A particularly egregious murder in Mexico's drug wars stirs anger among many Mexicans. The war on drugs in Mexico is killing more people right now than the NATO mission in Afghanistan, and the drug lords are getting ever bolder in their killings, kidnappings, and other means of intimidating the populace and law-enforcement officials.

The new status-of-forces agreement in Iraq is already being stretched: Gen. Ray Odierno has just said that US troops will remain in Iraqi cities after the summer to provide training assistance to Iraqi security personnel, who the US feels are not adequately prepared to take on full responsibility for Iraqi security. Under terms of the just-negotiated SOFA, all US troops were to have withdrawn to bases in the countryside after June 2009.

Pakistan has placed its air force on high alert following an alleged invasion of its airspace by Indian aircraft. With tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals already high in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan blames India for further provocations in spite of India's stated intention to minimize hostility towards Pakistan following the attacks.