Feb. 16 marked a full decade since the signing of the San Andres Accords, negotiated by rebel Zapatista commanders and Mexican federal legislators in the restive southern state of Chiapas. The Accords called for changes to the Mexican constitution as a minimum peace demand for the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), but have languished for ten years as the federal bureaucracy has refused to implement them. As the anniversary passed, Zapatista leaders on a national tour dubbed "The Other Campaign" (a reference to the presidential campaigns now underway in Mexico) arrived in the city of Puebla. (La Jornada, Feb. 17)

All press stories on this controversy note that the oil will be exported to China. But, as we have noted, Russia is racing with China to provide a Pacific outlet for Central Asian oil, and we suspect this is the real geopolitical imperative for this project. From the London Times, March 7:

Why is it only the right-wing press that ever demonstrates any outrage over this sort of thing? Just asking. From the New York Times, March 7:

PARIS, March 6 — Three attacks against Jews over the weekend have added to anxiety that anti-Semitism is growing among a new generation of French citizens in the country's immigrant-heavy, working-class neighborhoods.

With the word's attention elsewhere, a violent confrontation between security forces and jihadis in Bangladesh. From India Monitor, March 7:

Dhaka: Wanted terrorist and Islamist leader Siddiqul Islam better known as Banglabhai, who founded the jihadi organisation Jagrata Muslim Janata and is blamed for deadly bombings, was captured by security forces on Monday after a dramatic encounter at his hideout in Mymensingh district.

Rumsfeld exploits the carnage in Iraq to score points against Iran, even as he scolds the media for daring to actually report it. How does he keep a straight face? From Bloomberg, March 7:

Great propaganda for the right-wing Human Events Online. This from Robert Spencer's "Jihad Watch" column, March 7. Our editorial interjections added.

Last Friday afternoon, a student named Mohammed Taheri-azar drove an SUV onto the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, trying to kill people and succeeding in injuring nine. He explained that he was "thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah."

From AP, March 7, links added:

VARANASI - Explosions rocked a packed railway station and crowded Hindu temple Tuesday in Hinduism's holiest city, and at least 12 people were killed and dozens injured, officials said.

Sarah Ferguson writes for the Village Voice, March 6:

Cindy Sheehan took another bust for the anti-war cause Monday. She was cuffed and forcefully dragged away from the plaza in front of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, where she had marched with a delegation of Iraqi women in hopes of delivering a petition to demand the immediate withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign forces from Iraq.