At least 10 people were wounded March 19 in fighting between Pakistani tribesmen and Uzbek militants said to be linked to al-Qaeda in the South Waziristan region near the Afghan border. The clash took place in Shin Warsak, a village seven kilometers west of Wana. Both sides were armed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. The region has been tense since March 6, when 17, including 12 militants, were killed in a gun battle between foreign militants and tribesmen. Authorities say hundreds of militants—said to be Uzbeks, Chechens and Arabs—have been hiding in Waziristan since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. The March 6 fighting erupted after the militants tried to kill a pro-government tribal leader. (Pakistan Daily Times, March 20)

The Somali capital Mogadishu came under mortar bombardment March 19, leaving at least two dead and several wounded. A mother and daughter died in one neighborhood as more than 20 rounds hit areas including the Bakara Market, the police transport headquarters and streets around the seaport where some 1,200 Ugandan "peacekeeping" troops arrived and set up defences earlier that day. Government forces and Ethiopian troops fired back with artillery. (Reuters, March 19)

Some 130 inmates awaiting federal immigration hearings staged a protest to complain about conditions at the Monmouth County jail in Freehold, NJ. The inmates refused to eat or participate in activities to press their demands for more food, more Spanish-speaking officers and a television to be fixed. Officials say the protesters met with the warden, and ended their protest shortly afterward. However, no measures to address their demands have been decided on. (AP, NYT, March 19)

In a move reminiscent of the struggle over Liberation Theology in the 1980s, the Vatican has issued a stern warning to Jon Sobrino, a dissident Jesuit priest in El Salvador, sending a formal notification claiming two of his books "may cause harm to the faithful." The ruling from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—the Vatican’s ideological watchdog, formerly headed by Pope Benedict when he was Cardinal Ratzinger—finds various "flaws" in works by Sobrino.

Fired opposition lawmakers in Ecuador vow to break a police cordon around the Congress building and reclaim their seats, keeping up the pressure on populist President Rafael Correa. The 57 lawmakers were fired for trying to block a referendum on establishing a body to rewrite the constitution. "Either we all enter Congress or no one will," said Washington Vallejo, one of the fired lawmakers. "We will defend Congress." (Reuters, March 19)

Colombian officials announced they will consider seeking the extradition of senior executives of Chiquita Brands International after the company pleaded guilty in US federal court to making payments to paramilitary groups. Chiquita, one of the world's top banana producers, agreed to pay a fine of $25 million last week to the US Justice Department to settle the case. Chiquita admitted that from 1997 to 2004, its Colombia subsidiary paid $1.7 million to the paramilitaies. Chiquita said it voluntarily informed the Justice Department of its payments to the paramilitary groups in 2003, after their classification as terrorist organizations. The company said that the payments had been motivated by concern for the safety of employees, and that similar payments had been made to left-wing guerillas.

The annual US State Department report on global human rights, released March 6, notes improvements in the rghts climate in Mexico but says a "culture of impunity and corruption" persists. (La Jornada, March 7)

On March 14, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) handed a report to the Senate demanding that killings and other rights abuses in the conflicted southern state of Oaxaca over the past months be punished. "There were threats, persecution, physical aggression and acts of intimidation," the report says. "They should be cleared up and those responsible presented to the courts."