In the Papers This Morning

As we have grown used to this month, there is once again much about Pakistan in the paper this morning. Too late to make our early morning edition (does the Times even have more than one edition these days?) was this on line piece announcing that President Musharraf is stepping down. Or something like stepping down. I think. Sort of.

Full marks to the Times for giving extensive coverage to Pakistan's problems. It isn't as prominent as I would have expected, but certainly more prominent and extensive than the television news. It seems to me that a nuclear power with an unstable government and a strong jihadist minority would have focused the attention more than it has.

There was a piece in The Atlantic a couple of months ago that gave a useful background, highlighting the position of the military in Pakistan. You can find it here.

The Times also had one of those little paragraphs that seems unexceptionable at first glance. It was in the "World in Brief" section way in the back. The headline said "Sentence Doubled for Rape Victim". And then after turning a couple of pages the penny drops: "Hang on. . . victim??" Sure enough, it was "rape victim" not "rapist". The Times doesn't seem to think this worthy of inclusion in the on line edition, so here's another version of the story.