More than a hundred protesters gathered outside the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) on April 15, with banners reading "No Nukes" and "Nuclear Kills All Life." Demonstrators demanded a halt to Japan's nuclear development plans, as well as protesting the compensation package announced by TEPCO to those affected by the Fukushima disaster—$12,000 to families of two or more members and $9,000 for people living alone. (NTD TV, April 15) The protest came as the government admitted the area around Fukushima could be uninhabitable for nearly a generation. Kenichi Matsumoto, an aide to Prim Minister Naoto Kan, said (in a classically Orwellian construction) that the contamination will "momentarily"* bar the area's human habitability for between "10 and 20 years." (AGI, April 13)

Magharebia, news organization of the Pentagon's Africa Command, reports April 14 on the siege of Misrata, where Qaddafi forces are shelling the city with Grad rockets and infiltrating snipers across rooftops. Twenty children have been killed in the last two weeks, according to UNICEF, prompting the organization to call for a ceasefire and "an immediate end to the siege of Misrata." Thousands of foreign workers are apparently desperate to flee the city. A Qatari vessel evacuated some Egyptian workers to Alexandria "where they told stories of the bombardment by pro-Kadhafi forces," Magharebia states. We have no particular reason to doubt this, but it is important to note that foreign workers in Libya have been attacked by both sides.

The Moroccan media are making much of a report in Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper on March 29 that veteran Polisario guerillas from Morocco-occupied Western Sahara are fighting for Qaddafi in Libya. According to the report: "The regime of Colonel Qaddafi has kept, in the town of Sabha, a reserve of men and material in a base where the new African recruits from the Polisario guerrillas are arriving." Seemingly blind to the self-contradiction, a report on Morocco Board leads with the Corriere della Sera claim ("Mercenaries from the Western Sahara Separatists Polisario Group have been recruited by the Libyan regime")—and then goes on cite elements of the Tripoli regime who charge that the Western Sahara guerillas are fighting against Qaddafi! Former Libyan minister Errishi Ali is quoted as saying that "the western Sahara Separatists Polisario mercenaries were among those that have infiltrated Libya to spread terror and counter the Libyan revolution." Ali said that he was "deeply disappointed and saddened by the hypocrisy of the Western Sahara Separatist Polisario group mercenaries who are taking part in such a vicious and destructive enterprise, while they claim to be freedom fighters."

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei was detained at Beijing airport while attempting to board a flight to Hong Kong on April 3. The artist's wife, assistants, friends, family members and associates were also subsequently detained and interrogated. But Ai himself continues to be held at unknown location. China's Foreign Ministry said only that he is being investigated for unspecified "economic crimes" and that his detention has "nothing to do with human rights or freedom of expression." The detention has nonetheless sparked global protests. In London, supporters gathered at the Tate Modern museum on April 11, and climbed into Ai's "Sunflower Seeds" installation—an exhibit of 136 tons of hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds—and scattered posters bearing the message: "Free Ai Weiwei." (CBC, April 11)

AlJazeera on April 9 reports from a refugee camp in Tunisia, where African migrants who have fled Libya tell both of being threatened and expelled from the country by rebel forces—and being press-ganged by Qaddafi's military and forced to fight under pain of deportation. The interviewed migrants are from Nigeria, Niger, Mali and Ghana. One worker from Ghana said he was abducted by the Libyan military when soldiers stormed his house in Sirte: "They asked us why we were trying to leave the country and that we must stay to fight for when the Americans come." Some of the interviewed migrants had deserted Qaddafi's forces, while others were forced to flee by rebels under accusation of being Qaddafi collaborators.

A magnitude 7.4 aftershock hit northeastern Japan April 7—raising fears of a deepening of the crisis at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) reported no serious incidents as a result of the aftershock. But Ed Lyman, a nuclear safety expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists told the LA Times' Ecocentric blog: "The damage that has been done to date by the earthquake and tsunami has degraded the plant's ability to withstand ground motion, so you have more chance of a containment breach with the next earthquake. The conditions at the plant are so fragile, it can't really stand many more challenges."

The Independent reports April 3 eye-witness accounts that "Military and diplomatic operatives from the US and Western Europe—usually described as experts, consultants and advisers—turned up in the rebel capital, Benghazi. These include UK personnel, among them a former Royal Navy officer who had recently served as a diplomat in Afghanistan. He said he was in Libya as a consultant to the opposition administration." The word comes as Reuters reports that Tripoli has dispatched deputy foreign minister Abdelati Obeidi to Athens in a diplomatic initiative to end the conflict.

After backing off at last year's 9-11 anniversary, the wacky extremoid Christian fundi Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida, apparently followed through on his threat to burn a Koran on March 20. This prompted wacky extremoid Muslim fundis in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, to storm a UN compound, killing as many as 20 employees and setting fire to several buildings today. (CSM, April 1) We really wish this was an April Fool's joke, but we don't think so.