The Foreign Policy Morning Brief

Wednesday, January 21, 2009


Top Story

After being sworn in as the first African-American president in U.S. history, Barack Obama urged Americans to "put away childish things" and usher in a "new era of responsibility" in an inaugural address that was more somber than some of his previous speeches.

Obama took one step almost immediately, instructing military prosecutors on Tuesday night to suspend military trials at Guantanamo Bay, a maneuver designed to allow the administration time to devise a new procedure for the controversial trials.

Obama will meet today with his top military and security advisers to attempt to devise a strategy for pulling troops out of Iraq and escalating the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan. He will be meeting with his economic team as well.

He is also expected to name former senator and veteran international troubleshooter George Mitchell as Mideast envoy.

Middle East

Israel has completed its pullout from Gaza.

Iraq may be willing to have U.S. troops leave the country before the previously agreed 2011 deadline.

The U.S. consulate in Dubai is closed today because of an unspecified security threat.

Asia

Gen. David Petraeus visited Afghanistan to work out a deal to open supply routes to coalition forces.

The U.S. military is investigating an incident that the Afghan media claims left more than two-dozen civilians dead.

Singapore's economy may shrink an unprecedented 5 percent this year.

Europe

France will not send any more troops to Afghanistan, says its defense minister.

Kosovo's new armed forces have taken over security for the country.

Russia says there's no reason to worry about the disintegration of a Soviet-era nuclear satellite.

Africa

The inauguration celebrations continue in Obama's ancestral homeland, Kenya.

Gunmen kidnapped a foreign oil worker in Nigeria.

Malian authorities say they have defeated the country's main Tuareg rebel group.

Americas

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim will become one of the largest shareholders in the New York Times.

Three severed heads were found in an icebox in northern Mexico.

Ailing Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy suffered a seizure at a luncheon for Barack Obama following the inauguration.

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images