At last two are dead and 12 wounded in an ambush 130 kilometers south of Kirkuk on a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims returning from the Arbaeen celebrations in Karbala March 1. "Two people, including a woman, were killed and 12 others injured in an attack by unidentified gunmen on a bus carrying civilians returning from the Arbaeen pilgrimage near Soliman Pak area, south of Kirkuk, on Saturday morning," a medic at Kirkuk's hospital told Aswat al-Iraq/Voices of Iraq news agency. (VOI, March 1)

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 praying for Iraq to reach the path of reconciliation and peace. For the past year, Mosul's Christians have been targeted in a wave of attacks that have damaged several churches and seriously wounded four parishioners—as well as leaving a priest dead in June 2007. In October, two priests from Mosul were abducted and held for nine days. A Syriac archbishop was kidnapped in Mosul in January 2005. (Al-Sumariia TV, March 1)

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.

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)

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 attempting to change the draft constitution approved in December. The draft constitution would give the president more power over natural resources, collapse Bolivia's legislature into one body, and allow the president to seek election for two consecutive five-year terms. (NYT, Feb. 29; Jurist, Feb. 28)

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 be made more ethical than human ones.

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 local offices, which gave majority Shi'ites and minority Kurds the bulk of power. The US hopes new elections, to be held Oct. 1 under the draft measure, would give the Sunni bloc more power and thereby undercut the insurgency.