Brazilian revelers celebrate Rio Carnival

Aides say the president is expected to focus on the economy when he addresses a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening, but will also touch lightly on foreign policy issues. After much talk of engaging America’s adversaries, chief among them Iran, the Obama administration has made no move so far, pending a policy review.

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Amanpour: World has questions for Obama

Will President Obama just talk about the state of this troubled Union whose economic crisis he has inherited, or will he cast his net of ideas far and wide to address a new American relationship with the world? After much talk of engaging America’s adversaries, chief among them Iran, the Obama administration has made no move so far, pending a policy review.

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Can Pakistan Regain Control of Swat from the Taliban?

“Smile, you’re in Swat,” reads a billboard on the main road into the lush green honeymooners’ valley once dubbed the “Switzerland of Asia”. But over the past two years, Swat has been turned into a playground for the Taliban. And it may be the Taliban, and their fellow Islamists, who have most reason to smile as a result of the government’s decision, last week, to end its floundering military campaign and instead accept the Taliban’s key demand — for the imposition of Islamic shari’a law in the area

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Taliban swaps kidnapped official for militants

Taliban militants released a kidnapped Pakistani official in exchange for two of their men in the troubled Swat Valley, government officials said Monday. Kushal Khan was on his way to take up his new post as the district coordination officer Sunday when unknown gunmen kidnapped him and six members of his security detail near Mingora, the valley’s main city.

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Taliban, Pakistan make permanent truce in volatile valley

The Taliban and the government of North West Frontier Province in Pakistan have agreed to a permanent cease-fire in the nation’s volatile Swat Valley, an official said. Syed Mohammad Javed, commissioner for the Malakand region, which includes Swat Valley, told reporters in Mingora that the two parties had agreed to make permanent a 10-day cease-fire declared earlier this week. Javed said the agreement meant boys schools will reopen on Monday and camps will be set up for Swat residents who have fled the fighting or whose homes had been destroyed.

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Karzai, Pelosi talk counter-terrorism, reconstruction

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Afghan President Hamid Karzai America’s "new strategy" in Afghanistan will focus on reconstructing the war-battered country and maintaining strong counter-terrorism measures, his office said.

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Will Pakistan’s Shari’a Pact Calm or Inflame a Troubled Region?

In a desperate move to deal with an intractable radical insurgency, the Pakistan government says it will impose a form of Islamic law in the area of Swat Valley in the northwestern corner of the country. As a result, Islamabad’s faltering military campaign there has been put on hold, and the militants have agreed to a tentative ceasefire.

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