>>NATO - Russian President Putin sat down for the first time with leaders at the NATO summit yesterday, although Russian concerns have been heavily considered throughout the three-day meeting. Putin expressed new concerns about the U.S. missile defense shield, but also agreed to let NATO ship non-lethal supplies through Russia to Afghanistan. All told, over the course of the summit, NATO nations and candidates offered 2,000 new troops for efforts in Afghanistan.

>>Zimbabwe - Police in Harare have raided the offices of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and arrested two foreign journalists, including New York Times Pulitzer-prize winning correspondent Barry Bearak. Meanwhile, Mugabe's ZANU-PF party met in an emergency session to discuss whether Mugabe would contest a runoff election. There are reports that he will cede power if there is a guarantee that he will not be prosecuted. However, conflicting posturing by ZANU-PF seems to imply that the party has begun to facture and may not be acting as a united entity. It has also rendered news reporting out of Zimbabwe incomplete if not contradictory.

>>Colombia - Efforts to free ailing FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombia presidential candidate who also has French citizenship, have grown more frantic as French President Sarkozy has said that he is ready to travel to the Colombian border with Hugo Chavez if it will hasten her release. FARC has said that it will only free Betancourt through a prisoner exchange of hundreds of jailed FARC rebels, including Nayibe Rojas and Ricardo Palmera who are both held in U.S. prison.

>>Iraq - Over 1,000 Iraqi soldiers, including some senior commanders, either refused to fight or deserted the army during the assault on Basra's Shiite militias last week.

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