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Another clash with global consequences looms, apart from the awful conflagration in war-ravaged Syria. On Oct. 12, following weeks of French pressure, the U.N. Security Council set a 45-day deadline for intervention into Mali, the northwest African nation that has seen roughly half of its territory overrun by rebels and militias with links to al-Qaeda’s North African wing (AQIM). France’s Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian insisted Tuesday it was a “matter of weeks, not months” before decisive action would be taken to reclaim a vast stretch of desert and semiarid scrubland that has become a “terrorist sanctuary.” The instability of the past half-year in Mali has sparked fears on both sides of the Mediterranean of a broader regional crisis. Six...