The Moroccan media are making much of a report in Italy’s Corriere della Sera that Western Sahara guerillas are fighting for Qaddafi—as well as claims from the Tripoli regime that they are fighting against Qaddafi!
Dissident artist Ai Weiwei is being held incommunicado by Chinese authorities after posting a coded protest image to his website. The website remains online, but practically devoid of content—suggesting it has been heavily censored.
Japan raised the severity level of its nuclear crisis to seven—putting it on par with the Chernobyl disaster—as stricken reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex continue to release large amounts of radioactive substances.
French special forces aided in the capture of Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo, who apparently surrendered after French tanks moved in on his residence while it was surrounded by opposition leader Alassane Ouattara’s forces.
Berber refugees from Libya’s remote Western Mountains report atrocities by Moammar Qaddafi’s forces, including the shelling of homes, poisoning wells with petrol, and threatening women with rape.
Security forces and pro-government gunmen killed four protesters in Syria’s port city of Banias, as Egyptian protesters defied a military crackdown to again occupy Tahrir Square.
Thousands marched across Mexico to call for an end to drug-related violence after the slaying of the son of poet Javier Sicilia. The elder Sicilia issued a statement blasting both “politicians” and “criminals” for the atrocities.
Activists occupied the Mexican consulate in New York City to demand freedom for five indigenous Zapatista supporters in Chiapas they say were framed for defending their lands from “eco-tourism” developers.
In a series of raids, some 1,000 soldiers and national police troops evicted more than 3,000 Q’eqchi Maya campesinos from lands claimed by an agribusiness firm in the Polochic Valley of Alta Verapaz department, Guatemala.
Barack Obama and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos agreed to a deal on the Andean country’s labor conditions, clearing the way for the pending Free Trade Agreement.
The San José de Apartadó peace community in the Colombian region of Uraba has received an ultimatum from local paramilitary groups to leave the area or face extermination.
Ecuador’s government declared US ambassador Heather Hodges “persona non grata” and expelled her from the country in response to a cable released by the Wikileaks whistle-blower web site.
