International leaders are responding to an uprising of Islamist
militants in northern Mali, hoping to inject stability in a
country once hailed as a model for democracy in Africa.
Following a coup last year, militants destroyed ancient shrines,
once a major draw for Islamic scholars from around the world.
They also banned music. Reports of human rights abuses soared,
including the public stoning death of a couple accused of having
an affair. The U.N. Security Council last month authorized a
peacekeeping mission. This week, French troops joined the fight
against militants in its former colony, which was under a state
of emergency Friday. The urgency for international intervention
came after Islamists seized Konna on Thursday, a frontier town
that was the de facto line of government control. A day later,
the government said it recaptured the town. What's the story
behind the instability? Mali gained independence from France in
1960. The landlocked West African nation went through growing
pains after independenc