Kenya has largely disappeared from the headlines, and what is reported generally has an optimistic slant—a new power-sharing accord is hoped to end the violence. Meanwhile, the situation seems to be escalating to open war. On March 10, the armed forces reportedly opened fire and launched aerial bombing raids with helicopter gunships on the Sabaot Land Defense Forces (SLDF) at Mount Elgon in the west of the country. The SLDF is a local militia representing the Sabaot clan of the Kalenjin community, which says it seeks to reclaim traditional lands and is accused of a massacre last week in which 13 people were burned alive or hacked to death. (BBC, March 11; AP, March 10)

A town meeting in Brattleboro, VT, voted 2,012-1,795 March 4 to approve a measure calling on the town's police to arrest and indict Bush and Cheney if they enter the municipality. The smaller village of Marlboro passed a similar measure 43-25, with three abstaining. The Brattleboro measure read: "Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities, and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro police, pursuant to the above mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecuted or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them?" (Democratic Underground, March 4)

The family of New York IMC reporter Brad Will, killed Oct. 27, 2006—presumably at the hands of municipal police in Santa Lucía del Camino, Oaxaca—called upon Mexico's Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR) to follow the "logical" line of investigation and abandon ongoing probes of popular activists in Oaxaca. "This crime was one of the most photographed in history, yet they continue with this hypothesis while those responsible remain free," Brad's father Howard Will told the Mexico City daily La Jornada. He called upon Mexican federal authorities to undertake a "serious and objective" investigation, because that pursued by Oaxaca state authorities is totally "prejudiced." (Re-translated from Spanish translation.) (La Jornada, Feb. 29)

Fourteen Toztzil and Tzeltal Maya prisoners at Social Readaption Center Number 14, known as El Amate, in Cintalapa, Chiapas, went on hunger strike Feb. 28, in protest of harsh conditions and to demand recognition as political prisoners. Eight are followers of the Zapatista rebels' "Other Campaign" political initiative. Most have been imprisoned five years, in connection with the Tres Cruces case involving land conflicts in the highland village of San Juan Chamula, which is ruled by notorious political bosses known as the caciques. The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center has issued an urgent statement expressing concern for the men's health. (La Jornada, Feb. 29) On March 3, nine indigenous prisoners being held in the highland city of San Cristóbal de las Casas announced they were joining in a solidarity hunger strike with the Cintalapa 14. (La Jornada, March 4)

With $100-a-barrel here for now, Goldman Sachs says $200 a barrel could be a near-term reality in the case of a "major disruption." Goldman on March 7 also boosted by $10 the low end of its 2008-2012 projected range for crude to $60 a barrel—in the event that "normalized" trends return to the market. With the dollar's fall continuing and financial markets squeezed by the credit crunch, commodities like oil have been drawing the increasing numbers of investors, and Wall Street firms have been eager to adjust forecasts. Goldman analysts Arjun Murti, Kevin Koh and Michele della Vigna said prices have advanced more quickly than Goldman had forecast back in 2005, when it predicted a range of $50 to $105 a barrel as part of its "super-spike" oil theory.

A double bombing in a crowded Baghdad shopping district killed at least 53 people and wounded 130 March 6. The blasts took place in the primarily Shi'ite, middle-class Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah. The tactic was to draw in the people with the first blast—especially security and medical workers—before a second bomb detonates. (AP, March 8) Iraqi security forces uncovered a mass grave containing about 100 bodies in the Diyala province March 8. (Xinhua, March 8)

The leaders of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela formally ended their dispute March 7 with handshakes and embraces at the 20th Rio Group Summit in the Dominican Republic, approving a "Santo Domingo Declaration," which condemns Colombia's March 1 cross-border raid in Ecuador but emphasizes the need for regional cooperation in combating illegal armed groups. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe apologized for the raid and pledged to refrain from further such incursions, in exchange for commitments on cooperation. The Rio Group, established in 1986, is a regional bloc aimed at promoting political and economic cooperation.

Iran plans to open a television station "for all of Latin America," to be based in the coca-growing Chaparé region of Bolivia, President Evo Morales announced at a gathering of cocaleros after his re-election as president of Bolivia's coca-growers union. The station would be "for all of Bolivia, for all of Latin America, recognizing the great struggle of this peasant movement," Morales told the gathering in Cochabamba. (AP, Feb. 19)