Briefing

YEREVAN, ARMENIA Eight killed in protests against allegedly rigged election

JAMMU, INDIA Indian government cancels debt for nation's small farmers

WAGAH BORDER, PAKISTAN Accused Indian spy freed after 35 years in prison

BEIJING Opening ceremony of the National People's Congress

WOODINVILLE, WASH. Radical green group suspected of setting mansions ablaze

PRISONS

America Incarcerated

More than 1 out of every 100 U.S. adults is behind bars, according to a new Pew report. Violent crimes have dropped 25% since '87, but harsher sentencing for lesser crimes has caused overcrowding and fueled a thriving private-prisons industry. A look at who's doing time in the land of the free:

[The following descriptive text appears within a chart]

National prison population

Of every 100 inmates in prison or jail (91% male, 9% female)

1 in 9 black men age 20 to 34 are in prison

40.3 are black 1 in 36 Hispanic men age 18 or older are in prison

36.2 are white 1 in 100 black women age 35 to 39 are in prison

20.5 are Hispanic 1 in 106 white men age 18 or older are in prison

3.0 are other 1 in 355 white women age 35 to 39 are in prison

White and black categories exclude Hispanics and Latinos Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2006; Pew Public Safety Performance Project

EXPLAINER

Colombia Crisis

Colombia's U.S.-backed military crossed into Ecuador on March 1 and killed up to 24 guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)--including a leader, Raul Reyes (above). The incursion roiled an already tense neighborhood and prompted Ecuador and Venezuela to send troops to their borders with Colombia.

THE ACCUSATIONS Ecuador denounced the violation of its sovereignty, but Colombian officials countered by saying the raid yielded evidence that FARC had met with Ecuadoran officials--and that the group was trying to build radioactive dirty bombs.

WILL THERE BE WAR? Ecuador's President called the raid a "massacre," and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez added his own bombast about U.S. efforts to spark a regional conflict. But experts say Venezuela and Ecuador rely too much on trade with Colombia to start a war.

ECONOMICS

Loan Letdown

The Ivy League and Stanford have made news with free tuition for the middle class, but less noticed is the increasing loan trouble facing a much larger group of schools: community colleges.

THE BOTTOM LINE A shaky lending market has private loan companies rethinking whether investing in community-college students is too risky. More federally guaranteed loans could be key to helping this crucial student bloc get by.

DIPLOMACY This Place Is Big Enough for Both of Us After claims of election fraud fueled months of ethnic violence in Kenya, President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga have reached a power-sharing agreement. A look at other examples of enemies trying to rule together:

CONFLICT A decades-long clash between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland.

OUTCOME Peace. Last spring's power-sharing pact between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein has held up.

CONFLICT Apartheid laws that heavily oppressed the black majority in South Africa.

OUTCOME Peace. Blacks and whites formed a transitional government that led to multiracial elections in 1994.

CONFLICT Hostility between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Yasser Arafat's political party Fatah.

OUTCOME Violence. A 2007 accord ended when Hamas seized Gaza three months later.

CONFLICT Persistent intercommunal violence in Lebanon.

OUTCOME Crisis. A 1943 agreement apportions power according to ethnic identity, but the nation has lacked a President since November.