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)

Ten alleged terrorists, mostly Arabs, were killed and seven others injured in a missile strike on a house near the village Kaloosha, South Waziristan, near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan Feb. 27. A "security source" told the Italian news agency AGI the missile had been launched by US forces on Afghan territory. The house hit belonged to Sher Mohammad Malikkheil, a Pashtun known as "Sheroo" with purported links to Afghan militants. A Pakistani military spokesman, Gen. Athar Abbas, said that he had not received reports of any missile attacks. (AGI, Feb. 28)

Angry protests against rising food prices in Burkina Faso spread to the capital, Ouagadougou, Feb. 28, shutting the city down as young people burned tires and clashed with police. "The choice is to demonstrate or to die of hunger," a protester told the UN news agency IRIN. The unrest was sparked when the government announced that rather than lowering the price of basic goods as people were demanding, it would reduce taxes on imported goods. (IRIN via AllAfrica, Feb. 28)

Three were killed by security forces in Cameroon Feb. 28 as anti-government protests broke out in the western towns of Bamenda and Bafang. Up to 20 are believed dead in unrest earlier in the week in the western region and the capital, Yaoundé. The street clashes began with protests against rising fuel prices and President Paul Biya's plan to change the constitution to extend his term in office. Biya has been in office 26 years. (NYT, The Nation, Kenya, Feb. 29)

Following approval by both houses of Congress, President Bush Feb. 29 signed a 10-month extension of the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), designed to discourage Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia from producing illegal drugs by allowing the four countries to export most of their goods to the US duty-free. White House spokesman Dana Perino said the ATPA extension will provide time to implement the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and for Congress to approve the US-Colombia FTA. Perino also warned that Bolivia and Ecuador could lose their trade benefits because of actions those governments have taken, "including with respect to the treatment of US investors." (Living in Peru; Reuters, Feb. 29)