By Jay Sekulow
The left's outrage over the IRS turns to a plea to 'move on'
Mali's military claimed Friday that it has held control of a key town where Islamic extremists had battled forces for a week, though aid groups warned they were unable to reach the area to provide humanitarian assistance.
Syrian President Bashar Assad told the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in talks in Damascus on Tuesday that the group is welcome to operate on the ground in the country as long as it remains "neutral and independent," state media reported.
More than 100,000 Syrians sought refugee status during August in what the United Nations describes as an eye-popping escalation in the pace of departures since the hostilities began.
More than 100,000 Syrians fled their country in August, the highest monthly total since the crisis began in March 2011, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday.
Thousands of families are walking for days in search of food in a triangle of hunger where the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia meet. Hundreds already have died, and images of children with skinny, malnourished bodies are becoming commonplace in this corner of Africa.
Libya's oil minister defected after fleeing to Tunisia, a Tunisian security official said Tuesday of one of the highest profile figures to abandon Col. Moammar Gadhafi's government.
The U.N. refugee agency appealed to European countries Tuesday to step up rescue efforts for people fleeing the violence in Libya, warning that hundreds have drowned in recent weeks after their overloaded boats capsized in the Mediterranean Sea.
U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said that the number of displaced Malians is expected to increase dramatically in the coming months.
Those who have fled "mentioned that large amounts of money are being offered to civilians to fight against the Malian army and its supporters," she said.
