International Community

Thousands of people protested Sunday outside Prime Minister Tony Blair's residence to demand decisive action to end the violence in Darfur, holding up a 7-foot hourglass filled with artificial blood. Protests also were held in the United States, Israel and other countries on what campaigners designated a global day of action.

AS WE MARK the 10th anniversary of the Dayton accords that ended the war in Bosnia, it must seem to most Americans that the world hasn't really learned much, then or since, about how to prevent and resolve deadly conflict. With every night's evening news full of the grim daily death tolls in Iraq, riots in France, bombs in Jordan, ugly fighting still in Afghanistan and recurring nightmares in Africa, there doesn't seem much room for optimism. But there is.

While war-torn Lebanon worked to rebuild its dazzling limestone capital by the sea and dubbed itself the Arab world's lone democracy, rulers in Syria ran the country from afar, wielding power over the president, the prime minister and the majority of the Lebanese parliament. But Syria's recent reported interference in Lebanon's presidential election may have been too much.

Last week, Israel's High Court of Justice ordered the government to reroute a small portion of the separation barrier it is building between Jews and Palestinians on the grounds that it disproportionately harmed several Palestinian villages and violated "fundamental rights" of the people living in its path. At the same time, the court upheld the legality of the fence itself, ruling that it is a legitimate security measure. But the timing of the decision raised some eyebrows.

Humanitarian aid agencies, analysts and U.S. officials all agree that no matter what the international community does to try to prevent the catastrophe unfolding in Darfur, western Sudan, it's too late: Huge numbers of people will die there in coming months. With the U.S. Agency for International Development conservatively predicting that 320,000 people will perish from disease and starvation in the Darfur region, U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and U.N.

Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships battled militants in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, continuing the biggest offensive there during more than 3 1/2 years of conflict. At least 20 Palestinians were reported dead and 40 wounded in the daylong fighting. Israeli officials said the incursion was an attempt to confront militants and staunch weapons smuggling along Gaza's border with Egypt.

Haiti's prime minister appealed Tuesday for international help to end the violent uprising in his country, but officials in Washington, Paris and at the United Nations offered limited assistance, saying Haitians themselves must decide whether the government stays in power. Prime Minister Yvon Neptune said his government was in danger of being toppled, and he asked the international community "to show that it really wants peace and stability in Haiti."

Pity the poor Democratic presidential candidates. They're really in a bind: They have no choice but to join in the international rejoicing over the capture of the Butcher of Baghdad, but at the same time they can't simply offer blanket approval for President Bush's Iraq policy. With the economy picking up steam and Bush stealing their best issue with his Medicare bill, they can't afford to give up this all-important area in which to criticize the incumbent.

President Bush insists that the United States stay the course in Iraq, when what's needed is a course correction. The summoning of L. Paul Bremer III, the U.S. administrator for Iraq, to the White House on Tuesday conveys a sense of urgency. The administration needs a new and more viable plan to accelerate Iraqi sovereignty.

After urgent talks with his top foreign policy team, President Bush decided Wednesday to return to the United Nations for a resolution seeking greater international involvement in Iraq, including more foreign troops and wider funding for reconstruction, U.S. officials said. The Bush administration had resisted going back to the U.N. for a potentially contentious debate that might pressure the United States to cede partial control of Iraqi reconstruction. But after a devastating bombing at the U.