The Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Dennis Blair, speaking to reporters in Washington March 26, downplayed the notion (raised in a recent Pentagon report) that narco-violence has brought Mexico to the brink of collapse: "Mexico is in no danger of becoming a failed state. [Let me] repeat that. Mexico is in no danger of becoming a failed state. The violence we see now is the result of Mexico taking action against the drug cartels. So it is in fact the result of positive moves, which the Mexican government has taken to break the baneful influence that many of these cartels have had on many aspects of Mexican government and Mexican life." Blair added: "The Mexican campaign is our campaign."

As the 20th anniversary of the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill dawned March 24, the federal and Alaska state governments have yet to collect all that the oil company agreed to pay. A final $92 million claim for harm to wildlife, habitat and subsistence users filed in 2006 has languished ever since.

A Turkish officer was arrested March 25 in connection with suspected extrajudicial killings in the country's predominantly Kurdish southeast in the 1990s. A court in Diyarbakir issued the arrest warrant for the officer, Col. Cemal Temizoz, pending a trial. Colonel Temizoz served near the town of Cizre, about 40 miles from the Iraqi border, from 1993 to 1996, when hundreds of Kurdish civilians were said to have been killed by security forces. In excavations around Cizre, officials have so far found pieces of clothing and at least 20 bones, which will be subject to DNA examination. (NYT, March 26)

Pakistan is failing to control the Lashkar-e-Taiba group in the disputed territory of Kashmir and between 40 and 50 terrorist camps are operational in the region, Indian army chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor said March 25, the same day the army reported it had killed 17 militants in Indian-administered Kashmir. "Lashkar is very much still active," Kapoor told India's state broadcaster Doordarshan. (Bloomberg, March 26)

An airstrike that targeted a convoy of arm smugglers inside Sudan in January was launched by Israeli warplanes and not US ones, according to growing reports. On March 25, a Sudanese government official said that a "major power bombed small trucks carrying arms" northwest of Port Sudan city killing Sudanese, Eritreans and Ethiopians. But CBS News quoted unidentified US officials denying involvement in the operation—and saying "Israeli aircraft carried out the attack."

Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu said March 26 he does not expect to come under pressure from the US over the over the policies of his right-wing government. "I think you are talking about something that I doubt existed for any length of time in the past and which I am convinced does not exist today," the Netanyahu told reporters in reply to a question about possible US pressure.

UK Attorney General Baroness Scotland said March 26 that police will conduct an investigation into claims that an agent of the country's MI5 intelligence service took part in the allegedly abusive interrogation of former Guantánamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed. Scotland said she determined the investigation was necessary after reviewing allegations that an MI5 agent gave US CIA agents questions that were asked of Mohammed during his alleged torture in Morocco. Mohamed, a native of Ethiopia who claims to have been transferred to Morocco for torture under a US program of extraordinary rendition, said he obtained the documents through the US legal process while seeking his release from Guantánamo Bay.

At least 11 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack at a restaurant in northwest Pakistan March 26. About two dozen people opposed to Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban leader, were in the restaurant in the Jandola district of South Waziristan. Authorities said those killed were loyal to Turkistan Bittani, a pro-government tribal leader.