Afghan drug lords linked to the Taliban get busted. Others get appointed to government posts. From AP, March 9:

Afghan Anticorruption Chief Sold Heroin in Las Vegas in ’87
KABUL — When the deal went down in Las Vegas, the seller was introduced only as Mr. E. In a room at Caesars Palace hotel, Mr. E exchanged a pound-and-a-half bag of heroin for $65,000 cash, unaware that the buyer was an undercover detective. The sting landed him in a Nevada state prison for nearly four years.

Words of wisdom from an Iranian diplomat. Imagine. From the Chicago Tribune, March 11 (emphasis added):

BAGHDAD -- The United States and Iran traded blame for the violence engulfing Iraq at a conference of Iraq's neighbors Saturday that was hailed as a first step toward resolving the building tensions between the decades-old rivals.

From Ria Novosti, March 9:

PETROZAVODSK — One man was killed in a brawl between locals and migrants from the Caucasus in northwestern Russia in the early hours of Friday, local police said.

Three weeks ago, the New York Times told us in a front-page story that there is more oil in Iraq than we ever dreamed of. Now comes another front-page story telling us that reserve estimates for the United States—and everywhere else—have been dramatically upwards revised, due to new advances in extraction technology. Exxon and Chevron are already using the technology to pump thousands of barrels a day out of fields that had pretty much been considered spent a few years ago from Texas to Indonesia. This is a clear blow aimed at the "peak oil" theorists. Oil prices have been falling modestly in recent days (almost down to $60/barrel at the moment, Bloomberg says), and the Times might want to help that trend along. But the development of the new technology was itself spurred by high prices (so much for "objective" science), which were in part driven by "peak oil" fears. Which deepens our suspicions that the "peak oil" hysteria was instrumented by the oil industry all along.... Here are the relevant excerpts from the story, "Oil Innovations Pump New Life Into Old Wells" by Jad Mouawad, New York Times, March 5 (links added):

Now they are openly calling some of these increasingly specious terror conspiracies "fictitious," which they certainly are. Two guys are getting sent up the river for a plot hatched by an FBI informant, which had no independent basis in reality. Can anyone explain to us why this does not constitute entrapment? Does anyone else out there grasp how far down the slippery slope we have slid towards the Orwellian concept of "thought crime"? From the New York Times, March 8:

From AP, March 8:

A marriage off to a rocky start: He's jailed after hitting her with car
SALT LAKE CITY - It wasn't the most romantic of honeymoons. The groom was in jail yesterday, accused of trying to run over his new wife after a weekend wedding in Las Vegas.

As if the jihadis aren't ticked off enough already. The opponents quoted in this story seem entirely legitimate, but this obviously serves as more grist for Osama's propaganda mill. Talk about "jihad versus McWorld." What can you say but a plague on both their houses? From the New York Times and International Herald Tribune, March 8 (links, emphasis added):

In a rare expression of dissent, a Libyan newspaper has sharply criticized a new government edict that bans women from traveling abroad without a legal male guardian. The state-controlled al-Jamahiriya daily wrote March 7 that "turning back women traveling alone is a stark and crude abuse of basic womens' rights." It said the edict is "stupid and stains the entire state with backwardness." The paper also said the edict violates Libya's domestic human rights document which stipulates that every citizen has the right to free movement in times of peace and officially guarantees equality between the sexes, calling gender discrimination "unjustified blatant injustice." While not actually naming any officials, the paper called on Libyans to "file suits against those who interfere in our lives," and blasted "anyone who permits or forbids a Libyan woman, as if this woman comes from the medieval times." The edict is thought to be a capitulation to conservative clerics. (Reuters, UPI, March 7)