The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) said in a statement issued Jan. 30 that it is adding 350 Nepalese soldiers to its force in order to fight crime in Port-au-Prince. The light infantry battalion of Nepalese soldiers began arriving the week of Jan. 29 and will be fully deployed by early March, according to MINUSTAH. Maj. Gen. Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz, the Brazilian commander of the 9,000-member force, said some Nepalese troops would be deployed almost immediately in the capital's impoverished Cite Soleil neighborhood. "I am determined to increase the pressure on the gangs who have been holding the innocent people of Haiti hostage for so long," Santos Cruz said in the statement. "We must not give the gangs time to relax." (Haiti Support Network News Briefs, Jan. 30 from AP)

On the early morning of Jan. 25 some 100 state and municipal police agents removed workers and campesinos who for more than two weeks had been blocking access to the Los Filos gold mine near the community of Carrizalillo in Eduardo Neri municipality in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero. Carrizalillo resident Samuel Pena Maturana said some protesters, including two women, were beaten in the process; about 70 protesters were taken to a local police station and held for about four hours before being released. Campesinos also charged that police agents had looted some of their houses and stolen money and food.

Tens of thousands of Mexicans filled Mexico City's huge Zocalo plaza on Jan. 31 in the first large demonstration against the center-right government of President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, who took office on Dec. 1 and now faces popular anger over a dramatic rise in the price of corn and other staples. "Without corn, there's no country," the marchers chanted. "We don't want PAN, we want tortillas." (The initials of Calderon's National Action Party, PAN, form the Spanish for "bread.")

On Jan. 31, rightwing paramilitaries murdered community activist Yolanda Izquierdo in the city of Monteria, capital of Cordoba department in northern Colombia. Izquierdo had been receiving death threats since December, when she attended the first preliminary hearing where paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso was testifying about his crimes. The local prosecutor had requested protection for Izquierdo after the threats against her were reported in the Bogota daily newspaper El Tiempo. Mancuso is one of the top leaders of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC); leaders and members of the group are testifying about their crimes in exchange for leniency. The paramilitary hearings were established in negotiations over an alleged demobilization process, criticized by human rights groups as a sham and a coverup of massive rights violations.

On Feb. 7, some 20,000 Paraguayan campesinos held protests at 10 sites around the country as part of a national mobilization to draw attention to the low income they receive from agricultural production and to demand solutions to their plight. The protests were organized by the National Campesino Federation (FNC), which said they would continue throughout the week. "For now we will only do brief road blockades in the departments of San Pedro, Guaira, Caaguazu, Paraguari and Concepcion, among others, to get attention," said FNC general secretary Odilon Espinola. Heavy rains dampened turnout in some areas, according to Espinola.

Explosions tore through two buses traveling on a highway Feb. 13 near Ein Alaq, a mountain town northeast of Beirut, leaving at least 12 dead and 10 wounded. Ein Alaq is near Bikfaya, the ancestral home of the Gemayel family, a powerhouse of Christian politics in Lebanon. Pierre Gemayel, a Cabinet member, was assassinated in November. His father, former President Amin Gemayel, visited the White House and met with Bush last week. (AP, Feb. 13) The blasts come a day before Lebanon is to mark the second anniversary of the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri. Al-Hariri's son, S'ad A-Din Hariri, head of the Al-Mustaqbal movement and one of the country's most influential politicians, called yesterday on all Lebanese to participate in the memorial ceremony. A huge rally is planned at Hariri's grave—just feet from the site of ongoing Hezbollah protests seeking to topple the government. (MediaLine, AP, Feb. 13)

US military officials and Japanese police have confirmed an explosion near the Camp Zama base outside Tokyo, adding no one was hurt and there was no damage from the blast. A similar incident was reported near Camp Zama in 2002, when police found a metal projectile after two blasts were heard in the area. (Bloomberg, Feb. 13) Global Security informs us that Camp Zama is home to the US Army Japan/9th Theater Army Area Command. In addition to the usual speculation about al-Qaeda, reports are raising the possibility of Japanese left-wing radicals.

Michael R. Gordon's Feb. 10 New York Times story, "Deadliest Bomb in Iraq Is Made by Iran, US Says," backs up some administration claims: "The most lethal weapon directed against American troops in Iraq is an explosive-packed cylinder that United States intelligence asserts is being supplied by Iran... In interviews, civilian and military officials from a broad range of government agencies provided specific details to support what until now has been a more generally worded claim, in a new National Intelligence Estimate, that Iran is providing 'lethal support' to Shiite militants in Iraq. The focus of American concern is known as an 'explosively formed penetrator,' a particularly deadly type of roadside bomb being used by Shiite groups in attacks on American troops in Iraq. Attacks using the device have doubled in the past year... Because the weapon can be fired from roadsides and is favored by Shiite militias, it has become a serious threat in Baghdad. Only a small fraction of the roadside bombs used in Iraq are explosively formed penetrators. But the device produces more casualties per attack than other types of roadside bombs." Note the usual suspects: "The link that American intelligence has drawn to Iran is based on a number of factors, including an analysis of captured devices, examination of debris after attacks, and intelligence on training of Shiite militants in Iran and in Iraq by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and by Hezbollah militants believed to be working at the behest of Tehran."