David Morgan at Reuters reports on Defense Secretary Robert Gates' appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. "There is little doubt that our greatest military challenge right now is Afghanistan," Gates noted. "President Obama has made it clear that the Afghanistan theater should be our top overseas military priority." Read the rest of the story here.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has written an editorial in the International Herald Tribune offering some advice to President Barack Obama: "Judging by Obama's inaugural speech, he understands that even while he faces the immediate challenges of the economic crisis, he should not push to the sidelines problems like poverty and environmental issues, particularly climate change. Fostering economic development and preserving the planet for future generations can be contradictory; the only way to resolve this clash of priorities is to develop policies multilaterally." Read the rest of the piece here.

Sam Grobart, at the New York Times' Gadgetwise blog, is hearing rumors President Obama may have to give up his Blackberry, but could exchange it for a Sectéra Edge, which is made by the military contractor General Dynamics. The product description reads: "Developed for the National Security Agency's Secure Mobile Environment Portable Electronic Device (SME PED) program, the Sectéra Edge is certified to protect wireless voice communications classified Top Secret and below as well as access e-mail and Web sites classified Secret and below." Read the rest of the piece here.

President Obama has announced the appointment of Kathie Ann Whipple as the Acting Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. "I am humbled to have been designated by President Obama to serve as the Acting Director of OPM, an agency it has been my pleasure to serve for the past eight years," said Whipple. Read the rest of the short press release here.

On Thursday, senators confirmed the following for Obama posts: former Illinois Rep. Ray Lahood as secretary of transportation, New York City housing commissioner Shaun Donovan as secretary of transportation, Lisa Perez Jackson as Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Nancy Helen Sutley as a member of the Council of Environmental Quality, Mary Schapiro as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations. Laurie Kellman at AP has more on recent confirmations.

Reuters reports President Obama has lifted restrictions on U.S. government funding for groups that provide abortion services or counseling abroad. The ban was instituted in 1984. President Clinton lifted the ban in January 1993 and President Bush reinstated it in January 2001. Read the rest of the story here.

President Barack Obama today signed executive orders that will close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo, Cuba, "no later than one year from now" and initiate new treatment rules, saying America will act "in a manner consistent with our values and ideals," the Washington Post reports.

"The orders include an immediate case-by-case review of the 245 detainees remaining at Guantanamo, as well as the application of new rules governing the treatment and interrogation of prisoners, including compliance with international treaties that the Bush administration deemed inapplicable to suspects in terrorism cases," the Post says.

"Obama also signed two executive orders today to alter CIA detention and interrogation rules, limiting interrogation standards in all U.S. facilities worldwide to those outlined in the Army Field Manual, and prohibiting the agency from secretly holding terrorist detainees in third-country prisons."

Yesterday the president suspended all judicial proceedings at Guantanamo while a review takes place.

You can read the full Post story here.

President Barack Obama's choice for national intelligence director, Retired Adm. Dennis Blair, is scheduled to testify Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee on his nomination. In prepared comments, Blair advocates the closing of the jail at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, calling it "a damaging symbol to the world." Blair also described torture as "not moral, legal or effective." Read the Associated Press story by Pamela Hess here.

Foreign Policy has a brief note on former Senate majority leader George Mitchell and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Richard Holbrooke officially being named as U.S. envoys Thursday. Citing the Washington Post, Mitchell will be sent to the Middle East, Holbrooke will focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Read the rest here.

In his first full day in office, President Barack Obama set new policies on lobbying and the sharing of government information, the New York Times reports.

"President Obama moved swiftly on Wednesday to impose new rules on government transparency and ethics, using his first full day in office to freeze the salaries of his senior aides, mandate new limits on lobbyists and demand that the government disclose more information," the story said.

"Mr. Obama called the moves, which overturned two policies of his predecessor, 'a clean break from business as usual.' Coupled with Tuesday’s Inaugural Address, which repudiated the Bush administration’s decisions on everything from science policy to fighting terrorism, the actions were another sign of the new president’s effort to emphasize an across-the-board shift in priorities, values and tone."

To read more of the story, go here.