The Short List - April 26, 2011

• 49% of Americans disapprove of the way President Obama is handling the war in Afghanistan, marking the first time disapproval outpaced approval (44%) for this president.


• Syria's brutal repression of dissent in the south continues, as Americans are advised to leave the country immediately.


• Two of the three hikers who mistakenly wandered into Iran in June 2009 will appear in court(NYT) in May for a third time since being arrested.  They have spent the last 19 months in Iran's infamous Evin prison.


• Islamist militants in Pakistan bombed two navy buses in Karachi, killing four.


• China's security forces reportedly beat two Tibetan monks, in their 60s, to death last week.


• The Pew Research Center has conducted the first survey of Egyptians since the ouster of Mubarak.  The survey finds the country in an optimistic mood.


• The Congressional Progressive Caucus says they can balance the budget by 2021, largely through tax hikes and defense spending cuts.  No one has called their proposal heroic, despite the thought you can't run on a platform of raising taxes.