The spiraling drug violence is increasingly affecting journalists, in a country considered one of the most dangerous for reporters. Host Michel Martin speaks with Jose de Cordoba of The Wall Street Journal, and Carlos Lauria of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Advisory: This segment may not be comfortable for some listeners.

Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Horst Faas, who captured several iconic moments during the Vietnam War, died May 10. He was 79.

Haas was the chief of The Associated Press' Southeast Asia bureau from 1962 to 1974, where he covered the fighting and mentored dozens of young photographers who were sent out across Vietnam to capture images of the war's terror and inhumanity.

While U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker says there is a path toward relative stability in Afghanistan and away from a return to the kind of civil war that devastated the country in the early 1990s, the difficulties still facing that nation have been underscored by more violence:

-- CNN.com reports that "a bomb exploded inside a shop in the northern Afghanistan province of Faryab on Monday, killing nine people, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry."

Stina Sieg recently spoke to Bay Area performer Evangeline Crittenden, who will bring her one-woman show, "Chrysalis: A Solo Tragicomedy in One Act," to Asheville Community Theatre's Black Box Theater at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 17. Crittenden is currently on an East Coast tour of her show, which was recently accepted into the New York International Fringe Festival. "Chrysalis" is performance at the crossroads of grief and growing up. Through music, stories, movement, puppetry and chocolate cake, writer and performer Crittenden leads the way towards optimism in the face of loss

Few headlines are more horrific than this:

"49 Headless Bodies Dumped In Mexican Town."

A technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has kicked off an energy boom in the United States. Fracking lets drillers unlock vast reservoirs of natural gas that were previously inaccessible. Over the past decade, about 200,000 gas wells have been drilled across the country.

Evan, Elizabeth, Rachel, Abigail and John all have something in common. They were born this spring at Fletcher Allen hospital in Burlington, Vt.

Around the same time, a group of babies named Paislee, Liberty, Rykan and Scottlynn were all born in and around North Platte, Neb.

Sophia has pushed Isabella off the No. 1 spot among most popular names for girls born in the U.S., the Social Security Administration says.

Meanwhile, Jacob remained atop the list of boys' names, where it's been since 1999.

But Mason "rocketed to number two" last year from the No. 12 spot in 2010.

Here are the top 10 for each gender, from the agency's website:

Boys

1. Jacob
2. Mason
3. William
4. Jayden
5. Noah

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Reports: JPMorgan's Losses Could Top $4 Billion; Three Execs To Resign.

-- Yahoo CEO's Ousting Is Victory For Hedge Fund Pushing Change At Company.