Honduran President Porfirio Lobo is not invited to the second Summit of Latin American and Caribbean Unity, organizers of the regional confab announced. Mexico, which will host the event on February 22-23 in the resort city of Cancún, said the Honduran government should be recognized by the Organization of American States (OAS) before it can take a seat at the summit. (RIA-Novosti, Press TV, Feb. 21)

Critics of Mexican President Felipe Calderón and his so-called Drug War charge that the government is favoring the Sinaloa Cartel. "There are no important detentions of Sinaloa cartel members," Diego Osorno, an investigative journalist and the author of a book on the Sinaloa Cartel (El Cártel de Sinaloa: Una historia del uso político del narco, Grijalbo, México 2009), told AlJazeera. "But the government is hunting down [Sinaloa's] adversary groups [and] new players in the world of drug trafficking."

The Netherlands' coalition government collapsed Feb. 19 after the two largest parties failed to agree on whether to withdraw Dutch troops from Afghanistan later this year, as had been planned. The cabinet of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende fell apart following 16 hours of talks in The Hague. Balkenende's Christian Democrat Appeal (CDA) had pushed for keeping a reduced force in Afghanistan for a year past the August 2010 deadline. This was met with opposition from the Labour Party of deputy prime minister Wouter Bos, the deputy prime minister. "A plan was agreed to when our soldiers went to Afghanistan. Our partners in the government didn't want to stick to that plan, and on the basis of their refusal we have decided to resign from this government," Bos said.

Before flying his single-engine Piper PA-28 into the IRS headquarters in Austin, killing one (excluding himself) and wounding several the morning of Feb. 19, Joe Stack evidently posted a screed on the Internet railing against "big brother," the Catholic Church, the "unthinkable atrocities" committed by big business, and the government bailouts. He took particular aim at the IRS, telling them to "take my pound of flesh and sleep well." He said that "violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer." He signed off "Joe Stack (1956-2010)" (CBS, Feb. 19) So this was, by any definition, an act of terrorism—a politically motivated deadly surprise attack on a civilian target. And yet...

Niger's new ruling junta lifted a curfew and reopened the borders a day after consolidating control in a Feb. 18 coup d'etat that toppled President Mamadou Tandja. The army stormed the palace during a cabinet meeting and seized Tandja and detained his ministers before announcing it was suspending a constitution that the 71-year-old leader had pushed through with a contested referendum last year. "The situation is under control," assured junta spokesman Col. Goukoye Abdoulkarim. "There is no single voice of dissension in either Niamey or in other parts of the country."

For the first time, Malaysian authorities have caned three Muslim women under Islamic law for acts of adultery, the country's national news agency Bernama reported Feb. 17. Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said the punishment was carried out Feb. 9 at a women's prison near Kuala Lumpur, "to educate and make the offenders realize their mistakes and to return to the right path."

Bolivian President Evo Morales Feb. 18 appointed 18 judges ahead of the country's judicial elections, calling the move "the beginning of the decolonization of the judiciary." The appointees will fill five vacancies on the country's Supreme Court, five on the Constitutional Court, and three on the Judiciary Council, while five others were named alternates. All will serve until judicial elections are held on Dec. 5. Though roughly 20 of 26 high-level judicial posts were unoccupied prior to the announcement, the move has drawn criticism from Morales's opponents who fear it jeopardizes the judiciary's independence. The Bolivian National Congress passed legislation last week authorizing Morales to appoint judicial officials on an interim basis until the election.

The White House is considering endorsing a law that would allow the indefinite detention of some terrorist suspects without trial as part of efforts to break a logjam with Congress over President Barack Obama's plans to close the Guantánamo Bay prison, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Feb. 15.