Peace

On some days, former Colombian rebel Wilmar Quintero says, he feels like a research monkey. He recently spent his morning taking "psycho-social" tests, sitting through an hourlong accounting course and meeting with victims of this country's endemic violence at the Peace and Reconciliation Program training center in Medellin. But he's not complaining.

On Saturday afternoon, under a cloudless sky, dozens of youths from several nonprofit organizations gathered at the Villa-Parke Community Center in Pasadena to demonstrate for peace and honor Cesar Chavez. The young demonstrators began their march through narrow residential streets, passing houses with well-kept lawns, calling out for peace and an end to violence.

In a sun-drenched valley of central Kenya, a few dozen villagers gather each Saturday to sit under the trees and conduct the painstaking work of reconciliation that their government leaders seem happy to avoid. These traumatized victims of Kenya's post-election clashes meet to talk, pray, sing and -- they hope -- heal.

North Korea's vow to abandon all peace agreements with Seoul drew a mild response from South Korea's president, who continued to express optimism that the rivals could hold negotiations soon. President Lee Myung-bak dismissed the North's claim that his government's tougher policies were pushing the divided peninsula toward armed conflict.

As the Sri Lankan military tightens the noose around Tamil Tiger guerrillas, squeezing them into an increasingly tight pocket on the island's northeast coast, the government appears closer to winning the war than at almost any time since fighting began a quarter-century ago. Yet after the battle ends, it may prove nearly as difficult to win the peace, according to some analysts.