Award-winning journalist and World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg will present a video and discussion at the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library in Oakland, CA, on the Iraq Freedom Congress, a new alliance of trade unions, women's organizations, neighborhood assemblies and student groups opposed to both the US occupation and the sectarian militias.

Our March issue featured the story "Phantom Republics: Kosovo's Independence Reverberates Across Eurasia," by Rene Wadlow, a reprint from Toward Freedom. Wrote Wadlow: "The self-proclamation of independence by Kosovo may be the last act in the division of former Yugoslavia, or it may be one step in a new chain of territorial adjustments. There are calls in Republika Srpska, the Serb unit of the Bosnia-Herzegovina federation, for its integration into Serbia... There is also the impact of the example of Kosovo on the other phantom republics born of the break up of the Soviet Union: Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Transnistria in Moldova—and, if not completely crushed, Chechenya in Russia." Our March Exit Poll was: "Do you support independence for Kosova? If your answer is 'no,' please tell us how you feel about Palestine, East Timor, Western Sahara, Northern Ireland, the Basque Country and Puerto Rico. If your answer is 'yes,' please tell us how you feel about Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria." We received the following responses:

Seven Peruvians—Arminda Valladares Saba, Melissa Rocío Patiño Hinostroza, Guadalupe Alejandrina Hilario Rivas, Maria Gabriel Segura, Carmen Mercedes Asparrent Riveros, Roque Gonzáles La Rosa and Damaris Velasco Huiza—remain in detention following their arrest late last month on the border with Ecuador as they returned to their country after participating in a meeting of the Bolivarian Continental Coordinator (CCB) which took place in Quito, Feb. 24-28. The seven, members of the CCB Peruvian chapter (CCB-P), were detained under suspicion of "Affiliation and Collaboration in Terrorism."

Saudi Arabia's Shoura Council has discussed a national plan to deal with potential radioactive contamination in the Kingdom following warnings of possible attacks on Iran's nuclear reactors. "The plan to check radiation hazards was discussed by Shoura members, but it will be discussed and reviewed again before being tabled for voting," an unnamed Shoura Council member told Arab News. The King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST) is said to be preparing a contingency plan. (Arab News, March 24)

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak has ordered the army to start baking more bread following a series of clashes breaking out at long lines for government-subsidized loaves. Acute shortages of the flat, round bread which is a staple of the Egyptian diet—made available to the poor at one cent a loaf—have led to explosions of violence in poor neighborhoods in recent weeks. At least seven people have died, according to authorities. Two were stabbed in fights between customers in line; the others died of exhaustion or other medical problems aggravated by waiting in the spring heat. (AP, March 24)

Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, has proposed the ethnic division of Kosova to the UN mission in the disputed territory, a Belgrade newspaper reports. The key point of the accord offered to the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is to create "the functional separation of Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo," Samardzic told the pro-government daily Politika. "We accept the [UN Security Council] Resolution 1244 and authority of UNMIK police, judiciary and customs, but after the unilateral proclamation of independence, only Serbs, aided by Serbia, could carry that out," Samardzic, a member of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's party, was quoted as saying. He told Politika the proposal referred to all Serb-populated areas of Kosovo, and not only the northern Serb stronghold including the flashpoint town of Kosovska Mitrovica.

Iranian artillery March 23 shelled three border towns in northern Iraq where Iranian Kurdish militants are believed to be operating, Iraqi Kurdish authorities reported. The shelling of the towns of Marado, Razda and Dolakoka started at 7:00 AM and lasted for about two hours, said Azad Watho, a top administrative official in Sulaimaniyah, one of three provinces that make up Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. Watho said the shelling targeted fighters from the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK).

At least two people were killed and 12 wounded on March 22 in Peru's northeastern Loreto department in clashes between police and mostly Achuar indigenous workers who had been occupying installations on the Pluspetrol Norte oil company's lot 1AB since March 20 in a labor dispute. The clashes occurred after the workers attempted to take over the Andoas airport on March 22; they were then removed by police agents, who stayed to patrol the area.