When Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo was freed from Taliban captivity last month in exchange for prisoners, it made global headlines—if only as an opportunity to portray the Italians as weak-willed. The Afghan journalist he was abducted with was sold down the river. His beheading now barely rates a notice in the global media. From the Committee to Protect Journalists, April 9:

We certianly hope that the expressions of Shi'ite-Sunni solidarity in this story are not exaggerated—or insincere. From AP, April 10 via Turkey's Zaman:

Tens of thousands draped themselves in Iraqi flags and marched through the streets of two Shiite holy cities Monday to mark the fourth anniversary of Baghdad's fall.

From AP, April 8:

Mother's high-speed chase leads to baby's death
9-month-old ejected from SUV when woman crashes trying to evade police
ALVARADO, Texas - A woman led police on a 25-mile high speed chase until she crashed into a concrete median, killing her 9-month-old daughter in the collision, authorities said.

Gunmen opened fire on Shi'ites April 6 in Parachinar, a remote town in northwestern Pakistan, triggering gunbattles between majority Sunni and minority Shi'ites that have left at least 40 dead and 43 wounded. Some Shi'ites retaliated, burning down Sunni-owned shops and homes. Arbab Mohammed Arif Khan, secretary for law and order in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas, confirmed the death toll, and said the local government has imposed a round-the-clock curfew in the town. "People from both sides damaged each other’s property yesterday and today, and sporadic clashes are still continuing there," he said April 7. (AP, April 7) Later that day, the army and paramilitary forces, backed by armored personnel carriers, entered Parachinar and secured positions. Cobra helicopters attacked combatant positions from the air. (Dawn, Pakistan, April 8)

Stepping up the assault on the Iraqi city of Diwaniya, believed to be a stronghold of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, US occupation forces launched an air strike on a supposed safehouse April 7. At least six people, including two women and a child, were killed by a missile fired into their home from a US warplane. Mahdi Army fighters reportedly returned fire with rocket-propelled grenades. The operation dubbed "Black Eagle" was launched the previous morning, aimed at disrupting the Mahdi Army's position in the city and within the local police force—which has been ordered to stay off the streets during the operation. US Col. Michael Garrett, who is leading the operation, said that joint US-Iraqi security bases will be set up inside the city, to permanently deter the Mahdi Army. (Arab Monitor, April 7; LAT, April 8).

Luz María González Armenta, leader of Defense and Promotion of Human Rights-Emiliano Zapata (DEPRODHEZAC), is free but still facing charges after being arbitrarily arrested March 30 at a protest vigil outside the municipal presidency office in the Mexican border city of Matamoros. The vigil was demanding the return alive of José Rafael Sánchez Martínez, a local youth who has been "disappeared" since a confrontation with the city police Jan. 30. González reports via e-mail that she was released after ten hours in the "pestilential cells" of Barandilla municipal jail. In her latest communication April 5, González writes:

A bomber driving a truck loaded with TNT and chlorine gas crashed into a police checkpoint in Iraq's Anbar province April 6, killing at least 27 and wounding dozens. The bombing near Ramadi marked the ninth use of suicide chlorine bombs in the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. The attacks come as many Anbar tribes have switched allegiance, with large numbers of military-age men joining the police force and Iraqi army in a bid to expel fighters of "al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia." Police Major Mohammed Mahmoud al Nattah, a member of the Anbar Salvation council, told state-run Iraqiya TV that the bomber hit a residential complex, and that dozens of wounded were taken to the Ramadi hospital. Nearby buildings were heavily damaged and police were searching the rubble for more victims. (AP, March 6).

A slight irony. On April 7, the New York Times runs an optimistic op-ed by Munir Akram, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, entitled "A United Front Against the Taliban." He assures readers that tribal leaders along the Afghan border are being turned against the Taliban, and that the Afghan refugee camps where the Taliban recruit are about to be cleared out (which the Afghan refgees themselves might not consider such good news). He writes that the largest camps—Pir Alizai and Gidri Jungle in Baluchistan Province, and Jallozai and Kachi Garhi in the North-West Frontier Province—are about to be moved across the border under a deal with the Afghan government (where, we note, they will likely remain recruitment fodder for the Taliban).