mandate to protect [something will be happening here]

BBC: Colombian guerrillas release four hostages...
A helicopter collected the three police officers and a soldier from a pre-arranged spot in the jungle and flew them to Villavicencio, east of Bogota. They were the first captives to be unilaterally released by the rebels in almost a year. The Farc have suffered recent setbacks as the government drives them further into mountain and jungle areas. They have said they intend to free two politicians in the coming days.

The four were greeted by supporters waving flowers after they landed in Villavicencio. They had been among 28 "political hostages" held by the group, which wants to use them to secure the release of some of their own jailed members.
CSM: ...in a new political strategy?
In a combination of miscalculations and Colombian military successes, the rebels lost some of their top leaders in 2008. FARC founder Manuel Marulanda died, apparently of natural causes. FARC Cmdr. Raul Reyes was killed during a Colombian raid on his camp in Ecuador. Dozens of other FARC commanders and key guards deserted or were captured. The biggest blow came in July. Colombian intelligence officers duped the rebels into handing over their most prized hostages – French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three American defense contractors, along with 10 Colombian police and military officers.

But while the FARC has been hurt by those setbacks and by the sustained military and intelligence operations over the past six years, the FARC are estimated to still have nearly 10,000 fighters. A car bomb killed two people in the southwestern city of Cali Sunday night, following a smaller bomb blast in Bogotá last Tuesday that killed two people. The attacks may be rebel messages that they can still strike Colombian cities...

The latest hostage releases, however, could signal a shift in FARC strategy, says Gérson Arias of the Ideas para La Paz, a Colombian think tank... "They may have finally realized that it is politically counterproductive to hold civilians," Mr. Arias says.

NYT: Brazilian riot police occupy Sao Paulo slum in largest operation since 2006
Hundreds of riot police occupied one of Sao Paulo's biggest slums Tuesday following a night of shootouts and car burnings that saw three police officers shot in street combat with bands of young men.

Youths angry over the police killing of a suspect set vehicles and tires ablaze to blockade the streets of the Paraisopolis slum and looted cars and businesses, Sao Paulo's public safety department said in a statement.

Officers invaded the slum firing rubber bullets and lobbing tear gas, leading to overnight clashes in the sprawling hillside slum where some 80,000 people live in squat brick and block homes along narrow alleys. It sits next to some of Sao Paulo's richest neighborhoods...

Authorities were investigating whether the violence was ordered by the First Capital Command, a notorious gang that controls most of the drug trade in Sao Paulo's numerous slums.

The police show of force included officers toting automatic weapons and shotguns while using armored cars to plow through the debris. It was the biggest operation of its kind in South America's largest city since 2006.

NYT: marijuana "king crop" of Mexican cartels
Despite huge enforcement actions on both sides of the Southwest border, the Mexican marijuana trade is more robust — and brazen — than ever, law enforcement officials say. Mexican drug cartels routinely transported industrial-size loads of marijuana in 2008, excavating new tunnels and adopting tactics like ramp-assisted smuggling to get their cargoes across undetected.

But these are not the only new tactics: the cartels are also increasingly planting marijuana crops inside the United States in a major strategy shift to avoid the border altogether, officials said... Despite the fact that the authorities are discovering more marijuana production inside the United States, most of the cartels’ leadership remains in Mexico and, for now, so does most of the violence...

“The violence has left a large contingent of police on this side of the border,” Sheriff Estrada said. “The killing will stop when somebody dominates. When somebody takes control.”
NYT: Miss Sinaloa, arrested in Mexico in December on suspicion of trafficking, released
Laura Zúñiga, 23, the reigning Miss Sinaloa, was detained along with seven men at a military checkpoint near Guadalajara in December. The police found assault rifles and more than $55,000 in cash in the luxury vehicles they had been driving...

Prosecutors believe that her boyfriend is Ángel García Urquiza, a leader of the Juárez drug cartel who was with her at the police checkpoint. Mr. Urquiza and the other men arrested remain in a federal detention center.

NYT: artillery attacks hit hospital, pediatric ward, in Sri Lanka; government threatens to expel foreigners "sympathetic" to rebels
As the Sri Lankan military continued to push into a small corner of the island controlled by separatist guerrillas, three separate artillery attacks on Sunday struck a hospital overflowing with wounded patients, the last of them hitting a ward of women and children, according to international agencies and health workers. At least nine people were killed and 20 were wounded and the dead were still being counted Monday morning...

