Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, is reported to have been killed in an “internal battle” between militants in northern Baghdad, the Iraqi interior ministry has disclosed. United States officials have long speculated about rising tensions between… Read moreIraq: Abu Ayyub al-Masri dead?
A US-led raid on a suspected militant cell in Bati Kot district, Nangarhar province, killed as many as six Afghans April 30, including a woman and a teenage girl, sparking protests by hundreds of angry Afghans chanting “Death to Bush!”… Read moreAfghanistan: US kills civilians —again
Over the past weeks, Somalia has seen the worst fighting since the fall of the Said Barre dictatorship in 1991, leaving some 350,000 displaced from the capital, Mogadishu. (BBC, April 27) Our April issue featured the story “Somalia: the New… Read moreOur readers write: US intervention in Somalia —and Yemen
It has received no international coverage, but a BBC Monitoring translation of an April 28 report from the Madagascar Tribune indicates as explosion of ethnic violence in the African island nation over the weekend. What began as a street protest… Read moreEthnic violence in Madagascar
Legislators in Mexico’s Federal District (DF, Mexico City) voted 46-19 with one abstention on April 24 in favor of a law decriminalizing abortion in the DF during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The law also requires the DF government… Read moreMexico: Federal District decriminalizes abortion
On April 1 the community of Nuevo Carrizalillo, in Eduardo Neri municipality in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, signed a 22-point agreement with Salvador Garcia Ledesma, general operations director of the Luismin mining company, to end a blockade the… Read moreGuerrero: GoldCorp mine dispute settled
Tens of thousands of people marched on April 29 from Gualeguaychu, in the Argentine province of Entre Rios, to the international bridge that crosses the Uruguay river to protest a pulp plant under construction in Fray Bentos, on the Uruguayan… Read moreArgentina: thousands protest Uruguay pulp mill
On April 18, some 30 police agents accompanied by armed civilians detained and beat up five campesinos in the Paraguayan community of Paraguai Pyahu, in Guajayvi district of San Pedro department. Led by Menelio Orue, chief of the local police… Read moreParaguay: campesinos attacked, tortured
Abd al-Malik al-Houthi, the Shi’ite rebel leader in Yemen, speaking to reporters in the northern city of Saada, accused government forces of “genocide” in their campaign against the insurgents: “Cities and villages are being subjected nowadays to the most dreadful… Read moreYemen: Shi’ite rebels charge “genocide”
Afghan and Pakistani presidents Hamid Karzai and Pervez Musharraf met in Ankara [April 30] to publicly bury the hatchet under the supervision of Turkish president Ahmet Necdet Sezer. Karzai and Musharraf have engaged in a war of words in recent… Read moreKarzai and Musharraf meet —amid growing violence
Syria has built a secret fortified complex buried deep underground to manufacture and store ballistic missiles capable of striking Israel, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot quoted “foreign experts” as saying April 30. The complex supposedly includes 30 reinforced concrete bunkers,… Read moreSyria: fortified missile city?
Unknown assailants tossed a hand grenade and fired 17 rounds with a semi-automatic weapon into a police station in Athens April 30, damaging police cars and civilian vehicles but causing no casualties. A police official said: “It appears to be… Read moreGreece: anarchists attack?
