From the British computer trade journal The Register, March 22:

US Marines in Iraq staged an elaborate fake gunfight to foil an overhead surveillance drone and cover up a murder, according to court testimony.

In a military trial at Fort Campbell, KY, Pfc. Bryan Howard, 19, pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the slaying of her family. He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice by lying to his superior officers about the attack last year in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad. Howard agreed to five years in prison under a plea deal but will not serve more than 27 months if he follows conditions of the agreement. Under the agreement, his rank will be reduced to private and he will be dishonorably discharged. He will also have to testify against others charged in the case.

European Union election observers won't be sent to Nigeria's delta region during next month's landmark elections due to the ongoing attacks and kidnappings which have prompted thousands of foreigners to flee the oil heartland in the past year. "We are not going to deploy in Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa because in these states, the environment for international observers is not conducive," said Max van den Berg, leader of the EU Election Observation Mission. "It is painful that we cannot observe in these three states, but it is more important to stay alive." The EU will send 66 observers to Nigeria's other 33 states. The elections are to mark the first civilian-to-civilian transition in the world's eighth biggest oil exporter since Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960. (Reuters, March 21)

Muslim pupils at a secondary school in northeastern Nigeria's Gombe state beat a teacher to death March 21 after accusing her of desecrating the Koran, police and witnesses said. Oluwatoyin Olusase, a Christian, was apparently overseeing an "Islamic Religious Knowledge" when the incident occurred. "We have received information that a female teacher has been lynched by her students," Gombe state police commissioner Joseph Ibi said. "We are investigating the report."

Pashtun tribesmen loyal to Pakistan's government exchanged mortar and rocket fire with purported al-Qaeda militants in South Waziristan for a third day March 21, leaving at least 114 dead. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said 84 Uzbek militants and 30 local tribesmen, including nine civilians, have been killed. Another 83 Uzbeks were captured by the tribal forces, he said. The fighting started after former Taliban commander Mullah Nazir, who the government says has come over to its side, ordered followers of Uzbek militant Tahir Yuldashev to disarm. (AFP, March 22)

The threat of terrorism has allowed governments around the world to crackdown on the rights of ethnnic minorities, according to the latest annual report by the London-based Minority Rights Group International. The report finds that key allies of the US in its "war on terrorism," including the governments of Pakistan, Turkey and Israel, intensified repression of particular ethnic communities in 2006. Afghanistan and Pakistan are in the top 20 list, and Turkey and Israel both show major rises in the rankings this year. Somalia, where a pro-West regime has just taken power, is listed as the world's most dangerous country for minority communities. Iraq is number two.

Mamdouh Habib, a "rendition" victim and former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, is running for a state parliamentary seat in New South Wales, Australia. He was picked up in Pakistan in October 2001, transferred to Egypt where he was tortured, then shipped to Guantanamo before being released without charges in 2005—because the Bush administration did not want the torture allegations aired in court, Australian and American officials admit. Habib suffers from severe digestive problems and his doctor believes his stomach has been permanently damaged from having gas forced into it through tubes inserted into his rectum when he was tortured in Egypt. He is running in a coalition that includes Greens, socialists and communists. (NYT, March 21)

Indonesian police shot dead a suspected Islamist militant believed to be linked to Abu Dujana, the purported current leader of the Jemaah Islamiah network, blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people. One militant was also injured after the suspects opened fire during the night raid near the city of Yogyakarta. (Reuters, March 21)