It was impossible to ascertain whether the shelling came from the military or the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The hospital is located in a small wedge of land still controlled by the Tamil Tigers in the island’s northeast...

Meanwhile, a senior government official threatened to expel foreign diplomats, aid agencies and journalists who appeared to be sympathetic to the rebels by, for instance, broadcasting images of civilian casualties.
BBC: key international donors encourage Tigers to disarm
The BBC's Ethirajan Anbarasan in Colombo says this is the first time the influential quartet [the US, EU, Japan and Norway, chairs of the Tokyo Conference on Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka] has issued such an appeal to the Tamil Tigers. It is also the first international acknowledgement that the rebels may be near to defeat. In a joint statement, the quartet expressed "great concern" for the plight of civilians.

They urged the rebels to "discuss with the government of Sri Lanka the modalities for ending hostilities, including the laying down of arms, renunciation of violence, acceptance of the government of Sri Lanka's offer of amnesty; and participating as a political party in a process to achieve a just and lasting political solution"...

The Sri Lankan government has previously ruled out any ceasefire and has vowed to crush the rebels. The Tigers have said they will not lay down their arms until they have a "guarantee of living with freedom and dignity and sovereignty".
BBC: analysis of Tigers' reduced military capacity

NYT: Iran launches satellite that could be used for weapons
NYT: ...while North Korea prepares long-range missile for launch
North Korea has launched missiles in the past to win political or economic concessions. In recent weeks, it has said that its military had assumed an “all-out confrontational posture” and that it had scrapped all nonaggression pacts with South Korea...

The object is believed to be a Taepodong-2 missile, Yonhap said. The missile is designed to fly at least 4,200 miles, far enough to reach North America, and carry a payload of 1,400 to 2,200 pounds, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry.

NYT: Palestinian militants fire long-range rocket into Israel
Tensions and tit-for-tat attacks have spiraled since Jan. 27 , when Palestinian militants detonated a bomb that killed an Israeli soldier patrolling the border.

On Sunday, Palestinian militants fired at least four rockets and a shower of mortar shells from Gaza into Israeli territory, wounding two soldiers and a civilian. The Israeli Air Force responded with a nighttime bombing raid on Gaza. On Monday, militants fired two mortar shells from southern Gaza at Israel and Israel carried out an airstrike against what the military said were members of the launching squad as they tried to flee in a vehicle...

Though small Palestinian militant groups have taken responsibility for the recent fire, even in defiance of Hamas, Israel has said it will hold Hamas responsible for any violations of the calm.
BBC: ...Israel attacks Rafah tunnels in response...
Israel had warned of a harsh response to any further rocket fire from Gaza after the long-range Grad rocket hit Ashkelon on Tuesday. It was the first attack on Israel involving a Grad rocket since the ceasefires. Other rockets and mortars have been launched from Gaza, however, and Israel has bombed targets in the narrow coastal territory...

"I suggest Hamas doesn't fool around with us," said Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak. "The air force is operating in Gaza as we speak. We promised calm in the south and we will keep our promise."

Residents of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, said they received telephone calls from the Israeli military warning them to leave their homes ahead of the air raid.
BBC: ...and limits al-Jazeera's reach inside Israel, in response to Qatar trade dispute
Israeli officials say they are taking measures to restrict the work of the Arabic television network, al-Jazeera, inside Israel. It follows a decision last month by al-Jazeera's owners, the state of Qatar, to cut trade ties with Israel.

The work visas of some al-Jazeera employees based in Israel will not be renewed, according to reports.

Al-Jazeera's journalists will have limited access to Israeli news conferences and briefings.
AP: Hamas leaders in Egypt to discuss long-term truce with Israel
The Hamas delegation, which includes officials from its exiled leadership in Syria, will be briefed by the Egyptians about their separate meetings with the Israelis. Hamas and Israel do not negotiate directly.

Abu Zuhri, who spoke from Damascus in an interview on Al-Jazeera television, again said the group would not negotiate the release of a captured Israeli soldier held in Gaza as part of a cease-fire deal. Sgt. Gilad Schalit was captured in 2006 by Hamas-allied militants.

