Indigenous peoples are again caught in the middle as the Colombian army launches a major offensive against the FARC guerillas in the southern Andean department of Cauca. At dawn on Feb. 20, guerillas from the FARC's Sixth Front attacked the center of the Nasa and Guambiano indigenous town of Jambaló, after it was occupied by the army and National Police. However, residential houses and the town's hospital suffered severe damage, while the local National Police headquarters was relatively unscathed. Some half the population of Jambaló's urban center fled, taking refuge in outlying hamlets (veredas) and the neighboring municipality of Silvia. (Semana, Bogotá, Feb. 22)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced the creation of a new Campesino Militia, which will be under the command of the national Bolivarian Armed Forces (FAB). Chávez made the announcement during a ceremony to commemorate 151 years since Venezuela's Federal War lead by peasant leader Ezequiel Zamora. The Campesino Militia will be responsible for protecting peasant farmers from paramilitary groups organized by ranchers and wealthy landowners, Chávez explained in his weekly column, "Las líneas de Chávez" on Feb. 21. More than 300 peasant leaders and activists have been murdered since the government introduced the Law on Land and Agricultural Development in 2001, launched an agrarian reform program.

Christian families are fleeing Mosul in droves in the aftermath of the murder of a Christian family in the city—a replay of the 2008 exodus in which thousands of families fled the city. The fleeing families are heading for the string of Christian villages, towns and monasteries to the east and north of the city. Anti-Christian attacks have intensified recently in the city, with five killed in the past two weeks. Many Christians were openly told to leave or face the consequences.

On Feb. 21, 67 corpses were brought to Baghdad morgue all shot with silencer guns, medical sources told Baghdad's Azzaman daily Feb. 26. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said most of the victims were civil servants, former Baathists and army officers. Three more were killed with silencer guns Feb. 22, including Dr. Thamer Kamel, a university professor who was head of the human rights section at the Ministry of Higher Education. The gunmen drive in mainly four-wheel vehicles and quickly disappear from the crime scene.

At least 17 people were killed and 32 wounded early Feb. 26, when multiple suicide bombers attacked a hotel popular with foreigners and the surrounding area in the center of Kabul, Afghanistan's capital. The bombing is the first attack in the city since Jan. 18, when teams of suicide bombers and gunmen targeted government buildings, leaving 12 dead, including seven attackers. It is also the first attack in Kabul since the start of a major NATO-led offensive against Taliban fighters in Afghanistan's Helmand province. (AlJazeera, Feb. 26)

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syria's President Bashar Assad and Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah met in Damascus Feb. 25, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV reported. This was the first time a Nasrallah visit to Damascus has been reported. Al-Manar did not say whether Hamas political chief Khaled Meshal, who is based in Damascus, took part in the meeting.

Authorities in Spain have launched proceedings to suspend the notorious investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzón. The ostensible reason for the move is his investigation into the fate of 114,000 people who disappeared during the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath. The public prosecutor's office says Garzón had no authority to conduct the investigation because of a 1977 amnesty law. But Garzón says the disappearances must be considered crimes against humanity, and therefore not covered by any amnesty.

B'nai Brith Canada released its 2009 "Audit of Antisemitic Incidents" this week. The survey reported over 1,200 incidents last year, an 11% increase over 2008 and a five-fold increase over the last decade. In total, there were 884 reports of harassment, 348 cases of vandalism and 32 cases of violence—twice as many as 2008.