself beyond the rubble of a shattered nation - in hopes that maybe her children will see the victory she had been fighting for.

Hopefully, that victory will come soon.

GREENOCK, Scotland – Embarking on our trip to Scotland early Monday morning to cover the potential release of the only man ever to be convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, we thought we would return to London barely 24 hours later.

Three days later, we remain here, in Greenock, a small town on the west coast of Scotland, a town which for the last four years, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi has had to call "home."

In that time, we've visited Lockerbie. We're seen the garden memorial which has replaced the huge crater left by the flaming fuselage when it fell from the sky, it in turn, replacing the homes that had stood there and the families who had lived in them.

We've heard from eyewitnesses and emergency workers who cannot forget what they saw, even over 20 years later. We've heard conspiracy theories from local politicians who have blamed Iran, the Palestinians and the U.S.

We've even heard from relatives of the dead who really believe that the Scottish justice system has got it wrong and that Megrahi is an innocent man.

As we file more reports and speak to more involved parties, this case seems to get murkier and ever more confusing and my thoughts begin to lie with the one man who now has to decide the fate of the Libyan.

Kenny MacAskill, Scotland's Justice Secretary, has been given the sole responsibility of determining the fate of the terminally ill Meghari.

The Scottish Parliament has said that it doesn't need to be involved. Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond has said that he trusts whichever decision MacAskill will take.

Supportive words, but hardly conducive for a man who needs to weigh up years of evidence, appeals, medical advice and family statements.

Since we came to Scotland, political heavyweights such as U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry have weighed into the debate, urging MacAskill not to allow Meghari to go free.

The Justice Secretary hasn't even been able to count on the support of his own colleagues with the Scottish Secretary, Jim Murphy, yesterday slamming the ongoing situation as "embarrassing."

And so as we wait, busying ourselves collecting our elements and watching the news wires for updates, I feel rather sorry for the beleaguered Scottish politician who must be now sitting in his office, pouring over reams of material and trying to work out the right thing to do.

MUMBAI, India - Saturday, August 15. Independence Day in India. News trickled in that one of India’s most recognizable faces and names had been detained at an international airport in the United States. Questions about individual freedom, independence, liberty, and laws of the land are still being furiously debated in India.

Shah Rukh Khan said he was detained by authorities at the Newark, New Jersey, airport.

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan says he was detained by immigration officials in the U.S. for up to two hours and questioned. He says he believes it’s because of his Muslim last name, Khan.

"They kept telling me it's because my name is common and I was too polite to say, common to what?" says Khan.

U.S. officials deny the superstar was held up because of his name and say the whole process took just 66 minutes – and that too, because the airline had misplaced his bags.

Whatever the reason, the incident has kicked up a furore in India. There’s an outpouring of outrage and anger at the way an Indian VIP was treated. Ambika Soni, India's Information and Broadcasting Minister, said of the U.S.: “The way they frisk us, I say we frisk them the same way.”

Is she overreacting?

Among all the support fans are offering Khan, there are those who have little sympathy. Fellow Bollywood actor Salman Khan asks: “What’s the big deal? We all have to go through security.”

Do you agree with him? Has this whole incident been blown out of proportion? One observer said: “No-one is above the law of the land, and the U.S. officials were just doing their job.”

We’d love to know what you think. Should Shah Rukh Khan have not made such a fuss about being detained at Newark airport – or do you understand why he felt slighted?

LOS ANGELES, California - While we are in the midst of a global power realignment between the G8 and the G20, I found it useful to get a temperature reading in what would be a G8 country on its own, my original home base of California.

Vacant storefronts are seen on Main Street March 12, 2009 in El Centro, California.

The landscape continues to attract scores of literary writers who are drawn by the size, diversity and the light. They are the same components that provide the business vibrancy and creative energy. But there is a critical debate underway on whether the so called Golden State has passed its golden hour and what that may mean for the U.S. economic recovery.

