● IRAQ DAILY Iraq is just a comma, not a death sentence

George Bush got in trouble recently for saying the tragedy of Iraq over the last year will come to be seen, in the long narrative of history, as a mere comma. It sounded to his critics a little callous to dismiss the war as one of the commoner punctuation marks. Tens of thousands of casualties, the discrediting of a superpower?s foreign policy, the destabilisation of the world?s already most volatile region? You?d think that might at least merit an exclamation mark. But no. Just another dull comma, the notoriously overused dab of a penstroke separating much larger, substantive. Which sort of comma will the Iraq war be? America?s critics and enemies hope, and some of its supporters fear, that the answer is obvious: Iraq represents a great dividing line in history?s multi-clause sentence ? the end, or the beginning of the end, of the American century. The war itself, on this view, shows in unexpected clarity the limits of American power. At almost precisely the moment that the US seemed to bestride the world as no other colossus in history, it is felled, not by by a rival empire lobbing nuclear missiles but by a bunch of murderers armed with plastic explosives.

<B>● THE TRIBUNE Terrorism, India?s most dangerous threat

Describing terrorism as the most dangerous threat and a hydra-headed monster, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked police personnel to gear up to meet challenges to internal security. Describing terrorism as «the most dangerous threat today», Dr Singh pointed out that there were several strains of terrorism present and asked the probationers to keep abreast of developments in this regard. The public administration in the country should learn to tackle tensions arising out of a rapidly changing society, the Prime Minister said, pointing out that the country was being transformed beyond recognition, giving rise to tensions, which were inevitable in a country trying to modernise itself.

<B>● CONGO POST Dr Congo's justice for sale

Lawyers are trained to never admit being satisfied, but those in the Democratic Republic of Congo have more reason than most to complain. «I?ve already paid the judge, so why should I pay you too?» is a question they have to contend with from their clients. After many years when the law was basically whatever the rich and powerful wanted it to be, DR Congo's legal system needs to be rebuilt, almost from scratch. This is one of the tasks awaiting whoever wins this week's presidential election run-off. Lawyer Octavius Nasena recounts a case when someone dared to question why his opponent in a property dispute had brazenly given an envelope full of money to the judge. The lawyer complained to the authorities, who ordered the judge's chambers to be searched, despite the judge's protestations that no-one had the right to know the contents of his private correspondence. An envelope matching the one described by the client was found containing $1,000 in cash, and the judge was eventually suspended, although he was not disbarred.

<B>● THE NEW YORK TIMES Democrats fear disillusionment in black voters

Last weekend, Jim Webb, the Virginia Democrat who hopes to oust Senator George Allen, crammed in visits to 12 black churches, and for several weeks he has been pumping money into advertisements on black radio stations and in black newspapers.In Missouri, Claire McCaskill, the Democrat trying to unseat Senator Jim Talent, has been running advertisements about sickle cell anemia, a genetic illness that mostly afflicts black people, and the importance of stem cell research in helping to find a cure.For Democrats like these in tight races, black voter turnout will be crucial on Election Day. But despite a generally buoyant Democratic Party nationally, there are worries among Democratic strategists in some states that blacks may not turn up at the polls in big enough numbers because of disillusionment over past shenanigans. «This notion that elections are stolen and that elections are rigged is so common in the public sphere that we?re having to go out of our way to counter them this year,» said Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist. «This will be the first midterm election in which the Democratic Party is mobilizing teams of lawyers and poll watchers, to check for irregularities including suppression of the black vote, in at least a dozen of the closest districts», Ms. Brazile said.