Could there be possible signs of hope from Afghanistan? The BBC is reporting that since the Northern Alliance took over Mazar-i-Sharif, people are immediately taking advantage of freedoms that were denied to them under Taliban rule. There are also no reports of massacres that were common under previous takeovers of the city. There were real worries that the Hazaras would slaughter the Pashtuns in the city as soon as the Northern Alliance took control, but that doesn’t appear to have happened.