Reporters on the Job

• The Taste of Tongue: Eight years ago when staff writer Scott Peterson bumped into a young Iranian couple on ski slopes near Tehran, little did he expect the culinary surprise that would one day follow. Scott has checked in from time to time with Alireza Mahfouzian, the skier, and did so again to report today's story about young Iranians who have become disillusioned with the political process.

Scott visited Alireza Thursday at his new takeout restaurant and found something beyond hamburgers. An adventurous diner, Scott ordered the sheep-tongue sandwich.

It came wrapped like any other sandwich – in silver foil with a packet of ketchup on top. Scott left the ketchup off, he says, in order to enjoy the "full flavor" of the boiled tongue, smeared with sheep's brain and melted cheese.

"It was tasty," says Scott.

Monitor Follow-up

• Kidnapped Archbishop in Iraq: The body of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop, who was kidnapped in Iraq last month, was found Thursday just outside the northern city of Mosul, the Associated Press reports.

As reported in the March 6 article, "Iraqi Christians cling to last, waning refuges" the Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was seized by gunmen in Mosul soon after he left mass on Feb. 29 in the latest in a series of attacks against Iraq's small Christian community.

It was not clear whether the kidnappers had killed the archbishop or whether he had died from health problems.

The Chaldean church is an Eastern-rite denomination that recognizes the authority of the Roman Catholic pope. Chaldean Catholics make up a tiny minority of the Iraqi population, but are the largest group among the less than 1 million Christians in the country, according to the US State Department.

– David Clark Scott

World editor