Reuters / Michele Crosera

Venice under water The Globe's Big Picture is all over Venice, where people wade to work and life goes on in flooded shops like the bakery above.

There are 25 photos in all, mostly shot outdoors, and nearly twice the size of the one above.

An Islamic Address

WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama's aides say he is considering making a major foreign policy speech from an Islamic capital during his first 100 days in office.

So where should he do it? The list of Islamic world capitals is long, and includes the obvious --Riyadh, Kuwait City, Islamabad -- and the not-so-obvious -- Male (the Maldives), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Tashkent (Uzbekistan). Some wise-guys have even suggested Dearborn, Mich., as a possibility.

Helene Cooper of the NYT then takes us on a geopolitical tour of the Muslim world, eliminating one city after another as the perfect place "for a high-profile speech that would seek to mend rifts between the United States and the broader Muslim world."

Her choice is interesting, as is the reponse of that country's embassy in Washington. Hundreds of comments chime in.