Jill Carroll in Amman The Christian Science Monitor published a brief update today on efforts to get Jill freed:

Vigorous efforts are under way on many fronts –- by the Monitor, many media organizations, and government forces in Iraq -– to locate and secure the release of Jill Carroll, the freelance reporter kidnapped January 7 in Baghdad while on assignment for the Monitor. No one has yet claimed responsibility for her kidnapping

Meanwhile, blogger Riverbend has a moving post about Jill’s translator who was killed during the ambush in Baghdad on Saturday January 7, 2006. Here is an excerpt:

Everyone knew him as simply ‘Alan’, or "Elin" as it is pronounced in Iraqi Arabic. Prior to the war, he owned a music shop in the best area in Baghdad, A’arasat. He sold some Arabic music and instrumental music, but he had his regular customers – those westernized Iraqis who craved foreign music. He was a Christian from Basrah and he had a lovely wife who adored him- F. We would tease him about how once he was married and had a family, he’d lose interest in music. It didn’t happen. Conversations with Alan continued to revolve around Pink Floyd, Jimmy Hendrix, but they began to include F. his wife, M. his daughter and his little boy. My heart aches for his family- his wife and children..

Iraqi blogger Fairuz is organizing an online donation campaign to collect money to support the translator’s widow and I’ve run across an aggreagate of most if not all of Jill’s CSM articles. The picture shown here is of Jill at our place one day before my wedding.