Mumbai, Indias financial capital is now only barely waking up from its worst nightmare. Last week in simultaneous attacks, Islamist terrorists killed at least 195 people and injured another 300 during a 60-hour killing spree. The tactics used by the terrorists were different from the classical jihadist playbook. Does it mean that Mumbai-style attacks are the new jihadist modus operandi?

CIA Director Michael Hayden said last week that al-Qaida was still the largest threat to the United States. He added, "If there is a major strike on this country, it will bear the fingerprints of al-Qaida."

One leader that could not wait for U.S. President George W. Bush to be out of office is Syrian President Bashar Assad. Assad profusely congratulated his favored candidate: Barack Obama. President-elect Obama should be careful in his dealings with the Syrian regime. In fact, quite possibly, Assad might be pondering if he could get away with reoccupying Lebanon.

Time is running out for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He will have to decide in the next few weeks whether his overture to the West is genuine or not. To Assads credit a slew of events are pointing to his good faith, but he is still afraid to totally break loose from Irans grip. Whatever decision the Syrian president makes will have a great impact on the region.

Once considered the safest country in Europe, if not the world, Switzerland is now a potential target of a terrorist attack. Why? In the past few months something has happened to this quiet and neutral country where outside of an occasional banking scandal nothing much went on; at least nothing that merited international focus.

More than ever, Pakistan is at the heart of the war against radical Islam. In fact, in the past few weeks, military operations in the North West tribal areas have increased dramatically in numbers and intensity. Western officials fear the radicalization of their own citizens who travel to Pakistan to "study" Islam in the madrassas that former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf had promised to close. And finally Pakistani society is facing another growing problem: honor crimes.

If there is one country that has been all over the news lately, it is Syria. In fact between President Bashar Assads charm offensive to the West (real or not), Syrian troops amassing near the Lebanese border, a terror attack in Damascus, it seems that today things are shaking up in Syria. But the difficulty of reading into this imbroglio is growing by the day: more players, more incidents, more drama.

Qatar-based Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi recently set off a hot controversy. The influential Sunni cleric, a regular on Al-Jazeera, stated that "Shiites are heretics and their danger comes from their attempts to invade Sunni society." Interestingly enough this is far from just a religious debate, because it actually encompasses the fear that Sunni Gulf states feel regarding Shiite Irans expansion.

Jihadists greatly encourage their followers to perpetrate suicide attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. That is why numerous Muslim countries were fearing attacks in September.

Al-Qaida and the United States are not usually on the same side of an issue. One exception though: Mauritania. After the bloodless military coup of Aug. 6 in this North African country, both al-Qaida and the U.S. were quick to denounce very vocally the new regime.