He also said talk of Hamas ending efforts to arm itself was out of the question. "We are a resistance movement and an occupied people and it is our right to possess weapons," Abu Zuhri said.
NYT: newly trained Palestinian security forces introduced in contested West Bank city
Hebron, the West Bank’s most explosive city, with a combustible mix of hard-line Jewish settlers and Palestinian militants from Hamas and other groups, is undergoing a shake-up through the introduction of hundreds of Palestinian security officers who over the past month have stopped car thefts, foiled drug deals and arrested scores of Hamas gunmen, even seizing explosives and suicide belts. They have also focused on quality-of-life issues like fighting clans and the sales of outdated food and medicine by criminal gangs.

The Palestinian commander, Brig. Gen. Sameh al-Sifi, has dubbed the deployment Homeland Rising. And while that may seem a lofty name for a law-and-order operation, he has a point. The injection of the newly trained security forces into Israeli-occupied Hebron is, both sides agree, a significant step if there is ever to be a Palestinian state...

This is the second phase of a plan to install in the West Bank a Palestinian security force sponsored by the United States and trained by Jordan. The first, begun in May in the northern area of Jenin, has been widely praised. But Jenin was selected as a pilot partly because it has neither Hamas nor Jewish settlers in any significant numbers. Yet here too the deployment is going better than expected.

“Some of the communities and neighborhoods in Hebron haven’t seen a policeman since 1967,” noted Dov Schwartz, aide to Gen. Keith Dayton, the United States security coordinator in the West Bank. “People have turned over criminals, drug dealers and militants. This isn’t some temporary crackdown. It is a sustained and determined effort.”
BBC: Palestinian Authority seeks ICC investigations into war crimes
The PA hopes recognition of the court's jurisdiction will allow it to investigate allegations. Israel does not recognise the ICC's jurisdiction.

The ICC's founding statute says only states can recognise its jurisdiction.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said it could take some time to decide whether the Palestinian Authority was legally able to make this move. The court has made public a letter from Palestinian Justice Minister Ali Khashan recognising the authority of the ICC - the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal. "My work now is to analyse if this is in accordance with the law," Mr Moreno-Ocampo said.

Human rights groups have called for international investigation of alleged war crimes during the conflict by both Israeli forces and Hamas militants.
CSM: ...but Israel more worried about European trials under "universal jurisdiction"
[I]nstead of international tribunals or the Israeli justice system, the main venue for the cases is expected to be European domestic courts that cite a legal approach known as "universal jurisdiction" that allows for the trial of cases of heinous acts, torture, or war crimes that allegedly occur outside their own borders.

Israelis consider the threats part of an ongoing political witch hunt. Palestinians and humanitarian activists, on the other hand, see the domestic courts as the only forum to argue whether war crimes were committed...

Just last week, a Spanish judge announced an investigation, sparking tension between Israel and Spain, and spurring more speculation in Israel of war crimes efforts...

In her debut address as the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice called on Israel to investigate the behavior of its military in the recent Gaza war and accused Hamas of its own violations for firing rockets at Israeli towns and working out of civilian areas.

An Israeli investigation is unlikely given the conviction by most Israelis that the Israel military did its best to limit injury to civilians. Israel and the US say Hamas has broken international law by shooting rockets at towns and cities and using Palestinian civilian areas as a base.

Ironically, Israel was one of the first countries to invoke the principle of universal jurisdiction when its court system asserted its right to try Nazi chief Adolph Eichmann for crimes against humanity and war crimes during World War II.

NYT: Taliban suicide bomber kills 21 Afghani police
The attacker struck in Tirin Kot, the capital of Oruzgan Province, a mountainous area where the government’s authority is being contested by the Taliban. Oruzgan is the birthplace of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the founder of the Taliban movement...

In 2007, about 140 suicide bombers struck in Afghanistan; in 2008, the number dropped to about 80. As security has tightened against suicide attackers, the Taliban has turned to roadside bombs; in 2008, the number of attacks was double that in 2007.
NYT: Taliban attacks major bridge near Khyber Pass, causing suspension of NATO supply routes
NYT: new supply routes probably not through Kyrgyzstan, as the government denies US continued use of base
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, said during a trip to Central Asia last month that Manas air base would be key to plans to boost U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan by up to 30,000 soldiers in the coming months... The United States set up the Manas base in Kyrgyzstan and a base in neighboring Uzbekistan after the September 2001 terror attacks, to back operations in Afghanistan. Uzbekistan expelled U.S. troops from the base on its territory in 2005 in a dispute over human rights issues, leaving Manas as the only U.S. military facility in the immediate region.
CSM: instead, Uzbekistan routes likely

NYT: UNHCR official kidnapped in normally calm Quetta, Pakistan
High-profile kidnappings and other attacks have become more routine in Pakistan, particularly in Peshawar, the hub of the northwestern Pakistani frontier, which has experienced a spate of attacks on diplomats and Westerners in recent months...

