* ‘Iran wants to devour the Arab world’ Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak spoke out against Iran during a meeting with members of the Egyptian ruling party.

* Obama’s atomic umbrella: U.S. nuclear strike if Iran nukes Israel U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s administration will offer Israel a “nuclear umbrella” against the threat of a nuclear attack by Iran.

* EU leaders gather for rift-packed summit Almost two years after adopting ambitious green goals, a year after signing the new Lisbon Treaty and some sixteen months after the first signs of the financial crisis, EU leaders are meeting in Brussels on Thursday.

* Al-Qaeda terror plot fears at EU summit A potential suicide bomber and 13 other terrorist suspects with links to al-Qaeda were arrested as EU leaders arrived for their summit in Brussels.

* Arab Muslim Clerics: ‘Slaughter the Jews on the Land of Hevron!’ The head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan called on Palestinian Authority Arabs to formally start a third intifada by carrying out suicide bombing attacks to “slaughter the Jews” in Israel.

* Official: IDF prepared for Gaza op Eight days before the ceasefire agreement brokered with the militant groups in the Gaza Strip is scheduled to end, and amid non-stop rocket fire, a security source said that “the IDF will execute any operation the political echelon orders.”

* ‘Winning the war on radical Islam will be tough, but can be done’ Lt. Col. John Nagl (Ret.) is trying to explain why “making war upon insurgents is messy and slow.

* A Marshall Plan for Africa Piracy in the Horn of Africa has recently grabbed the front pages of newspapers around the world after Somali pirates successfully hijacked several cargo ships.

* Ireland promises Lisbon ratification by end of 2009 Ireland has promised to ratify the EU’s Lisbon Treaty by November next year in exchange for concessions from the other EU states on its key demands.

* Abbas: Israeli issues preventing deal Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that the only reason Israel and the Palestinians haven’t reached a peace agreement is because of Jerusalem’s internal problems.