As a war of words breaks out between Hamid Karzai and Pervez Musharraf over accusations of Afghan insurgents using Pakistani territory as a staging ground, Islamabad broaches actually fencing off the border the way Pat Buchanan wants to fence off Mexico. Once again, this is only likely to enflame the situation.

They must be pretty bored out there in Ohio. From AP, March 3:

Authorities shut down four buildings at Ohio University after a police officer noticed a sticker that said "this bike is a pipe bomb" before finding out the message was the name of a punk rock band, a university spokesman said.

Several thousand Puerto Ricans marched down Roosevelt Avenue in San Juan on Feb. 26 to protest raids on the homes of independence activists by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Feb. 10 and the shooting death of fugitive Popular Boricua Army (EPB)-Macheteros leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios during an FBI raid on Sept. 23. The theme of the march, organized by the Hostos National Independence Movement (MINH) and supported by a wide range of political tendencies, was: "Puerto Rico respects itself! FBI out!" Organizers estimated that 8,000 people participated; police Col. Leovigildo Vazquez declined to give a number.

From Amnesty International, Feb. 28:

The recent spate of killings of civilians is a serious and deliberate breach of international humanitarian law, Amnesty International said today in response to reports of killings of civilians attributed to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), in the departments of Caquetá and Huila.

The conventional wisdom is that Libya's Mommar Qadaffi is defanged and domesticated. Recent events, however, indicate a strategic tilt back towards the bellicose on the part of the savvy despot. A cabinet shake-up favoring the hardliners comes on the heels of barely-veiled threats of terror attacks against Italy. From Reuters, March 5:

From the London Times, March 5:

THE war in Iraq is her father’s business but Elizabeth Cheney, the American vice-president’s daughter, has been given responsibility for bringing about a different type of regime change in Iran.

Freedom's on the march. From BBC, March 6:

Amnesty International has said that thousands of detainees held by the multinational forces in Iraq are still being denied their basic rights.

The group said the lessons of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal appeared to have been ignored and reports of torture continued to "pour out of Iraq".

From Bloomberg, March 5:

U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Peter Pace said Iraq isn't on the brink of civil war and that there isn't any deadline for withdrawing American and coalition troops from the country.