From AP:

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – Poland condemned as "bestial" the apparent beheading of one its citizens by Pakistani militants, a killing that underscored the challenges facing a new U.S. envoy who arrived in the region Monday to try to stem the terror threat.

Pakistan has witnessed several attacks on foreigners in recent months as its overall security has deteriorated amid a growing al-Qaida and Taliban-led insurgency that is also destabilizing neighboring Afghanistan. In early February, an American U.N. worker was abducted in the southwestern city of Quetta, purportedly by separatists.

The Polish hostage, Piotr Stanczak, was abducted close to the Afghan border on Sept. 28 by armed men.

On Sunday, the Taliban released to local and foreign media organizations a seven-minute video of him apparently being beheaded. A man on the film says Stanczak was killed because the Pakistan government refused to exchange him for Taliban prisoners.

If confirmed, Stanczak's death would apparently be the first killing of a Western hostage in Pakistan since U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl was beheaded in 2002.

But not the first Pakistani hostage beheaded in Pakistan since 2002, and not the first Western hostage beheaded in other Islam-ruled nations since 2002.  These are not rare events.

Polish security services minister Jacek Cichocki said Monday in Poland that in his opinion "that is the Pole and the film is authentic," adding final confirmation would have to wait until diplomatic and consular services receive the body.

Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said the video showed a "bestial execution" and that he would try to ensure the killers were punished.

"Bestial execution" is accurate, as I believe the beheading adheres strictly to the requirements for a halal butchering:  "a swift, deep incision with a sharp knife on the neck, cutting the jugular veins and carotid arteries of both sides but leaving the spinal cord intact."  Of course after death occurs, the spinal cord is severed so that the trophy can be displayed for the camera.

Stanczak was surveying oil and gas fields for Geofizyka Krakow, a Polish geophysics institute.

"We believed the whole time, even up to the last minute, that the kidnapping affair would end well. Now, we know that's not the case," Leopold Sulkowski, president of the institute, told reporters in Krakow, Poland.

"At this sad and tragic moment, we can't find clear or strong enough words to condemn the monstrous and criminal act."

The video was given to an Associated Press reporter Sunday in northwestern Pakistan on a flash drive by an intermediary who said he obtained it from the Taliban. The AP has elected not to distribute the images. Other international media also reported receiving or viewing footage of the killing.

I have not watched this video, nor will I.  Watching the Nicholas Berg execution was all that was necessary to remove the last vestiges of the belief that "they are just like us", or that "all religions are basically the same".  I think these videos should be made available for those who need a similar educational moment.

Pakistani Interior Ministry spokesman Shahidullah Baig said Sunday the government was investigating the existence of the video. He did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

Violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan has soared since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001. Many militants fled across the border to Pakistan, establishing bases and continuing to attack U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama has made resolving the Afghan war a key focus of his foreign policy, appointing diplomat Richard Holbrooke as a special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Holbrooke, who was the White House envoy to the Balkans in the Kosovo conflict, arrived in Pakistan late Monday on a trip that is also scheduled to take him to Afghanistan and India.

"The United States looks forward to reviewing our policies and renewing our commitment and friendship with the people of Pakistan," he said in a statement. He is scheduled to stay in the country until Thursday, according to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.

The State Department has described the visit as a listening tour to help form the basis of future American policy decisions in the region.

At a security conference in Germany over the weekend, Holbrooke described the Afghan campaign as "one theater of war straddling an ill-defined border."

"We have to think of it that way and not distinguish between the two," he said.

Also Monday, at least 14 people died and six others were wounded when mortar shells hit a house twice in the Darra Adam Khel area, a local government official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

It was unclear who fired the shells, but the second landed as people gathered to help those struck by the first.

Darra Adam Khel lies just outside the semiautonomous tribal regions, where al-Qaida and Taliban militants have long had strongholds.

This version of the story (by Ishtiaq Mahsud) has removed a paragraph that the previous version (also by Ishtiaq Mahsud) had that described how, as opposed to the peacefulness that the Taliban had brought to the region, violence had greatly increased since U.S. troops entered Afghanistan.