In Kashmir, several rebel attacks left seven dead. Rebel violence has increased, as it does this time every year. The snow is melting in the remote mountain passes the rebels used to sneak over from Pakistan into Kashmir. 

The prime ministers of India and Pakistan spoke by phone, after the Indian prime minister said, yesterday, that he was willing to open negotiations. But India has previously refused to negotiate as long as Pakistan tolerates Islamic militants operating in Pakistani territory and crossing into Indian Kashmir with the help of the Pakistani army. The Pakistanis refuse to crack down on the Islamic militants because to do so would risk civil war with the large minority of Pakistanis that actively support the Islamic militants.