Anecdotally, California remains a magnet for Middle East and European visitors. My British Airways flights to and from Los Angeles were filled with visitors from the region. It is fair to say that our Gulf visitors may have set a record for both the quality and number of bags checked in. So the allure remains, but the shine certainly has been dulled for natives who can put various pieces of the puzzle together.

For one, this downturn has created new terminology in the U.S., “staycation” meaning staying nearby on vacation. My queries for a Santa Barbara beach house were met with a 20 percent inflation hike due to the local competition by Americans who could not afford or at least justify plane travel overseas.

But far more serious indicators were easily found beyond the shores and nearby wine estates of California. For example, the research belt that surrounds the University of California at Santa Barbara resembled a silver mining ghost town at the turn of the 19^th century. Building after building had “for lease” signs posted on former offices of technology and defense companies. California is home to a quarter of the country’s agriculture products, but the latest crop of signs is an eerie indicator for the future.

Mohamed El-Erian, the respected Chief Executive of Pimco the giant bond fund manager based in Newport Beach, California recently signalled out “high and rising unemployment” as the main policy issue in the industrialized world. As the economic growth gap widens between emerging and developed countries, pressure will increase on G8 policymakers to protect jobs and wages. The International Monetary Fund placed that growth gap at four percent by mid-2010; it was a record six percent at the start of this year.

While the Middle East is struggling after the contagion of the Western led banking collapse, leading projections still peg economic growth in the region at around three percent for 2010. The excitement this week that the U.S., Germany and France may have bottomed out, greatly exaggerate the breadth of the recovery. It is abundantly clear that central bankers threw as much liquidity as possible at the problem, but there is little left in the arsenal to combat general sluggishness and unemployment that persists.

A Los Angeles based friend has spent two decades as a banker for a handful of firms. He has been without a job for more than a year and candidly admits that he is not confident that a job exists in the same sector. All options are on the table he says, even moving away from a state that he loves. After being out of work for more than a year, he is no longer counted in the official national unemployment figures now at a 9.5 percent, a 26 year high. Others I spoke with told me not to overlook the “underemployed”, those who are working again but took pay cuts of 25-50 percent in which to do so. It is certainly difficult to fund education fees and buy homes if ones purchasing power has dropped so dramatically.

I was based on the West Coast as a correspondent during the last severe U.S. recession in 1991-92. California felt it especially hard because of the collapse in defense spending after the fall of communism. Real estate prices plummeted, the fall in spending on research and development hit Silicon Valley and Hollywood was trying to adapt to the digital revolution beginning to take hold.

The downturn forced changed and Californians adapted by retooling those sectors. The economy emerged stronger than before and continued to attract new businesses and foreign visitors to its shores. Both are hoping for the same response, but for some reason after this visit my gut says the script may be written differently during this tepid recovery.

ON THE ROAD TO SHAO LIN, Taiwan — It is a three-hour drive from Kaohsiung city into the mountains. We are trying to get to Shao Lin, a village wiped away by mudslides.

CNN’s Pauline Chiou stands on what remains of a washed out bridge in Jia Shian, Taiwan.

Along the main road through various towns, Taiwanese military troops clear out mud created by Typhoon Morokat last week. The soldiers create walls of mud to line the road.

The closer we get to the mountains, the more somber the stories. In the town of Ci Shan, we see a large tent along the side of the road with something like funeral preparations going on.

We pull over to find out more. Behind the tent is an open metal structure with funeral floral wreaths lined up inside. A Chinese banner reads, "In Memory of Typhoon Morokat Victims." A woman sits under the tent crying. A volunteer tells me she is waiting for the body of a family member.

An outdoor makeshift morgue is nearby. Workers in hospital gowns shuffle by in the heat. I meet a man named Wu Ji Rong, who says he is a funeral director. He says the workers have received 20 bodies this week. Most have been washed up by the nearby swollen Lao Nong River. Some are not whole bodies but body parts.

The Taiwanese are used to typhoons. But, Wu says, "It's the worst devastation I've seen in 50 years."