WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New IMF chief Christine Lagarde's call to recapitalize European banks by force struck a nerve among the continent's Europe's policymakers and showed she is not afraid to challenge her former peers as many feared she might be.

The message Lagarde delivered from the International Monetary Fund was not new — it had been shared privately with European policymakers in the past. The difference is that the former French economy minister took the message public.

Speaking before top central bankers, finance officials and a phalanx of journalists at the Federal Reserve's annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Saturday, Lagarde argued a recapitalization of European banks was urgently needed to erect a firewall against Europe's debt crisis.

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WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said Wednesday it will continue to press Libyan rebels to review the case of the convicted Lockerbie bomber but ruled out making the transfer of frozen Gadhafi regime assets contingent on his return to prison.

Getting the money to the opposition is a higher initial priority than handling the case of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the State Department said. The former Libyan intelligence agent and the only person convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. The ailing al-Megrahi was released from a prison two years ago and returned to a hero’s welcome in Libya and is now reported near death.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton departed Washington on Wednesday night to attend an international conference in Paris aimed at boosting aid to the Libyan rebels.

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This post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global-news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in Economic Observer.

BEIJING – Proof is multiplying that China is aging at an alarming pace. If measured by international standards, China has been an aging society since 1999, announced Li Jianguo, vice-chairman of China’s National People’s Congress. Li Jianguo’s remarks, as reported by Xinhua Net, were made during the presentation of the NPC Standing Committee’s law enforcement report on the Elderly Protection Act. According to this report, in November 2010, China had 178 million people over 60 years old, of which 119 million are over 65. That accounts for, respectively, 13.26% and 8.87% of the total population, and makes China the only country on the earth with more than 100 million elderly people.

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