The battle against Islamic militias

In Afghanistan, the Taleban have refused participation in a Pakistani effort to limit violence and cross border activities.

The AP has an article on a new set of "rules" issued out of a "high Taleban meeting." The most atrocious is that all schools should be burned and all teachers should be killed.

In Somalia, the UN approved a peacekeeping force, although who is going to staff it is still unknown.

Within days, Ethiopian troops conducted their first attack on the Islamic militias about 70 miles south of the remaining government holdout Baidoa. (AFP version)

Around southern Sudan, the civil war has spread into "heavy fighting" in Chad, and a lawless refugee/militia/deprivation chaos in border region of the Central African Republic.