A criminal complaint has been filed in the Mexican border city of Matamoros against Luz María González Armenta, leader of Defense and Promotion of Human Rights-Emiliano Zapata (DEPRODHEZAC), weeks after she was detained at a political protest. González was arrested March 30 at a vigil outside the municipal presidency office demanding the return alive of a local youth who has been "disappeared" since late January. She was freed after ten hours, but on April 19 Matamoros Juridical Sub-Director Moisés Araujo Olmos submitted a formal complaint to the Tamaulipas state prosecutor accusing González of making death threats against him and calling for criminal charges. The complaint notes that González is a local organizer of the Zapatista rebels' "Other Campaign" civil initiative and its "Sixth Commission" organizing body, charging that "these groups have contact with arms, death, and are dedicated to any dangerous situation." It further charges that she is involved in "delinquency and drugs." González, for her part, has filed charges accusing Araujo Olmos of abuse of authority. (Special to WW4R)

Mark Kurlansky writes for the Los Angeles Times, April 26:

Seventy years ago, on April 26, 1937, at 4:40 in the afternoon when the stone-walled, medieval Basque town of Guernica was packed with peasants, shoppers and refugees for its Monday afternoon market along the riverfront, a church bell rang out. The townspeople had heard the warning before. It meant that enemy planes were approaching.

Afghanistan's parliament is poised to pass a new media law considerably reducing freedom of the press. The controversial package—proposed by the religious and cultural affairs commission of the parliament, chaired by former warlord Haji Mohammed Mohaqeq and supported by the government—will bring both private and state media under greater government control. Proposed changes include an oversight committee to will scrutinize the press for "un-Islamic" content. Complaints concerning media content will be referred directly to the supreme court, a conservative bastion.

Journalists in Iraq's Kurdistan face arrest and harassment for reporting on government corruption and poor public services, the UN says in a new report on the autonomous region. The report also criticises Kurdish officials for failing to respond to growing cases of "honor killings" and other violence against women, and charges that hundreds of detainees in Kurdish prisons are held without charge.

Defying President Bush's veto threat, the House of Representatives April 25 narrowly approved a war funds bill that sets a timeline for the withdrawal of all US combat troops from Iraq by March 31, 2008. "Tonight, the House of Representatives voted for failure in Iraq and the president will veto its bill," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) said it was "ironic" that Bush will be sent the bill on May 1, the fourth anniversary of the president's speech aboard a US aircraft carrier emblazoned with a banner claiming "mission accomplished" in Iraq. Said House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio: "We can walk out of Iraq, just like we did in Lebanon, just like we did in Vietnam, just like we did in Somalia and we will leave chaos in our wake." (Reuters, April 26) He may be right. But the alternative may be staying—presiding over, and contributing to chaos.

The following account makes it sound like the the litigants were whining and frivolous, just looking for a cynical buck. But a photo caption accompanying the story in the Denver Post read: "Protesters display a photo of a sick child whose disease believed to have been caused by pollution from the Newmont mining during a demonstration against the mining company outside a court in Manado, 24 April 2007." From the AP, April 24:

April 24 marks the 92nd anniversary of the start of the Armenian genocide, and Armenians worldwide commemorated the "First Genocide of the 20th Century" with solemn religious and civil ceremonies. However, little more than a week before the anniversary, the United Nations dismantled an exhibit on the Rwandan genocide and postponed its scheduled opening by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon—in response to objections from the Turkish mission to the exhibit's references to the Armenian genocide, which Turkey denies happened.

Ogaden National Liberation Front guerillas stormed a Chinese-run oil field at dawn April 24 in eastern Ethiopia, killing 74 workers, abducting seven others and destroying the facility, the guerrilla group and government officials said. The rebel group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to the AP, saying it had launched "military operations against units of the Ethiopian armed forces guarding an oil exploration site." The statement boasted the rebels had "wiped out" three Ethiopian military units. It warned all international oil companies not to operate in the region.