Meanwhile… Around the World

Obama will be sworn is an president using his full name. He also intends to reach out to the Muslim community around the world. Hallelujah.

And Obama does intend to fulfill his campaign promise of giving a major speech in an Islamic capital as a “unique opportunity to reboot America’s image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular.” But he refused to commit to a specific time frame for that event.

Pakistan PM confirms
Mumbai arrests:

Pakistani authorities have arrested two top leaders of the Islamic militant group India blames for the November massacre in Mumbai, Pakistan’s prime minister confirmed Wednesday. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Pakistani security forces had rounded up a number of militant figures. Zarar Shah, a top operational commander of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, and Zakir Rehman Lakhvi, whose arrest had been reported Tuesday, were among the militant figures rounded up in recent days, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters. [...]

The tougher Zardari gets on the militants, who no doubt have support from within
the ISI, the more dangerous his life will become. Coup countdown?

Kazikstan
in Afghanistan?

Kazakhstan is seriously considering sending its peacekeepers to Afghanistan, which would mark the first deployment of soldiers from Central Asia since the Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s. Such a controversial step would follow Kazakhstan’s decision in October to withdraw its peacekeepers from Iraq, based there since 2003 under Polish command and carrying out demining and water purification tasks.

The Obama effect?

General
strike in Greece, which is in meltdown.

Medvedez cozies up to
Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez. Peas see pod.

Blackout
on on Gaza policy:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday afternoon ordered a complete blackout on the details of a discussion held earlier today with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni over the future of the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, which is set to expire on December 19.

Obama transition member, Sonal Shah, is “pressured” to renounce Hindu group.

After weeks of questions, Obama transition team member and former Google executive Sonal Shah today renounced her former connection to a Hindu organization accused of fomenting violence against Muslims and Christians in India.