A Pakistani security official in Quetta said he believed the abduction had probably been carried out either by the Taliban, which have a presence in the city, or by a group seeking a ransom. The official described the abduction as the first kidnapping of a Westerner in the city in recent memory, and he said it appeared to be modeled on the recent abductions in Peshawar.

Baluchistan, not far from Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, has seen a low-level insurgency led by nationalists who are demanding more autonomy and a greater share of the province’s natural resources. At the same time, the Taliban have also maintained a presence in several districts of the province, especially in the areas near the border with Afghanistan.
BBC: Pakistan military claims 16 Taliban killed in Swat Valley offensive
The military launched its offensive last week in response to a public outcry over the Taleban's growing strength in Swat. The clash is the latest in an operation against an increasingly powerful Taleban insurgency in Swat. The militants have tightened their hold on the scenic valley, banning girls' education, setting up their own courts and executing those they oppose, sometimes beheading their victims.

Last week the military launched a fresh offensive against the Taleban with the army chief and the government vowing to restore state authority in Swat. But locals say the army action is often indiscriminate and officials report that women and children are among the dead from Sunday's fighting.
Reuters: ...amidst claims of civilian exodus
"Thousands of people are migrating from the areas of fighting because of the military operations and the militants' use of civilians as human shields," the valley's top administrator, Shaukat Khan Yousafzai, told Reuters.

"One of my officials said his village has a population of 25,000 people and almost 80 percent had left ... People are angry and disappointed," he said.

The people leaving Swat are joining several hundred thousand other villagers who have fled fighting elsewhere in the northwest, in particular the Bajaur region on the Afghan border.
BBC: Pakistani diplomat, citing government investigation, says Mumbai attacks not planned in Pakistan

BBC: Kashmir protests over jailed separatist leaders
Overall violence has fallen significantly across Indian-administered Kashmir since Delhi and Islamabad began peace talks in 2004. However the peace process has been abeyance since November's attack in Mumbai (Bombay) which killed at least 179 people and which India blamed on Pakistan.

BBC: 15 Indian policemen killed by Maoist rebels in western state of Maharashtra
The policemen were ambushed in a jungle near a village in the east of the state, described as a rebel stronghold, on Sunday...

Senior police official AN Roy told the AFP news agency that the clash happened in an area, where there had been regular battles with the Maoists in the past.

"The patrolling party was ambushed by the Naxalites [as the rebels are called in India] and 15 of our men died. The encounter went on for nearly one and a half to two hours," he said. "Our people also fired, killing and injuring some Naxalites."

This was the worst rebel attack in the state, he said. Reports said that the rebels had fled with some police weapons and a mortar shell.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the Maoist insurgency is the "single biggest threat" to India's security.

WP: Christopher Hill named US ambassador to Iraq
Hill is a consummate dealmaker, but he does not speak Arabic, and his expertise lies in Europe and Northeast Asia. He was ambassador to Poland, Macedonia and South Korea and also was a top negotiator to the Dayton peace accords that ended the Bosnian war in the mid-1990s...

Over the course of four years, Hill was largely responsible for dramatically shifting the Bush administration's policies on North Korea, despite opposition from Vice President Cheney, who opposed making what he considered concessions to the North Korean government. Hill struck a deal with North Korea and then, step by step, persuaded Pyongyang to halt its nuclear reactor and begin to disable it... In Seoul, he broke with diplomatic precedent -- and charmed the South Korean public -- by repeatedly visiting universities and other hotbeds of anti-Americanism to give speeches and have debates. He established an online chat room and personally answered questions from Koreans under the name "ambassador."

Hill's mentor in the 1990s was Richard C. Holbrooke, the former U.N. ambassador who was recently named special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Holbrooke described Hill as "brilliant, fearless and argumentative" in his book on the Dayton negotiations.
NYT: preliminary results in Basra and Mosul show support for Prime Minister al-Maliki's parliamentary slate
In two crucial but very different parts of Iraq — here in strategic Basra in the south and still violent Mosul in the north — people voted in provincial elections for similar aims: security and a centralized state strong enough to fend off those who seek to divide it...

