Unknown gunmen kidnapped Chaldean Archbishop Faraj Rahho in Mosul after killing two of his bodyguards and his driver soon after he left Mass in the northern Iraqi city’s Safina Church. Pope Benedict XVI regretted the kidnapping and said he is… Read moreChaldean archbishop kidnapped in Mosul
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…. Read moreEight dead in Armenia political violence
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… Read moreFARC commander killed in raid on Ecuador; Chávez warns of “war”
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… Read morePakistan: another US air-strike?
On Feb. 28, Bolivia’s National Congress narrowly approved holding a national referendum on a new constitution drawn up by supporters of President Evo Morales. The vote, setting the referendum for May 4, was boycotted by the opposition, which had been… Read moreBolivian congress sets constitutional referendum; opposition calls vote illegitimate
From New Scientist, Feb. 27: Governments around the world are rushing to develop military robots capable of killing autonomously without considering the legal and moral implications, warns a leading roboticist. But another robotics expert argues that robotic soldiers could perhaps… Read moreScientists want moratorium in “robot race”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a statement saying he is "deeply concerned" about ongoing air-strikes on Douma in Syria's besieged Eastern Ghouta enclave, noting the "killing of civilians" and "destruction of civilian infrastructure," including hospitals and health facilities. The statement said he is "particularly alarmed by allegations that chemical weapons have been used against civilian populations in Douma." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded that no evidence has been found of a chemical weapons attack in Douma. But the Syrian-American Medical Society, which has aid workers on the ground, said more than 500 people were brought to medical centers in Douma with symptoms "indicative of exposure to a chemical agent," including breathing difficulties, bluish skin, mouth foaming, corneal burns and "emission of chlorine-like odor." (Image: Syria Solidarity Campaign)
Mahmud Shahadeh, Palestinian village elder in the Galilee: “Even after we heard about the confiscation of land in the 1970s, it had no affect on us as we worked the land. We kept on farming, plowing, and planting, until the… Read moreMahmud Shahadeh
In a major setback to US-backed national reconciliation efforts, Iraq’s presidential council rejected a plan for new provincial elections and sent the bill back to parliament Feb. 27. Many Sunnis boycotted the January 2005 elections for the 275-member parliament and… Read moreIraq’s Shi’ite majority: no new elections
Shihab al-Timimi, 74, chief of the Iraqi Journalists’ Union, died Feb. 27 of wounds suffered in an ambush outside the union headquarters in the Waziriya district of Baghdad five days earlier. His deputy at the journalists’ union, Mouayed al-Lami, said,… Read moreBaghdad: head of journalists union assassinated
Jawed Ahmad, an Afghan journalist for Canada’s CTV network held by the US military four months without charge, has been designated an unlawful enemy combatant, the Pentagon announced. Ahmad was allowed to make a statement before an enemy combatant review… Read morePentagon names reporter for Canadian TV “enemy combatant”
Four hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were released Feb. 27, in a deal brokered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. The four ex-members of Colombia’s congress are among some 40 high-profile hostages held for years by… Read moreFARC free four more hostages
