- U.S. President Obama dispatched George J. Mitchell as Special Envoy to the Middle East yesterday, and gave a televised interview with a major Arabian news network outlining a more cooperative approach to problems in the region

- Iceland's government collapses under the weight of the "credit crunch;" the country's new government must endeavor repay $10 billion in bailout stabilization loans from the IMF and other foreign countries

- The New York Times Magazine has published an article on "Obama's Worst Pakistan Nightmare," a detailed and often worrisome account of how Pakistan manages its nuclear weapons stockpiles. While Pakistan rejects foreign technical assistance for its program on the grounds of maintaining its sovereignty over the weapons, spectators fear the potential that the weapons - or weapon designs and bomb-making material - could fall into terrorist hands.

- Two men belonging to a U.S. branch of the Tamil Tigers plead guilty to charges of "conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization." One of the men had attempted to purchase surface-to-air missiles for the LTTE.