President Obama called for a new beginning for the relationship between the U.S. and the Muslim world. How is the Arab world reacting: what did they want to hear about Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and women's rights? And what do they want to happen next? The Takeaway turns to Amir Moussa, the Secretary-General of the Arab League and former Egyptian foreign minister, Marcus Mabry, the international business editor for the New York Times, and Muna Shikaki, a correspondent for Al Arabiya, an Arabic news network.

There are more than seven million Muslims in the United States, and they overwhelming supported President Obama in the election. To learn about what they anticipated, and what they heard, in today's speech, John and Andrea talk with Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, a Takeaway contributor, Hanien Hassan Hannesy, a resident of Egypt, and Asra Nomani, journalism professor at Georgetown University and author of Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam. Peter Awn, director of the Middle East studies program at Columbia University, is also offering commentary.

Miss the President's address? Watch it here:

Speaking at Cairo University, President Obama touched on issues including Iraq, women's rights, economic development, and religious tolerance. For more analysis on relations between America and the Muslim world, we turn to Professor Peter Awn, director of the Middle East studies program at Columbia University and Noah Feldman, professor of law at Harvard and author of The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State (Council on Foreign Relations).

International intrigue and Latin America have long been partners in crime. So when Bolivian security forces killed an Irish man, a Romanian, and a Hungarian in a hotel room in Santa Cruz, Bolivia in a half-hour shoot out, it sounded like it was ripped from the pages of a high-flung spy novel. Now, Bolivian President Evo Morales said that this alleged assassination attempt by foreign mercenaries could have been backed by the U.S. Government reports say that the group was linked to rightist opposition groups against Morales’ leftist regime, but they have not released the details of their report to the Irish or Hungarian governments who have been seeking answers.

Naomi Daremblum who teaches about Latin American issues at New York University joins The Takeaway to talk about the alleged assassination attempt on President Morales.

Fifteen years ago, Nelson Mandela swept to an historic victory to become the first black President of South Africa. That victory was the start of the dominance of Mandela's African National Congress Party. A decade and a half later, the African National Congress Party's candidate, Jacob Zuma, is again poised to reign supreme. Today is the last day of campaigning before South Africans head to the polls on Wednesday.

To help us understand what Zuma's presumed leadership will mean for South Africa and what the U.S. will be watching in this election, The Takeaway talks to Dan Simpson. Simpson is currently an editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Before taking the reigns at the paper, he was Director of Southern African Affairs in the State Department in the 1980s and has been U.S. Ambassador to several African countries.

Jailed Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi has been sentenced to eight years in prison for alleged espionage. President Obama has called for her release, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged the country’s chief prosecutor to fairly examine the case. But Robin Wright, Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, and the author of Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East, says Saberi may be caught in the crossfire during a period of extraordinary tensions within Iran and between Iran and the US.

For more on this case, watch the video below from the Associated Press.

If we learned anything about our new President during his trip abroad this month, it's that his charm speaks all languages. But it seems that if President Obama wants to pick an ambassador to the Vatican, he may need to turn up the charm a notch. Our partners, the BBC, are reporting that the Vatican has informally vetoed three of Obama’s potential nominees for U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. For more we turn to David Willey, Rome correspondent for the BBC.

President Obama touches down in Mexico City this afternoon for talks with his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderon. This is his first trip to Latin America since being inaugurated. Details of the trip are sketchy due to security concerns, but Obama is sure to address ongoing violence stemming from Mexico’s war against drug cartels. The Takeaway talks to Ioan Grillo Mexico Correspondent for Time Magazine.

For more, here is the AP's report on the visit:

Former Maine Senator George Mitchell was appointed by President Obama to serve as Special Envoy for Middle East Peace in January. Since then he’s visited Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Filling his dance card with the rest of the Arab world, he’s now traveling in the North African countries of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. But the role of these countries in the Middle East peace process is not well known. I. William Zartman, Professor Emeritus at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, joins The Takeaway with some history and an analysis.

Fore more information on George Mitchell's upcoming visit to the Middle East, watch the video below.

As the last stop on his first Presidential tour of Europe, President Obama heads to Turkey. This visit is seen as another step towards engagement of the Muslim world. Turkey was once a strong strategic ally of the U.S., but the relationship has drifted in the last few years. This trip to Ankara is seen as a move to renew the partnership. For more, we turn to Dr. Gulnur Aybet, a specialist on Turkey at the University of Kent in England to discuss the President's visit and his efforts to reach out to Muslims in Turkey and around the world.

As George Mitchell, President Obama's special envoy to the Middle East finishes up a day in the West Bank, we're taking a look at the challenges that lie ahead for all the President's envoys. Both Mitchell and Richard Holbrooke, the special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, have long roads ahead of them. One man who can sympathize: Dan Simpson. Now an editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Simpson served as special envoy to Somalia from 1994 - 1995 and was an Ambassador to Congo and the Central African Republic. He joins us now with his insight into the world of the special envoy.

President Obama visited the State Department on his second full day in office yesterday, signaling the renewed importance of diplomacy in US foreign policy. He appointed two special envoys to troubled regions — former Northern Ireland mediator George Mitchell to oversee Arab-Israeli issues and longtime diplomat Richard Holbrooke to handle Pakistan and Afghanistan. The New York Times’ Mark Landler joins John and Adaora with a look at these two appointments and what they say about the new President's foreign policy strategy.

Diplomatic efforts to end the fighting in Gaza are in high gear. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is in the region for a series of meetings urging a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Despite these calls for peace, Israel's offensive continues with fighting raging in Gaza City and reports of Israeli shelling of the U.N. headquarters in Gaza. For the latest on the troubling situation in Gaza we turn to Laura Trevelyan, the BBC's United Nations correspondent, who joins us from the bus where she is traveling with Ban Ki-Moon from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

For more, watch an Al-Jazeera report on the United Nations' warning on the plight of children in Gaza.

As the crisis in Gaza continues, the world seeks diplomatic solutions for a decades old conflict. As Israel intensifies its hunt for Hamas, the international community pleas for peace, and protests have erupted around the world. And with a certain inauguration happening next week, it is a tough time to be an Israeli diplomat. Ambassador Daniel Carmon is the Deputy Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations he joins us this morning for his take on Gaza.

The United Nations has called for a cease-fire in Gaza.

In response to a spat with Ukraine, Russia is slowing the flow of its gas to European countries that rely on it to heat their homes. This could be a dark foreshadowing of shortages to come. Carola Hoyos, chief energy correspondent for the Financial Times, joins The Takeaway to explain the current dispute and its long-term implications.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution when Fidel Castro established himself as the Cuban leader and began one of the longest and most controversial relationships in U.S. diplomatic history. Now almost an anachronism of the Cold War, how has the country changed over the last fifty years? How will it look fifty years from now? The BBC's Michael Voss joins John and Adaora from Havana.

To outsiders Zimbabwe seems to be in crisis. A cholera epidemic has killed over 1,000 Zimbabweans and the economy is in collapse. On Monday, the U.S. and Britain demanded that President Mugabe step down but Mugabe says he will never surrender. For insight into this transcontinental power-struggle, we turn to journalist Heidi Holland, the author of "Dinner With Mugabe: The Untold Story of a Freedom Fighter Who Became a Tyrant."

The attacks may have been a horrific preview of the shape of terrorism to come.

With rumors that Senator Hillary Clinton will accept the key position of secretary of state in President-elect Obama’s Cabinet, the nation is starting envision what American diplomacy will look like after President Bush.