Hundreds of Syrian soldiers stormed the Damascus suburb of Saqba and rounded up residents, witnesses said. Syrian activists say at least 1,000 people have been arrested across the country over the past week.
At a meeting in Rome, the international Contact Group on Libya agreed to establish a fund that the rebels can access, ostensibly to provide services in their areas of control.
An explosion ripped through a military vehicle in the Yemeni town of Zinjibar, killing five soldiers, while four civilians died in the ensuing firefight—hours after an al-Qaeda leader vowed revenge for the killing of bin Laden.
As momentum builds for the May 8 protest against violence and impunity in Mexico, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) announced its support for the movement started by poet Javier Sicilia.
Osama bin Laden was apparently killed in a US Special Forces raid on a mansion in Abbottabad, a military garrison town just 100 kilometers outside Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, and supposed nerve-center of the counter-insurgency.
As nearly 300 bodies were unearthed from clandestine graves in the northern Mexican states of Durango and Tamaulipas, human rights activists were accosted by naval troops in the military-occupied border city of Matamoros.
President Yoweri Museveni has ordered the Uganda Communication Commission to shut down all social networking sites, fearing they will be used as a tool for organizing protests following deadly unrest in Kampala.
Qaddafi forces resumed shelling of the rebel-held Libyan port of Misrata, as the besieged dictator went on TV both to offer a ceasefire and warn NATO against a ground invasion: “Either freedom or death. No surrender.”
Israeli tank fire wounded several people near the central Gaza Strip’s al-Bureij refugee camp as Hamas chief Khaled Masha’al prepares to meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo next week to sign a unity deal.
A deadly Marrakesh bomb blast attributed to al-Qaeda came days after thousands of Moroccans marched nationwide to demand sweeping reforms before a new constitution is unveiled in June by King Mohammed VI.
Syrian army units clashed with each other in Daraa following President Assad’s orders to crack down on protesters. Some 50 were shot dead as tens of thousands took part in “day of rage” protests in Daraa and other cities.
The Bolivian Sentate’s Commission on Natural Resources and Environment announced introduction of a Law of Mother Earth, which would officially enshrine the “rights of nature” in the Andean nation’s legal code.
