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Hugh Jackman as host tried to engage the audience in the onstage shenannigans. ( & copy;AMPAS)

President Barack Obama's administration is lowering its sights in President Hamid Karzai's Afghanistan. The new hope is that U.S. troops can begin to withdraw in five years, leaving the rest of the job to Afghan forces and civilian experts.

the past few months, Pakistan's Pakistan's army has lost control of the Swat Valley to the Taliban. It has now launched an operation to win the valley back, but victory will difficult: The Taliban is highly organized, and uses hit-and-run guerrilla tactics.

Presidents-Elect in a Pickle

The Indian government has compiled a dossier of evidence on last November's attacks in Mumbai that it presented to Pakistan and to countries that lost citizens in the attacks. Siddharth Varadarajan, of the Hindu newspaper, says Indian authorities began to record phone calls between the militants and their handlers soon after the incident began.

Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo to discuss the crisis in Gaza as the Israeli military operation there, as well as Palestinian rocket fire into Israel, continued for a fifth day. But as often happens at Arab League meetings, while the rhetoric was strong, the unity of purpose was scarce.

A Muslim cleric from Jordan went to the United Kingdom in the 1990s, where he gained asylum by claiming persecution. But he supposedly started preaching hate sermons. The British government wants to send him back to Jordan, but he says he'll be tortured there. Britain's human rights laws forbid deportation to a country that tortures.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat from Illinois, is blasting Gov. Rod Blagojevich following allegations that he attempted to auction off the senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. Schakowsky, who is also a contender to senate appointment, likens the governor's alleged demands to "wild fantasies."

Executives of the Big Three U.S. automakers pleaded Thursday for a $34 billion government bailout, acknowledging that the industry had made mistakes but pledging to speed up cost-cutting measures that would get the companies back on track.

World leaders gathered in Washington over the weekend for an emergency meeting on the economic crisis. They agreed to an action plan that may reshape the financial world. The summit was the idea of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who represented the European Union. In France, one newspaper said Sarkozy stole the show.