WASHINGTON – Thousands of protesters — many directing their anger squarely at President Barack Obama — marched through the nation’s capital Saturday to urge immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

At least eight people, including activist Cindy Sheehan, were arrested by U.S. Park Police at the end of the march, after laying coffins at a fence outside the White House. Friday marked the seventh anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

“Arrest that war criminal!” Sheehan shouted outside the White House before her arrest, referring to Obama.

At a rally before the march, Sheehan asked whether “the honeymoon was over with that war criminal in the White House” — an apparent reference to Obama — prompting moderate applause.

The protesters defied orders to clear the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House and park police say they face charges of failure to obey a lawful order.

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JOHANNESBURG – A half century ago, police officers massacred 69 black South Africans in the township of Sharpeville, where protesters had burned the passbooks that the white-led apartheid government required them to carry at all times.

But survivors of the massacre here are tired of telling their stories: They are wondering when the change they thought they were fighting for 50 years ago will come to Sharpeville.

Residents in recent weeks have set fire to tires in the streets to protest the lack of basic city services such as electricity and running water.

“Our lives started changing with Nelson Mandela’s release, but people are still financially struggling and finance is still in white people’s hands,” said Abram Mofokeng, who was just 21 when officers opened fire on the protesters, shooting demonstrators including women and children as they ran away. Mofokeng still bears the scar where a bullet entered his back.

Local residents say that Sunday’s 50th anniversary of the massacre will be calm, despite concerns that commemoration activities could be interrupted with demonstrations.

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MEXICO CITY – More Americans in Mexico are falling victim to a wave of drug violence sweeping the country, a change driven home by the recent killing of a U.S. Consulate employee and her husband who were gunned down after leaving a children’s birthday party.

The number of U.S. citizens killed in Mexico has more than doubled to 79 in 2009 from 35 in 2007, according to the U.S. State Department’s annual count. No figures were available for the first two months of 2010.

While only some of the killings are specifically listed as “executions” or “drug-related,” the increase in homicides appears to be related to drug battles. In Ciudad Juarez, the northern border city hardest hit by drug violence and where the consulate employee was killed, homicides of Americans rose to 23 in 2009 from two in 2007.

The annual murder rate for the estimated 500,000 American citizens in Mexico at any one time has risen — but still remains lower than in some U.S. cities: about 15 per 100,000. Baltimore’s 2009 homicide rate was 37 per 100,000 residents.

American deaths make up only a tiny fraction of Mexico’s 17,900 drug-related killings since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon launched a military-led drug war.

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SAN FRANCISCO – Open government in the heart of Silicon Valley is starting to mean turn off, tune out, power down.

When the San Jose City Council meets just miles from the Apple and Google campuses, its members shut down all portable electronic devices, as though they were in a theater. If they’re on and they get a text or e-mail from a lobbyist or anyone discussing city business, they must say so right then and there.

Experts say San Jose’s policy is a model for open government in the digital age. Other cities and state legislatures are adopting their own rules at a time when officials are increasingly fielding requests for lawmakers’ cellphone records, e-mails and text messages.

“Essentially what we’ve said is a public record is a public record,” San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said, “no matter where it exists.”

More than half of the legislative chambers in the states restrict the use of electronic devices in some form, including dozens that prohibit the use of cell phones on the floor, according to the National Council of State Legislatures.

In California, the new Assembly Speaker, John Perez, D-Los Angeles, is trying to impose a ban on texting from lobbyists to lawmakers on the floor or in committee. The state Senate already requests that its members not use personal cell phones and electronic devices during meetings.

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