Several hundred Guatemalan campesinos took 30 police officers hostage [Feb. 21] in response to the jailing of a local farm leader and to demand that land they had been occupying for the last 10 years be legalized by the Guatemalan government. According to Rolando Yoc, the human rights office's chief advocate, the local campesinos also believe that a powerful person is trying to displace them.

Two Palestinian followers of Fatah's al-Aqsa Brigades were killed Feb. 28 in clashes at Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus on the West Bank. Sources within the al-Aqsa Brigades told Ma'an News Agency that al-Aqsa fighters responded to the targeted assassination of militant Ibrahim al-Masimi by undercover Israeli forces. Eyewitnesses said that a large Israeli force invaded Balata camp early in the morning after an undercover force infiltrated into the camp. Fierce clashes erupted between the invading forces and Palestinian resistance fighters. (Ma'an News Agency, Feb. 28)

Mas Selamat Kastari, accused Singapore commander of the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah militant network, escaped from a detention center in the Southeast Asian city-state Feb. 27. Kastari allegedly oversaw plans seven years ago to attack Singapore targets including the US Embassy, the American Club and government buildings. (Newsday, Feb. 28)

ExxonMobil asked the Supreme Court Feb. 27 to reverse a lower court's decision awarding $2.5 billion in punitive damages to Alaskan fishermen, cannery workers and others impacted by the disaster. The 3,000-square-mile slick caused by the 11-million spill forced the closure of Alaskan fisheries and killed more than 250,000 sea birds, 3,000 otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles and 22 whales. The worst oil spill in US history still affects Alaska's fisheries after nearly 19 years.

Our February issue featured the story "Oil Shock Redux: Is OPEC the Real Cartel —or the Transnationals?," by Vilosh Vinograd, which argued that the unprecedented $100 a barrel is due less to OPEC production levels than the correct perception that since the Iraq invasion a struggle has been underway for mastery over the planet's most critical oil reserves. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the military grab for the Persian Gulf oil is raising prices—and may have been designed to do so. It is not about securing low oil prices for US consumers, but imperial control of oil as a tool of political power. Wrote Vinograd: "An effective anti-war position must entail deconstructing the propaganda of 'national security' on the oil question, and breaking with the illusion that elite concerns and consumer concerns coincide." Our February Exit Poll was: "Will oil hit $200 a barrel by year's end?" We received the following responses:

The Native Alaskan coastal village of Kivalina is suing two dozen oil, coal and power companies that they claim have affected the climate, causing their land and homes to slide into the Chukchi Sea. An Inupiat village numbering nearly 400 inhabitants, Kivalina is located on the end of an eight-mile barrier island between the Chukchi Sea and the mouth of the Kivalina River, 80 miles north of the Arctic Circle. It has been threatened by erosion from the sea for several decades, and a relocation committee was first formed by the community 20 years ago. The village has already been relocated once, from the north end of the river's mouth, due to eroding shores.

Lawmakers in Mexico's lower-house Chamber of Deputies Feb. 26 removed a draconian measure from their plan to reform the country's judicial system that would have given police the power to enter homes without first obtaining a warrant in emergencies and in cases of hot pursuit. Human rights groups had strongly opposed the measure, and the press labeled the proposed measure the "Gestapo law." The last-minute change delays passage of the constitutional reform that is meant to speed up trials that can now last years and to better prepare the state to battle narcotics traffickers. "In this country, no one is satisfied with our justice system," said César Camacho Quiroz, a legislator with the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who opposed the expanded police powers.

Dozens of Senegalese gays are reported to have fled to neighboring Gambia and Mali following a wave of arrests and violent anti-gay street protests. The anti-gay campaign began when newspapers reported on a gay wedding that took place on the outskirts of the capital Dakar in early February—sparking a wave of sensationalist press stories on homosexuality, and prompting authorities to arrest all who attended the wedding, including musicians.