Tibetan activists—chanting "Reject China's bloody torch," "Olympics in China, torture in Tibet" and "We will never give up"—are gathering daily at midday at San Francisco's Civic Center in what has essentially become a protest campaign to demand their right to protest. With the Olympic torch set to arrive in the city in less than two weeks, Mayor Gavin Newsom (while paying requisite lip service to the First Amendment) is considering shunting protesters away from the torch route to isolated "free speech zones"—which the Bay Guardian rightly calls "an oxymoron if there ever was one."

The latest escalation in the ongoing struggle for Basra is affecting global oil prices. As news broke that one of Iraq's main oil export pipelines from Basra exploded, cutting at least a third of the exports from the city that provides 80% of the government's revenue, oil prices jumped more than $1 a barrel, Reuters reported. Jamal Hamed al-Fraih, spokesman for the South Oil Company, said the stricken pipeline was feeding crude to one of the main refineries in the province, at Shuaiba—for internal consumption. "Oil exports are still flowing but they are less than a few days ago," he said adding that oil exports from Basra, Iraq's main outlet, had been averaging 1.5 million barrels a day before the new outbreak of fighting. Prices leveled off after his clarification.

Seven Peruvians—Arminda Valladares Saba, Melissa Rocío Patiño Hinostroza, Guadalupe Alejandrina Hilario Rivas, Maria Gabriel Segura, Carmen Mercedes Asparrent Riveros, Roque Gonzáles La Rosa and Damaris Velasco Huiza—remain in detention following their arrest late last month on the border with Ecuador as they returned to their country after participating in a meeting of the Bolivarian Continental Coordinator (CCB) which took place in Quito, Feb. 24-28. The seven, members of the CCB Peruvian chapter (CCB-P), were detained under suspicion of "Affiliation and Collaboration in Terrorism."

Even we are frankly astonished by the depth of cynicism to which the Wall Street Journal has sunk this time. A March 25 editorial, entitled "A FARC Fan's Notes," touts (dubious) claims that the computer recovered from Colombia's (illegal) March 1 raid on a FARC guerilla camp in Ecuadoran territory contained communication to rebel leaders from a "go-between" linked to Rep. James McGovern. The respectfully diplomatic rhetoric of the communication is de rigeur for the obvious intent behind the missives—getting hostages freed. Yet the WSJ uses this to impugn McGovern's opposition to the pending US-Colombia free trade agreement—as if there were no legitimate reasons to oppose it, and the Massachusetts Democrat can only be a dupe of the narco-terrorist conspiracy to bring down democracy in the Western Hemisphere. Here is the text of this exercise in disingenuous propaganda:

On Good Friday, March 21, three New Orleans residents who entered the vacant Lafitte Housing Development in a bid to save it from being razed were arrested and charged under an anti-terrorist "critical structure" law enacted by the Louisiana legislature in the wake of 9-11. The three activists—Jamie Laughner, Thomas McManus, and Ezekiel Compton—slipped below a barbed wire fence, scaled a metal grating and situated themselves on the balcony of an empty apartment. When the three were arrested an hour later, they were charged with trespassing, resisting an officer, and "unlawful entry into a critical structure." Apart from the insidious treatment of an act of civil disobedience as an act of terrorism, the charges are doubly Orwellian given that the activists—from the groups May Day Nola, C3/Hands Off Iberville, and Common Ground—were trying to save the "critical structure." City authorities subsequently ordered its demolition. (The Bridge, Boston, March 25)

Saudi Arabia's Shoura Council has discussed a national plan to deal with potential radioactive contamination in the Kingdom following warnings of possible attacks on Iran's nuclear reactors. "The plan to check radiation hazards was discussed by Shoura members, but it will be discussed and reviewed again before being tabled for voting," an unnamed Shoura Council member told Arab News. The King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST) is said to be preparing a contingency plan. (Arab News, March 24)

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak has ordered the army to start baking more bread following a series of clashes breaking out at long lines for government-subsidized loaves. Acute shortages of the flat, round bread which is a staple of the Egyptian diet—made available to the poor at one cent a loaf—have led to explosions of violence in poor neighborhoods in recent weeks. At least seven people have died, according to authorities. Two were stabbed in fights between customers in line; the others died of exhaustion or other medical problems aggravated by waiting in the spring heat. (AP, March 24)

Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, has proposed the ethnic division of Kosova to the UN mission in the disputed territory, a Belgrade newspaper reports. The key point of the accord offered to the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is to create "the functional separation of Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo," Samardzic told the pro-government daily Politika. "We accept the [UN Security Council] Resolution 1244 and authority of UNMIK police, judiciary and customs, but after the unilateral proclamation of independence, only Serbs, aided by Serbia, could carry that out," Samardzic, a member of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's party, was quoted as saying. He told Politika the proposal referred to all Serb-populated areas of Kosovo, and not only the northern Serb stronghold including the flashpoint town of Kosovska Mitrovica.