Police in Kathmandu clashed with hundreds of Tibetan refugees during a protest March 15 over the repression in Lhasa. The protesters tried to march on the Chinese embassy, but the police barred their way. The previous day, dozens were injured when police broke up a march on the embassy by some 1,000 Tibetan protesters, including dozens of monks. Twelve monks were reported injured. (IANS, March 15; AP, March 14)

A week after it began, the uprising in Tibet finally hit the front page of the New York Times March 15, with clashes reported throughout Lhasa the previous day. At the Tromsikhang market, Chinese-owned shops were burned and cars overturned. At least two were killed when police fired on crowds in the city's Barkhor district. A tourist bus was torched outside the Ramoche temple, where monks clashed with police and protesters waved traditional white scarves, chanting "Free Tibet." Beijing is said to be bringing in military police troops, as well as dispatching them to other parts of China with significant Tibetan populations—such as the sacred city of Bamei, Sichuan. BBC News says Chinese authorities put the total dead at 10, but the BBC World Service reported early the 16th that the Dalai Lama says he has received reports of up to 100 dead. He also rejects official Chinese assertions that martial law has not been declared. "I have the feeling this is like in 1959, after the 10th of March... I fear more killing, more suffering."

As the Bush administration heads into months of negotiations with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on the future of US troops in Iraq, it aims to stretch the bounds of executive power to unprecedented lengths. The administration plans to bypass Congress to forge a status of forces agreement (SOFA) that would grant the US an unlimited "authority to fight" provision, according to statements by the State Department's Coordinator for Iraq, David Satterfield, and Assistant Secretary of Defense Mary Beth Long, at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week. Drafts of the SOFA, a binding pact, also provide legal immunity for US private contractors operating in Iraq, according to a January New York Times article.

Authorities in Ciudad Juárez said March 14 they had discovered a further 19 bodies buried behind two houses used by drug dealers, bringing the total number of corpses found there to 33. Agents began digging behind the houses on March 1, after raiding one, confiscating 3,700 pounds of marijuana and arresting several people. All but three of the bodies appear to be men, and most have been buried at least five years. Some were dismembered. It's the second such find in less than a month: federal authorities also unearthed nine bodies buried in the yard of a Ciudad Juárez home in late February after a drug bust. (LAT, NYT, March 15)

Mexico's lower House of Deputies voted to open an investigation into accusations that Government Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño improperly helped his family win contracts from the state oil monopoly Pemex. The accusations stem from contracts Mourino signed between 2000 and 2004 when he acted as the legal representative of his family's company while also working as a lawmaker and then as deputy energy secretary. The move comes as President Felipe Calderon, who campaigned on an anti-corruption platform, is seeking to further open Pemex to foreign investment.

On March 14, activist group "Agrofools" closed down the World Biofuels Market meeting in Brussels by sealing four sets of double doors with padlocks and chains and barring access with their bodies just before the official opening. A battle ensued between protesters and security at the fifth set of doors. Outside the conference center the gates were also locked by a chain and blocked by activist group Rhythms of Resistance, who kept up a samba beat at their action for nearly two hours before being given an ultimatum by police. Banners read "Agrofuels are a Scam" and "No Solution to Oil Addiction." (Press release via Indymedia UK, March 14)

More than two weeks after Colombia's military incursion into Ecuadoran territory to take out Raul Reyes, a top-ranking leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), voices are being raised about possible US complicity or direction in the hit. On March 9,Simon Romero in the New York Times took a tentative stab at it, noting a similarity between the tactics of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and his pal George Bush—e.g. Washington's nearly identical hit on supposed al-Qaeda militant Abu Laith al-Libi in Pakistan last month...

With military vehicles patrolling Lhasa and monasteries surrounded by troops following the biggest protests in Tibet since 1989, unrest is spreading to other cities with substantial Tibetan populations. Protests are reported at Lutsang monastery in Qinghai (known in Tibetan as Amdo), with hundreds of monks chanting slogans calling for return of their exiled leader, the Dalai Lama. According to the Free Tibet campaign, 100 monks from Myera monastery in Gansu also staged a protest. Scattered gunfire was reported around Lhasa March 13. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the protesters are "seeking to spark social turmoil." He told a press conference: "This was carefully planned by the Dalai clique in a bid to separate Tibet and sabotage Tibetan people's normal life of stability and harmony." (The Guardian, March 13)