The World's Newest Country

Independent journalist Michael Totten has a fascinating piece on the Wall Street Journal website about Kosovo, the pro-American, pro-Israel, Muslim-majority nation on the Balkan peninsula.

Gitmo Recidivists

Campaign rhetoric and the facts on the ground can be entirely different, as reported by the Associated Press and other news outlets:

Terror suspects who have been held but released from Guantanamo Bay are increasingly returning to the fight against the United States and its allies, the Pentagon said Tuesday. Sixty-one detainees released from the U.S. Navy base prison in Cuba are believed to have rejoined the fight, said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, citing data from December. That's up from 37 as of March 2008, he said. The new figures come as President-elect Barack Obama prepares to issue an executive order during his first week in office to close the controversial prison. It's unlikely, however, that the Guantanamo detention facility will be closed anytime soon as Obama weighs what to do with the estimated 250 al-Qaida, Taliban or other foreign fighter suspects still there.