The third suicide attack in Pakistan's northwest in as many days left up to 40 dead and 30 wounded near Darra Adam Khel, North West Frontier Province, March 2. The bomber struck a grand jirga of five tribes in Zarghon village, called to discuss the increasing pro-Taliban activities in the region. Another suicide attack on a vehicle carrying police in the Bajaur agency, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, killed 20 on March 1. On Feb. 29, a suicide attack on a funeral procession for police killed earlier that day in the Swat Valley, NWFP, left 50 dead.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received what the United Arab Emirates' Gulf News called a "hero's welcome" in Baghdad, where Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the Islamic Republic's recent approach towards his country has been "extremely helpful." He described his discussions with Ahmadinejad as "friendly, positive and full of trust," adding that his landmark visit to Baghdad sends a positive message to neighboring countries to reinforce their ties with Iraq. He also pledged to crack down on Iranian guerillas operating from Iraqi territory, including the Mujahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO) and the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). Slogans on the walls of houses and public markets in Baghdad's Sadr City welcomed Ahmadinejad and hailed him as a hero. Signs in Sunni neighborhoods condemned him as a villain and architect of Iraq's sectarian violence. (Gulf News, UAE, March 3; Press TV, Iran, March 2)

At last two are dead and 12 wounded in an ambush 130 kilometers south of Kirkuk on a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims returning from the Arbaeen celebrations in Karbala March 1. "Two people, including a woman, were killed and 12 others injured in an attack by unidentified gunmen on a bus carrying civilians returning from the Arbaeen pilgrimage near Soliman Pak area, south of Kirkuk, on Saturday morning," a medic at Kirkuk's hospital told Aswat al-Iraq/Voices of Iraq news agency. (VOI, March 1)

Unknown gunmen kidnapped Chaldean Archbishop Faraj Rahho in Mosul after killing two of his bodyguards and his driver soon after he left Mass in the northern Iraqi city's Safina Church. Pope Benedict XVI regretted the kidnapping and said he is praying for Iraq to reach the path of reconciliation and peace. For the past year, Mosul's Christians have been targeted in a wave of attacks that have damaged several churches and seriously wounded four parishioners—as well as leaving a priest dead in June 2007. In October, two priests from Mosul were abducted and held for nine days. A Syriac archbishop was kidnapped in Mosul in January 2005. (Al-Sumariia TV, March 1)

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)

Eight people are reported killed in overnight clashes between police and opposition protesters in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, March 2. The protesters, who have rallied in the capital for 12 days, accuse the government of rigging last month’s presidential election. Troops and armored vehicles are now patrolling the main streets of Yerevan, and President Robert Kocharian has declared a 20-day state of emergency. Police and Interior Ministry troops used truncheons, tear gas, and electric stun guns to disperse opposition supporters from a central Yerevan square March 1, but thousands who regrouped later. Riot police fired tracer bullets into the air and again used tear gas to disperse the crowd of 15,000. Some protesters hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at police. Several vehicles were set fire. Human Rights Watch charges Armenian authorities with using "excessive force and violence" against the protesters.

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.

Raul Reyes (AKA Luis Edgar Devia), second-in-command of Colombia's FARC guerillas, was killed March 1 in a raid across the border in the Ecuadoran lowland rainforest department of Sucumbios. President Alvaro Uribe called it "the biggest blow so far" against the rebel organization, and said he informed Ecuador's President Rafael Correa by telephone after the pre-dawn raid. Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Reyes was killed in an air-strike on a FARC camp 1.8 kilometers in Ecuadoran territory, followed by a ground incursion. Announced Uribe: "The Colombian Air Force proceeded to attack the camp from the Colombian side... Once the camp was bombarded, Colombian forces were ordered in to secure the area and neutralize the enemy." Sixteen other guerillas were killed in the attack near the settlement of Santa Rosa. Colombian intelligence apparently determined the location of the camp by tracking the guerillas' satellite phone signals. (Mercopress, Montevideo, El Comercio, Quito, March 2)