Israeli prison authorities stormed the cells of Palestinian prisoners, leaving 61 injured. The raid in Israel’s Nafha facility came after prisoners refused to submit to forcible DNA tests. The Palestinian Authority says the tests are illegal.
South Sudan accused Khartoum April 5 both of bombing an oil pipeline near the town of Heglig, in South Kordofan state, and of trying to build an “illegal” pipeline crossing the border towards the South’s oil fields.
In a move protested by rights groups, the US Department of Defense referred charges to a military commission against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged 9-11 conspirators being held at Guantánamo Bay.
Libya’s National Transitional Council refused a request from the International Criminal Court to hand over Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of the ex-dictator. Officials stated they will keep Saif al-Islam prisoner, and he will stand trial within the country.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) released the last 10 members of the security forces they were holding captive—but over 400 civilians remain held in the guerillas’ jungle camps, receiving less priority from the government.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) agreed to hear the case of Guantánamo Bay detainee and Algerian national Djamel Ameziane, who has been held at the facility for more than 10 years.
A day after Mali’s northern city of Timbuktu fell to Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), Ansar Dine, an Islamist faction that had been cooperating with the rebels, has reportedly seized control there.
Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission strongly condemned state and federal officials and police agents for their actions in an incident in the state of Guerrero that left three people dead.
Four Honduran campesinos were killed and 11 were wounded in an ambush in the northern department of Colón just three days after a similar attack in the same area left five soldiers wounded.
Some 1,500 indigenous campesinos arrived in Guatemala City after an eight-day, 214-km walk from Cobán to promote their demands for land, debt cancellation and a halt to mining operations.
Thousands of Chileans turned out in Santiago for the funeral of Daniel Zamudio, a young gay man killed by a group of neo-Nazis. Even the conservative Catholic bishops finally denounced the crime.
The Director of National Intelligence released a report warning that competition for increasingly scarce water in the next decade will fuel instability in the Middle East, South Asia and other strategic regions around the world.
