Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, kidnapped in Iraq last month, was found dead on March 13, his body half-buried in an empty lot in the northern city of Mosul. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed Rahho's death on al-Qaeda and said his Shi'ite-led government was committed to protecting Christians, who make up about 3% of Iraq's population. "The perpetrators of this horrible crime will not run from the hand of justice," Maliki said. Pope Benedict, who had made several appeals for Rahho's freedom, called his death "an act of inhuman violence that offends the dignity of the human being" in a letter to Iraqi church leaders. (Reuters, March 13)

We're surprised the right-wing blogosphere hasn't yet accused the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) of being behind the revelations of gubernatorial hanky-panky-for-pay in New York state. Among the now-shamed Elliot Spitzer's many enemies is Richard Grasso, the former NY Stock Exchange CEO brought down in 2003 by then-Attorney General Spitzer over "compensation issues." (In a March 13 Newsweek commentary, wittily entitled "Spitzenfreude," Daniel Gross invokes his name while noting the unseemly "joy at the governor's suffering" among The Street's bottom-feeders.) In June 1999, Grasso flew into the jungles of Colombia to meet with the FARC guerillas at their then-autonomous zone in Caquetá department, in an unlikely bid to convert them to capitalism. (Reuters, June 26, 1999) Actually, given the FARC's control over a sizable chunk of Colombia's cocaine trade, maybe the meeting wasn't all that unlikely. In any case, the visit served the rebels well in their bid for international legitimacy. There is a picture of Grasso hugging the late FARC commander Raul Reyes on his Wikipedia page.

WHAT ABOUT KRISTEN?
New York Sex Worker Organizations Respond to Spitzer Scandal
New York, NY - In the last few days, Governor Eliot Spitzer has publicly admitted to being associated with an escort agency and is considering resignation. As sex worker advocates, we are concerned about the representation and fate of "Kristen" and sex workers who are being thrust into the spotlight because of the investigation into the Governor. We also share the widespread concern for Governor Spitzer's family.

Almost 30 years after the Aug. 8, 1978 confrontation in Philadelphia, the eight remaining "MOVE 9" prisoners are now eligible for parole (see Philadelphia Inquirer and Metro articles). In early April, they will be interviewed by the Parole Board. With the hearings just weeks away, MOVE is asking for support by contacting the Parole Board and signing the online petition (already signed by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky). A new video series features interviews with MOVE members Ramona Africa (the sole adult survivor of the May 13, 1985 police bombing of MOVE headquarters) and Mike Africa Jr. (the son of MOVE 9 prisoners Debbie and Mike Sr.).

From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), March 11:

Central American Solidarity Activists Dispute Department of Justice Order
Washington DC — The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), illegally targeted in the 1980's by the largest FBI Internal Security investigation of the Reagan era, has in recent months again received threatening communications from the US Department of Justice. Citing the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, a letter sent to CISPES in January questions the organization's relationship with the leftist Salvadoran political party known as the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation, or FMLN. CISPES received similar inquiries in the 1980s which eventually led to an illegal FBI investigation into its activities.

A gay teenager who sought sanctuary in the UK after his boyfriend was executed by the Iranian authorities now faces the same fate after losing his legal battle for asylum. Mehdi Kazemi, 19, came to London to study English in 2004 but later discovered that his boyfriend had been arrested by the Iranian police, charged with sodomy and hanged. Kazemi's father in Tehran told him by telephone that before the execution in April 2006, his boyfriend had been interrogated about sexual relations he had with other men. Kazemi filed for asylum, but late in 2007 his case was refused and he fled for The Netherlands.

German activist Martin Kramer, en route to Japan to prepare for the Hokkaido G8 summit protests, was arrested by police in the city of Vanino in the Habarovsk region of the Russian Far East March 3. He was turned over the FSB agents, in whose hands he was harshly interrogated and beaten. Martin was accused of carrying "extremist" and "secret" documents. These included archival materials from the 1920s, long since made public, that Kramer had for research purposes. Also included were a copies of the Ukrainian anarchist paper Liva-Sprava and Udar, the paper of Vladivostok's Autonomous Action. After a few hours, he was put in a car and thrown out in a strange part of the city. On March 10, arriving in Sapporo via ship from Sakhalin, he was denied entry by Japanese authorities. As of the 11th, he remained on board the ship, while local activists appealed to the authorities. (Via No-G8 Action Japan mailing list)

The US State Department's new annual human rights report accuses China of "extrajudicial killings, torture and coerced confessions of prisoners and the use of forced labor." Russia and Sudan were also especially criticized. Ten countries were named as under "unaccountable rulers [who] remained the world's most systematic human rights violators": North Korea, Burma, Iran, Syria, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Eritrea and Sudan. It noted improvements in Mauritania, Ghana, Morocco and Haiti, but little or no progress in Nepal, Russia, Georgia Kyrghyzstan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan or Iraq. (AlJazeera, March 11)