I will be in Nottingham in Britain's East Midlands on Friday and Saturday for the "Landscapes of Secrecy" conference on the CIA.
EA staff will be holding the fort here, but updates on the LiveBlogs on Iran and on Syria, Libya, & Beyond may be limited during the day. As always, thanks in advance to readers for bringing in news and ideas through the Comments section on the entries.
And we've got three top features for you today: Ali Yenidunya assesses the reconciliation deal between the Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, James Miller considers how General David Petraeus as head of the CIA may shape the US approach to pro-democracy movements, and Scott Lucas offers a 5-point guide to the dispute between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Leader.