Communication Breakdown

Officials with the Indian government announced yesterday they plan to break all business, transport and tourist ties with Pakistan if the latter does not step up efforts in investigating the Mumbai attacks, reports the Pakistani newspaper the Daily Times.   

The official, Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram, said Pakistan has done "nothing" in assisting India.  

British delegates are meeting with Chidambaram later today.  

Chidambaram did not say when such actions will be taken but said cooperation is needed immediately.  

LDP in Peril

Yoshimi Watanabe, an official in Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), split with ranks yesterday after his policy suggestions were ignored by Prime Minister Taro Aso, reports Asahi.

Watanabe also said Aso needs to "quit politics that give top priority to maintaining the administration's hold on power."  The remarks come at a critical time for the LDP, reports the BBC, who have approval ratings hovering around just 20 percent.  Some in the party, which has been in power for all but a few months of the last 50 years, fear that the resignation may signal more to come.  

Elections are scheduled for September.  

China Down

China's export numbers made their most precipitous decline in a decade in December, reports Market Watch

Peace Talks

The Khaleej Times reports on the ongoing Egyptian cease fire talks, saying that while Egypt is eager to end the fighting and Israel has shown interest in signing the current plan, Hamas leadership from Damascus and Gaza are having a tough time coming together and signing the agreement.  

The Cairo talks involve five Hamas delegates, three from Damascus and two from Gaza.  

Meanwhile, Qatar has requested an emergency Arab League summit to find a solution to the conflict, to which no Arab countries have as of yet signed on to.  Some are afraid that the meeting will prove ineffective, making Arab states look helpless, while others can't get passed certain divisions in the Arab world, a Reuters report makes clear.  

Egypt and Saudi Arabia are opposed to Hamas militants, while Syria and Qatar are sympathetic to them.  Egypt sees Qatar's announcement as a means of embarrassing or undermining talks in Cairo.

Protesters in Syria, Yemen and Iran have excoriated Egypt's refusal to open their border crossings with Gaza to allow civilians to flee the war torn area.  Egypt won't do it without support from the PA government in the West Bank.  

From the North

Shots were fired at Israeli troops stationed on its northern border with Jordan yesterday, reports Al Jazeera.  The shooters identities or affiliations remain ambiguous, and Jordanian officials deny any shots were fired.  

Jordan and Israel signed a peace agreement in 1994 and the border they share has largely been calm since.  

Phase 3

Israeli air strikes intensified as ground troops pushed into the suburbs of Gaza City, reports the BBC, and Hamas rocket fire into Israel continues.  

PA President Mahmoud Abbas decried Israel for attempting to "wipe out" his people.  The PA used to hold power in Gaza before elections in 2006 put Hamas in power, and many predicted the outcome of the current conflict would put Abbas's PA back in power there.  

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is headed to Gaza to push for an immediate truce.    

A Triumvirate Emerges

Clinton faces smooth sailing in her hearing to head the State Department, and John Kerry looks forward to filling Biden's former role as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reports the Washington Post, paving the way for a new triumvirate of American foreign policy leaders; Obama-Clinton-Kerry.  

Said Andrew Bacevich of Clinton in a FOX News report, "(she) certainly will be a very important voice when it comes to advising, but basic U.S. policy does not get made in the State Department . . . Her effectiveness will require to a considerable degree that she demonstrates that she's a loyal subordinate."  

Bacevich also hopes to see substantive statements on issues like Pakistan and the conflict in Gaza from Clinton during the hearing rather than the tired cliches we've already heard.  Norman's International could not have said it better.