Memo to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo: see what you have done? I am glad Angelo de la Cruz is alive and free. But are the lives of these people, who have been captured because you have shown them that hostage-taking works, worth less than his? From [1] AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants took six foreign truck drivers hostage and threatened Wednesday to behead them unless their company ends its business in Iraq, and their countries -- India, Egypt and Kenya -- pull all their citizens out. The threat came as militants launched a rocket attack on a Baghdad hospital, killing two people, and set off a car bomb in the capital that killed four....

The threat to behead the hostages -- and [2] separate warnings against Bulgarian, Polish and Japanese troops -- is the latest development in a violent campaign to scare off foreigners, who play a vital role in supporting the new U.S.-backed government and in the reconstruction of Iraq....

A militant group calling itself "The Holders of the Black Banners," announced Wednesday it had taken two Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian hostage, and said it would behead a captive every 72 hours beginning Saturday night if their countries do not announce their intentions to withdraw troops and citizens from Iraq.

The black flag is the flag of jihad.