According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), refugee flows from Iraq are placing a considerable strain on neighboring countries, such as Syria and Jordan. Syria, for instance, has received roughly 1.2 million Iraqis fleeing the instability in their homeland which ensued following the US-led invasion, while a further 800,000 reside in Jordan. In the case of the latter, there is the fear, according to UNHCR's regional representative Stephane Jaquemet, "that the number is growing and that the balance between the local population and the refugee community is now quite shaky." A UNHCR conference to be held next week in Geneva is set to focus on the humanitarian requirements for the 2 million Iraqis who have been translocated by hostilities in Iraq, along with the further 1.9 million internally displaced persons. [Reuters, April 13]

Exiled Russian multi-millionaire Boris Berezovsky has disclosed that he intends to instigate a coup in the Kremlin to oust President Putin. Based in Britain, he is said to have forged close ties with, as well as have bankrolled, Russian political elites close to Putin. "It isn't possible to change this regime through democratic means," he remarked, lambasting Putin for having unstitched democratic reforms, violated the country's constitution, suffocated political opposition and monopolised the reins of power. Dmitry Peskov, the chief spokesperson for the Kremlin, last night described this proclamation as a criminal offence under Russian legislation. He also hastened that such a statement might serve to undermine Berezovsky's claim to asylum in Britain. [The Guardian, April 13]

Canada's Canoro Resources has signed an agreement with India's parastatal Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) to explore for crude in the jungles of Nagaland, a state in the country's remote northeast, where large swaths of territory have been controlled by separatist guerillas for decades. Nagaland Industry & Commerce Minister Khekhiho Zhimomi said the predominantly Christian state of two million has the potential to yield some 600 million tons of crude. "Nagaland is literally sitting on a multi-million dollar oil reserve," Zhimomi said. Exploration work undertaken by ONGC in 1994 was suspended following threats from the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM). This time Zhimomi says things will be different: "We have the full support of the local people this time while executing the agreement with the ONGC. We hope there should be no problems now."

Iran's Fars News Agency reported April 10 that the US nuclear submarine Newport News polluted the Persian Gulf waters with radioactive and chemical materials after it collided with a Japanese super-tanker, and was forced to leave the Gulf following strong protests by Iranian officials. The Newport News, accompanying the USS Eisenhower, sustained heavy damages when it collided with the Japanese tanker Mogamigava east of Hormuz Strait on Jan. 8, according to Fars. The report also said the ship's captain Mathew Vinegar was dismissed as a result of the accident. According to an April 12 report in the UAE's Gulf News, the US Navy has denied the claims.

A bomb blast tore through a busy market in the town of Yala in southern Thailand April 12, injuring 11 people. The attack happened amid a protest held by mourners after the funeral of Buddhist woman, Patcharapom Busamad, who was shot dead and then set on fire April 11. Police say Islamist insurgents, who have been blamed for over 2,000 deaths in the last three years, were behind this attack as well as the April 11 shooting. A second bomb near the scene was safely defused. Some 200 residents paraded the charred remains of Patcharapom Busamad through the streets of Yala to protest the escalating violence. The villagers wrapped her body in white cloth and placed it outside a government building where Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, head of the Thai junta, was meeting with local leaders.

An explosion has hit the lunchtime cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament building, located in the “Green Zone” stronghold of Baghdad [April 12]. It is thought to have injured several members of parliament and employees. The al-Sarafiya bridge in Baghdad, connecting the two northern neighbourhoods of Waziriyah (predominantly Sunni) and Utafiyah (largely Shia), has been severely damaged by a bomb blast, killing at least 8 and injuring 26 people.

Representantives of dozens of ejidos (agricultural collectives) in the northern zone of Mexico's Chiapas state issued a statement denouncing the approval of illegal sales of collective lands. The protesters, mostly Chol Maya from the municipalities of Tila and Salto de Agua, acused the federal Certification Program for Eijdo Rights and Land Titles (PROCEDE) of skirting regulations by approving sales which had not been agreed upon by all collective members, as required by law. The statement said the illegal sales have "left entire families without their patrimony."

The president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH), Florentín Menéndez, was in Mexico April 11 to meet with officials from the federal Government Secretariat. Menéndez urged officials to seek a solution to the ongoing teachers' strike in the conflicted southern state of Oaxaca. (El Universal, April 11) The meeting came days after the Government Secretariat had declared the Oaxaca crisis over. Florentino López Martínez, spokesman for the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) said the Secretariat was "gravely mistaken." He accused the government of trying to avoid sitting at the dialogue table with APPO, and pledged "the movement and the strugggle have not ended." (La Jornada, April 7)