It’s Monday, and we’re taking a look at the agenda for the week ahead: From the Pope's mission to the Middle East to a Senate subcommittee hearing on torture to the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights. The Takeaway is joined by our friend Marcus Mabry, the international business editor of The New York Times.

Thousands of Pakistanis are fleeing the Swat valley, where the government is intensifying its fight against Taliban militants. The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of civilians who have fled the embattled areas and officials are struggling to deal with the refugee crisis. More civilians took advantage of the lifting of a curfew in parts of the valley on Sunday to escape the fighting and join those already flooding refugee camps. For more we turn to the BBC's reporter in Islamabad Mark Dummett.

To see the BBC's report on the refugee situation in Pakistan, click here.

Experts said our interconnected world was going to make outbreaks like H1N1 far worse than those that came before. But author Steven Johnson says that information spreads faster than people do, and that's what will keep us safe. This is thanks to what he calls "information ubiquity," which is the same force behind the decline of newspapers and the rise of e-readers like the Kindle. Johnson is the author of a recent book about the 1854 cholera epidemic in London called The Ghost Map as well as Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software, and his most recent book is The Invention of Air. He is also the founder of hyper-local reporting site Outside.In.

For more, read Steven Johnson's article in the Wall Street Journal, How the E-Book Will Change the Way We Read and Write.

Pope Benedict arrived in Israel today. It's the fourth day of his eight-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The Pope's visit coincides with intense diplomatic efforts to re-start the Mideast peace process. King Abdullah of Jordan says the U.S. is putting the final touches to a new multi-party and comprehensive plan for peace in the Middle East. For more on this ambitious plan, we turn to the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus.

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Israel today after spending three days in neighboring Jordan. Israeli leaders, including President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, gathered to greet the Pontiff at the airport. But the Pope's visit is not without controversy. After he arrived in Israel, the Pope called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian homeland, a stance that could strain his mission of easing relations between the Vatican and Jews. For more we turn to the BBC's Rome correspondent and Pope watcher, David Willey.

Military marriages are suffering as Americans in uniform continue to fight two ongoing wars. In 2007 more than 13,000 marriages failed among active duty soldiers and marines. In her latest memoir, I Love a Man in Uniform, author Lily Burana gives these statistics a human voice. Although her marriage has survived the military stress test, she and her husband were in no way immune to the trials and tribulations that came with living on a military base, living through a deployment, and the awkward emotional fumbling that accompanied her husband’s return from combat in Iraq. Burana’s acclimation to the military world was exacerbated by her and her husband’s cultural differences. Burana, a former stripper and punk with a penchant for writing alternative prose fell for a straight-laced military man. She joins us for a look into the military world and what it means to be a modern-day military wife.

Last week Maine became the fifth state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage. Maine's Democratic-controlled Senate voted 21-13 in support of the bill, which redefines marriage as the legal union of two people rather than between a man and a woman. Maine's Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted 89-57. The House spent nearly three hours in what has been described as an emotionally-charged debate. One of the seven Republicans Representatives to vote in favor of the bill is Representative Pat Flood. He talk sabout how he wrestled with the issue and reached his decision.

Gay marriage has been a longtime wedge issue in the United States, but the pace of change has quickened in the last few months. Last month, Iowa and Vermont legalized same-sex marriage and last week, Maine became the fifth state to allow gay couples to wed; similar legislation is advancing in New Hampshire. Washington D.C. also got into the mix, voting last week to recognize same-sex marriages that have been performed in other parts of the United States. Joining us to talk about this latest round of legislation and to look ahead at whether this momentum could carry across the country is Suzanne Goldberg. She is a professor at Columbia Law School and the director of the Gender and Sexuality Law Program.

President Obama has gathered all the fronts in the health care debate— doctors, drug makers, hospitals, and insurance companies—and persuaded them to play nice for the sake of the nation's economy. These groups are expected to join President Obama today in announcing their commitment to a sharp reduction in the growth of national health spending. The new plan would potentially save a family of four $2,500 and would save the country $2 trillion over the next ten years. The Takeaway's man in Washington, Todd Zwillich, joins us with a report.

Want more Todd Zwillich? Follow him on Twitter.

It's a recipe for frustration. In tough economic times, many people are working too hard to take off for an hour-long lunch. And who wants to leave your desk empty when the threat of layoffs is looming? So we dine "al desko": a sandwich in one hand and the mouse in the other. The culinary cost of "just grabbing a sandwich" everyday quickly adds up. But the task of making lunch the night before can be daunting, and boil-in-bag food can be dull. Is there anything you can do at your desk to prepare or pep up your midday meal? New York Times food writer and friend of The Takeaway Melissa Clark has some tips.

What should be in your food pantry at work? Here are Melissa's suggestions for the must-have items for the cubicle gourmet: Red wine vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, good olive oil, Tabasco sauce or other Chili Sauce, sharp mustard (no need to refrigerate!), pepper grinder with fresh pepper, good salt (kosher or coarse sea salt), block of good, dark chocolate (much more satisfying than the vending machine - and cheaper, too!), a bag of roasted salted almonds, and peanut sauce.

Have access to your office fridge? Melissa suggests keeping a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, feta or goat cheese for salads, bagged spinach, and jars of olives and anchovies.

Don't forget to store in your pantry a fork and a sharp knife for cutting an avocado, tomato or zucchini (or for fending off lunchroom thieves).

Have your own ideas for eating al desko? Tell us!

Activist Annie Leonard wanted to convey to kids that excessive consumption harms the Earth. So she made a simple web video. Now, millions have watched her film, The Story of Stuff, and thousands of teachers around the country are using it as a teaching tool in their classrooms. New York Times environment reporter Leslie Kaufman joins The Takeaway with a look at how a web phenomenon is helping to make up for textbooks that can't keep pace with evolving scientific understanding about the environment.

For more, read Leslie Kaufman's article, A Cautionary Video About America’s ‘Stuff’, in the New York Times.

You can view here The Story of Stuff:

Twenty years ago, the Soviet Union's military retreated from Afghanistan in disarray. Their bloody nine-year conflict has often been called “Russia’s Vietnam.” Now some Russians see America and its NATO allies heading for a similar destiny. To discuss this alarming possibility is Sergei Khrushchev, the son of the former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. (Sergei’s father died in 1971.) Sergei, a fellow in international affairs at Brown University, joins a conversation with the BBC’s Russia reporter Olexiy Solohubenko and James Joyner of the Atlantic Council.

Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi has just been released from an Iranian prison. Saberi was convicted last month of spying for the United States in a quick trial that was closed to the public. Her incarceration caused an international uproar and President Obama asked for her release. Saberi's lawyer said today that an appeals court in Iran reduced her jail term for spying from eight years to a two-year suspended sentence. For more we turn to New York Times' reporter Nazila Fathi and then to Jon Leyne, the BBC's Tehran correspondent.

Did Irani officials bow to pressure in the Saberi case? For more information, watch this video from the Associated Press.