KANO, Nigeria — Niger's government is struggling to control information about a nascent rebellion in its northern desert — suspending local press accused of backing the fighters and banning foreign reporters from the area. The rebels, though, have a Web site and satellite phones.
While U.S. forces continue the difficult task of helping Iraqis stabilize their country, Democratic leaders continue to undermine the war effort at home. Last week, for example, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid staged an all-night Iraq defeatathon in an effort to press wavering Republicans into supporting an early withdrawal of troops. When he came up eight votes short, Mr. Reid yanked the bill from the floor, virtually ensuring a delay in funding for critical items such as Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles for soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and money for wounded veterans.
"Moral paralysis" is a term that has been used to describe the inaction of France, England and other European democracies in the 1930s, as they watched Adolf Hitler build up the military forces he later used to attack them. It is a term that may be painfully relevant to our own times.
BRITAIN
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan police discovered the bullet-riddled body of a South Korean hostage yesterday as the Taliban released eight other captives, who were taken to a U.S. military base, officials said.
Iraq's outnumbered Christians and other religious minority groups are targets of a terror campaign and are facing a dire situation where killings and rapes have become the norm, a panel of witnesses testified yesterday on Capitol Hill.
BRITAIN
The House yesterday overwhelmingly passed a bill prohibiting permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq, a symbolic measure Speaker Nancy Pelosi used to revive the war issue now that the Democrat-led Congress has suspended the push for a troop pullout.
TEL AVIV — Foreign ministers from Jordan and Egypt made a groundbreaking visit to Jerusalem yesterday to promote an Arab League peace plan that offers normal diplomatic relations in exchange for a return to Israel"s pre-1967 borders.
