The government of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, forced to resign last month after a defeat on the issue, narrowly won a Senate vote to keep Rome's 1,900 troops in Afghanistan March 27. But questions remain over the mission's future, as NATO allies criticize Italy's handling of a recent hostage crisis, in which Rome engineered a prisoner-swap to secure the release of Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a well-known Italian journalist held 15 days by the Taliban. The United States, Germany, Britain, and the Netherlands have all denounced the deal, under which five jailed Taliban figures—indlucing three considered high-level—were freed in exchange for Mastrogiacomo. "There was a clear sense in the room that none of us should agree to negotiate the release of hostages in return for terrorists," US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said after a NATO meeting in Brussels.

Marijuana is not kosher for Passover, Israel's pot-friendly Green Leaf Party says, advising Jews who observe the holiday's special dietary laws to take a break from smoking the weed. The Party, which has made several unsuccessful attempts to win election to the Knesset on a legalization platform, announced that products of the cannabis plant have been grouped by rabbis within a family of foods such as peas, beans and lentils that is off-limits to Ashkenazi Jews during Passover. But it said the rabbinical ban for the holiday beginning at sunset Monday could be a blessing in disguise. "Logic dictates that if the rabbis say cannabis is non-kosher for Passover, it is apparently kosher during the rest of the year," Michelle Levin, a spokeswoman for the party, told YNet news.

The construction of a Georgia's second "NATO standard" military base less than 20 miles from Tskhinvali, the capital of breakaway South Ossetia, is being protested by separatist leaders. Ossetian leaders charge that construction of the base near Gori is a sign that Tbilisi is preparing to use force in to reestablish its authority over the territory. Georgian officials deny any belligerent intentions. Georgia's first "NATO standard" base was completed last year in the western town of Senaki—close to Georgia's other separatist enclave, Abkhazia.

Militant activity in Pakistan is rapidly spreading from peripheral areas such as the Afghan border zone to the Punjabi heartland. A suicide bomber blew himself up near an army camp in Kharian, 85 miles southeast of the capital Islamabad March 29, killing a soldier and wounding seven others. (AFP, March 29)

Iran's embassy in London has stated that the British sailors captured last week were 0.5 km inside Iranian waters when they were taken by the Revolutionary Guard. British officials insist that their sailors were 1.7 miles within Iraqi waters. The ongoing dispute was further muddled as an initial set of coordinates released by Iranian officials were in fact within Iraqi waters, thus supporting the British case.

Hundreds of insurgents armed with rocket launchers, artillery and machine guns are clashing with Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu. Ethiopian tanks patrol the streets, and the southern part of Mogadishu has become a no-go zone. BBC reports that Ethiopian helicopter gunships fired on a public market when insurgent tried to take shelter there.

A one thousand year-old Armenian church on the island of Akdamar in Lake Van has been renovated and now reopened by Turkish authorities. Though Armenia and Turkey do not maintain regular diplomatic relations, a delegation of Armenian architects and government officials attended the opening ceremony. The renovation of the church is part of an effort to warm ties between the countries still divided over the massacres of Armenians during the final stages of the Ottoman Empire. (BBC, March 29)

In a move calculated to win more support in the Arab world, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia described the American occupation in Iraq as "illegal" and urged the leaders gathered at the ongoing Arab League summit to unite in order to protect their region from foreign influence. Saudi Arabia has long been a staunch ally of the United States, but recent rhetoric and the visit of Iranian diplomats to Riyadh suggest that the Kingdom may be forging a new direction for its foreign policy.