“We are witnessing the revival of Iraqi nationalism,” said Mustafa Alani, an analyst with the Gulf Research Center, based in Dubai. “This has unified Iraqis against a number of threats.”

Mr. Alani said it was no surprise that this trend appeared to be most pronounced in the early voting results in Basra and Mosul, which he called “historic front lines.” These two cities and their surrounding regions, along with Baghdad in the center, were cobbled together in 1926 from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire to create Iraq. In the 1980s, Basra bore the brunt of the Iraq-Iran war. Mosul, with its long-troubled relations with Kurds, was the launching pad for Mr. Hussein’s atrocities against the rebellious Kurds during the same time in the adjacent Kurdistan region.
BBC: recruiter of women suicide bombers detained in Iraq, as US starts releasing Iraqi detainees under security pact
The US said it was scheduled to release up to 1,500 detainees each month, according to a statement quoted by Associated Press news agency. The US still holds about 15,000 detainees in Iraq, and the agreement - which came into force last month - states that all should be released in an orderly manner, or transferred to Iraqi custody...

Iraqi militants have increasingly used women to carry out suicide attacks, hiding explosives under their clothes as they are less likely to be searched than men. In the video [confession], which was shown to journalists in Baghdad, the woman said she had prepared the women for suicide before sending them for terror training at insurgent bases.

She said she had to speak to one elderly woman several times before persuading her to blow herself up at a bus station. She said it also took two weeks to recruit another woman who was a teacher and had problems with her husband and his family, according to the confession.

The new recruit eventually attacked members of government-backed Sunni groups in Diyala, Samira Jassim said.

BBC: major parties in European Parliament urge EU member states to accept Guantánamo detainees
The Christian Democrat, Socialist and Liberal blocs said they wanted states to accept prisoners who cannot be sent home for fear they might be mistreated.

"Europe cannot stand back and shrug its shoulders," said the Liberal bloc's leader, Graham Watson, during a debate...

Last week, EU foreign ministers said they wanted to help on humanitarian grounds, but could not act until the US demonstrated the prisoners did not pose a credible security risk.

Albania is the only country to have so far accepted Guantanamo detainees on humanitarian grounds, taking in five members of China's Uighur ethnic minority in 2006.

CSM: how will conditions change for Guantánamo detainees under Obama?
How conditions might change for the 245 detainees at Guantánamo is unclear, legal analysts say. Potential issues critics cite include use of solitary confinement, forced feeding of hunger strikers, access to books and religious materials, and communications with family members...

Not all detainees at Guantánamo are entitled to the full protections of the Geneva accords, legal experts note. Suspected war criminals or those charged with crimes can be held under more restrictive conditions, including solitary confinement. A detainee deemed a threat to others can be segregated.

What is less clear is whether most detainees are entitled to more social contact with their fellow prisoners.

NYT: Australia concludes largest terrorism trial in history, Muslim cleric sentenced to 15 years
The seven men were arrested in November 2005 after an undercover police operation found they were plotting to attack landmarks in their home city of Melbourne.

The men were convicted last September under legislation introduced in Australia following the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Victoria State Supreme Court sentenced Mr. [Abdul Nacer] Benbrika to 15 years in prison for intentionally directing the activities of a terrorist organization, seven years for intentionally being a member of a terrorist organization and five years for possessing a compact disc connected with the preparation of a terrorist act. He was the first person to be convicted of leading a terrorist group inside Australia.

BBC: newly elected Somali president asks for "military aid"
The president did not specify if he was talking about extra AU peacekeepers, a UN mission, or another force.

Somali foreign ministry permanent secretary official Mohammed Jama told the BBC the president had spoken to the AU about "extremists who will abuse the peace process". "We are asking the international community to assist," he added...

He was elected president last Friday as part of a UN-brokered plan to try to form a unity government and bring peace to Somalia for the first time since 1991. But the hardline Islamist militia al-Shabab, which took advantage of Ethiopia's pull-out to boost its control of the south, accuses him of selling out to the West.
CSM: election of moderate Islamist doesn't mean they can hold on to power
The Ethiopian peacekeepers have withdrawn from Somalia and the radical Islamist militia called Al Shabab is rapidly moving in to take control of the war-battered country.

