On March 7, some 250 Arab (Janjaweed) militiamen in West Darfur surrounded the Ardamata camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) after abducting two civilians from the camp, forcing the temporary suspension of humanitarian work there, the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) announced. The militiamen first swept through the IDP camp, capturing two civilians in connection with the killing of one of their relatives, said the UNMIS press release. Later, they handed the two suspects over to the official Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) camp in Ardamata. Meanwhile in South Darfur, deadly clashes again erupted between the Targem and Rezegat tribes in Yara, 40 kilometers northwest of Kass. Three Targems were reportedly killed in their homes. (UN News Service, March 8 via ReliefWeb)

Voters in three dozen Vermont towns voted March 6 to call upon Congress to open an impeachment probe of President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Two towns, Clarendon and Dover, voted the measure down. Nearly a half dozen towns agreed to not take up, or table, the resolution. There are 251 towns in Vermont, but not all hold town meetings. Additionally, 20 towns passed measures calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, and to care for them when they were back on US soil. Dover also rejected the troop measure.

In an obvious move to undercut the International Criminal Court, Sudan has announced that it will put three men on trial for atrocities in Darfur—including Ali Mohammed Abd-al-Rahman AKA Ali Kushayb, officially named as a suspect by the ICC. Sudanese authorities say the three are already in custody and their trials will start immediately in El Geneina. (NYT, March 7; AP, March 6) Meanwhile in a blow to the Darfur peace accord, gunmen kidnapped and killed two African Union troops, critically wounded a third, and stole their vehicle March 5 in Geraida, South Darfur. The AU said the assailants are believed to belong to the Minnawi faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, which signed the rather dubious "peace agreement" in May. (AP, March 7) In a sure sign of changing times, the US envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, has announced he will travel to Tripoli this week for talks on getting Libya involved in efforts to broker an end the Darfur conflict. Natsios made the announcement to the press after two hours of talks with President Omar al-Bashir. Said Natsios: "We believe that it should be one track of negotiations, the one of the UN and AU. I’m leaving tonight to Tripoli to see Qadaffi about the Libyan role." (AFP, March 7)

A disturbing consensus seems to be emerging in Europe that the best reaction to genocide denial is to ban it. In addition to the many European laws against denying the Nazi Holocaust, Bosnia is now considering such a law for its own more recent genocide. And now Switzerland is prosecuting a Turkish writer for denying the 1915 Armenian genocide. From the Turkish daily Hurriyet, March 8:

Labor struggles are fast spreading in Iran at this critical moment—but it sure isn't winning much news coverage in the West. From the Italian news agency AKI, March 6:

Thousands of teachers staged a rally on Tuesday in front of the Majlis, the Iranian parliament, in Tehran asking Iranian education minister Mahmoud Farshidi to step down, their salaries to be raised and that colleagues fired for political reasons be reinstated. The protest, the second in just a week by teachers, was called by 30 teachers' unions. Last Saturday, an estimated 50,000 professors protested, threatening to block mid-term exams and to strike until their fired colleagues, as many as 1,500 only in Kurdistan, were given their jobs back.

On March 6, a suicide bomber killed more than 30 and wounded dozens in a cafe north-east of Baghdad, while a car bomb in the suburb of Saidiya killed seven Shi'ite pilgrims headed for the holy city of Najaf. Elsewhere in the capital, gunmen wounded six pilgrims on their way to the holy city of Karbala. In Hilla, south of Baghdad, a suicide bomber lured unsuspecting pilgrims with cakes, an age-old custom during the annual Arbaeen religious festival. Other gunmen fired on pilgrims from passing cars. More than 1.5 million went to Imam Hussein's shrine despite the violence which claimed some 140 lives and left 200 wounded on March 6 alone. Shi'ite political leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim joined pilgrims south of Baghdad and vowed that they would not be deterred. "Even Saddam, with all his institutions and strength, was not able to stand in the way of these masses," he told Furat TV. Arbaein (also rendered Arabaein, Arbaeen, Arba'een, Arbayeen, etc.) marks the end of the 40-day Ashura period commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussien bin Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad. (The Guardian, The Age, Australia, Feb. 8; Indian Muslims, Feb. 7)

Here we go again. We noted two years ago that the annual State Department human rights report for the Americas displayed a blatant double standard concerning US client Colombia and Axis of Evil junior affiliate Venezuela. The new report goes one better, actually singling out Venezuela and Cuba as having the worst human rights records in the hemisphere. The report says that as of the end of 2006, there were at least 283 political prisoners or detainees in Cuba and 13 in Venezuela. Barry F. Lowenkron, the assistant secretary of state for human rights, said the situation in Venezuela is worsening under President Hugo Chavez's government, which he characterized as "regressive." (AP, March 6)

Democrats are urging President Bush not to pardon Lewis "Scooter" Libby following his conviction on perjury charges in the Valerie Plame case. His lawyers pledge to seek a retrial, or appeal. Significantly, Libby was never charged with leaking Plame's identity—whoever did that remains at large. Vice President Dick Cheney, in a written statement, said he was "disappointed with the verdict." Cheney said "Scooter has served our nation tirelessly and with great distinction through many years of public service." (CNN, March 6) We suspect Dick is laughing down his sleeve. Michael Roston for Raw Story: