Some 25 Islamist militants calling themselves the “Taliban” have been killed in an army offensive near the northern city of Kano, Nigeria. Militants took an area of the city after attacking a police station on April 17. Nine Islamists have… Read moreNigeria: army clashes with “Taliban”
A farmer in southwest China killed a village leader in a suicide bombing that also seriously injured nine other local officials following a land dispute April 15. Yue Xiaobao detonated explosives strapped to his body as he approached officials from… Read moreChina: suicide bombing over land dispute
Three people were killed April 18 in an attack on a Turkish publishing house which prints Bibles and Christian literature, according to media reports. CNN Turk television said the victims’ throats were cut and that police had detained six people… Read moreTurkey: deadly attack on Christian publishing house
Violence between the Philippine army and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) continues in the southern region of Mindanao. Clashes with the 2,000-strong MNLF have left 21 dead and displaced 50,000 people. [AlJazeera, April 18] A suspected motorcycle blast has… Read morePhilippines: 50,000 displaced in Mindanao fighting
US officials in Afghanistan claim to have intercepted arms sent from Iran to the Taliban. The Bush administration had earlier accused Iran of abetting Shia death squads in Iraq, and more recently claiming that Tehran was backing both Sunni and… Read moreUS: Iran supports Taliban
Over 150 people have been killed [April 18] in a series of blasts in Baghdad, with at least 115 dying in a bombing at a food market in the [Shi’ite] district of Sadriya. The other major incident was an attack… Read moreBaghdad carnage grinds on —despite official optimism
The massacre of at least 32 students at Virginia Tech university April 16—apparently by a South Korea-born English major, Cho Seung-Hui—is the worst such incident in US history. Many commentators point out, of course, that it came a few days… Read moreThe Virginia Tech massacre and Hitler’s shadow
An investigation that has already exposed links between government officials and illegal paramilitary groups in six of Colombia’s coastal departments has now reached the home department of President Álvaro Uribe, focusing on his administration’s politically powerful allies. Colombia’s Supreme Court,… Read moreColombia: para probe hits Uribe’s home turf
The national human rights group CODHES [Council on Human Rights and Displacement] reports that more than 15,000 Colombians were displaced from their homes during the first one hundred days of 2007. The primary cause of this forced exodus has been… Read moreColombia: more than 15,000 displaced in 2007 —so far
From the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), April 15: IFC Launches an International Campaign to Free the Iraqi Detainees Being Held In the U.S. Camps in Iraq As a result of the new Bush security plan in Iraq, hundreds of people… Read moreIraq: civil resistance campaign to free detainees
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres, has appealed to the international community for “genuine solidarity and unstinting aid to displaced Iraqis and to the states housing them.” Nearly 4 million Iraqis have been forced from their homes… Read moreIraq’s refugees: up to 4 million?
Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the group the Islamic State of Iraq, has described Iraq as “the university of terrorism.” According to al-Baghdadi, his al-Qaeda-associated group has used the war in Iraq as a training ground for jihadists, commenting that the… Read moreIraq: “university of terrorism”