Perhaps the only thing standing in Al Shabab's way is an unlikely enemy: an army of citizens and clerics who are fighting to preserve what's left of the Somalia that they have known for generations. Western experts call them moderate Islamists; they call themselves Ahlu Sunna wa Jamaa.

Compared with the highly trained, well-funded Al Shabab, which took the transitional capital of Baidoa last week, Ahlu Sunna is poorly armed, but popular. And although the moderate Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was elected president of Somalia by a transitional parliament last week, Ahlu Sunna knows that its time is running out.
NYT: roadside bomb explodes in Mogadishu, AU peacekeepers accused of killing civilians in response fire
At least 20 people were killed and dozens wounded after a roadside bomb exploded in Mogadishu on Monday and African Union forces fired back in response, Somali officials said.

The blast, which African Union officials said was a remotely detonated landmine, hit an African Union peacekeeper truck near one of the African Union bases in Mogadishu, Somalia’s war-ravaged capital.

How many people died and exactly what caused the deaths — the explosion or the African Union soldiers’ response or both — remained in dispute late Monday.
AP: al Shabab leader calls for holy war against peacekeepers

NYT: Sudanese government asks UN peacekeepers to leave rebel town in anticipation of military attack
The request, which represents a challenge to the United Nations’ effort to prevent fighting in Darfur, is the first time the Sudanese have asked international peacekeepers to vacate a specific place in the troubled region.

Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the United Nations mission, which is known as Unamid, said the request concerned the town of Muhajiriya in southern Darfur, with a population of about 30,000.

That is where Sudan wants to begin an offensive against rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement, a group that is known to have occasionally received Chadian support and that has held the town since mid-January, said Akuei Bona Malwal, Sudan’s ambassador to the African Union...

Ms. Guerrero said the peacekeeping force would like to remain in place.“Our mandate is to provide protection to civilians and we would like to continue doing that,” she said.
BBC: ...but they're not leaving

WP: joint Congo-Rwanda military operation could create "civilian bloodbath"
On paper, the Congolese-Rwandan operation aims to disarm an estimated 6,500 Rwandan Hutu militiamen who fled into eastern Congo after the 1994 Rwandan genocide and have wreaked havoc ever since.

The operation is part of the wide-ranging military, political and economic deal between Congo and Rwanda, which represents a significant rapprochement between the two countries and offers the prospect of finally sorting out a conflict that by some estimates has killed 5 million people over the past decade.

As part of the deal, Rwanda agreed to pull the plug on its proxy, rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, whose advance across eastern Congo last year displaced at least 250,000 people and posed a serious political threat to President Joseph Kabila.

Congo, in turn, agreed to allow Rwandan troops in to fight the Hutu militias, whose leaders allegedly participated in the genocide and are now entrenched in lucrative mining businesses in the east. Rwanda also has enormous economic interests in eastern Congo.

In villages across these green hills, however, there are signs that the joint operation will be messy and brutal. Human rights groups have warned that the operation could easily degenerate into a bloodbath for civilians...

CSM: militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta call off cease-fire

CSM: how to salvage a power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe

NYT: farmers riot, clash with police in Greek port city
The farmers sailed to the Greek mainland on Monday and tried to drive tractors and other farm vehicles to the capital to push demands for government aid and tax breaks following a harsh winter and a drop in commodity prices . Three people were injured in Monday’s clashes, and more farmers arrived in Piraeus on Tuesday to support the protest, news reports said.

In a separate episode on Tuesday, three hooded attackers fired shots and threw a hand grenade at a police station in a district of western Athens, the police said. No injuries were reported. The episode recalled events last month in which a riot policeman was shot and seriously wounded in central Athens in an attack blamed on a militant group called Revolutionary Struggle.

Social unrest is growing in Greece as the center-right government of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis struggles to restore its credibility after student riots in December.
BBC: Athens police station attacked
Investigators said they suspected the left-wing group Revolutionary Struggle was behind the pre-dawn attack. Last month, the group claimed it was responsible for shooting and seriously wounding a policeman in central Athens.

Revolutionary Struggle said it was a response to the fatal shooting of a teenager by police in December, which sparked the worst riots in Greece for decades.The policeman who shot 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos has been charged with murder.

A police spokesman said at least three assailants were involved in the attack on the police station in Korydallos. Two were armed with automatic weapons while the other threw the grenade.