Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vows to continue his campaign in the Gaza Strip despite an international outcry over the ground and air operation that have killed 73 Palestinians over the past two days following the death of one Israeli civilian last week in a militant rocket strike. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas suspended all contacts with Israel over the assault. (AFP, March 2) The European Union criticized Israel's "disproportionate use of force," while the White House used more neutral language. US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters at President George W. Bush's ranch in Texas, "The violence needs to stop and the talks need to resume." The UN Security Council, meeting in an emergency session, urged all sides to "immediately cease all acts of violence." (AFP, March 2)

Guatemala's President Alvaro Colom has ordered the release of military archives from the country's brutal 1962-1996 civil war. "We are going to make public all military archives...so the truth can be known, and so that once and for all we can build on truth and justice," Colom said. The move was praised by victims' survivors, who had urged the move to help determine the whereabouts of killed or "disappeared" kin. The documents will be reviewed by a panel to decide which should be declassified under a constitutional requirement that state material be made public unless release would compromise national security.

Angry protests against rising food prices in Burkina Faso spread to the capital, Ouagadougou, Feb. 28, shutting the city down as young people burned tires and clashed with police. "The choice is to demonstrate or to die of hunger," a protester told the UN news agency IRIN. The unrest was sparked when the government announced that rather than lowering the price of basic goods as people were demanding, it would reduce taxes on imported goods. (IRIN via AllAfrica, Feb. 28)

Three were killed by security forces in Cameroon Feb. 28 as anti-government protests broke out in the western towns of Bamenda and Bafang. Up to 20 are believed dead in unrest earlier in the week in the western region and the capital, Yaoundé. The street clashes began with protests against rising fuel prices and President Paul Biya's plan to change the constitution to extend his term in office. Biya has been in office 26 years. (NYT, The Nation, Kenya, Feb. 29)

Following approval by both houses of Congress, President Bush Feb. 29 signed a 10-month extension of the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), designed to discourage Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia from producing illegal drugs by allowing the four countries to export most of their goods to the US duty-free. White House spokesman Dana Perino said the ATPA extension will provide time to implement the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and for Congress to approve the US-Colombia FTA. Perino also warned that Bolivia and Ecuador could lose their trade benefits because of actions those governments have taken, "including with respect to the treatment of US investors." (Living in Peru; Reuters, Feb. 29)

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)