Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in Casablanca close to the city's American Cultural Centre April 14—apparently causing no casualties other than themselves. (AlJazeera, April 14) After the blasts, the US consulate in Casablanca was ordered closed until further notice. (AKI, April 16) Police raided the city's Sidi Moumen suburb, an impoverished district of slums and shanty-towns, arresting the third brother of the two boys who blew themselves up. The boys' mother, Rashida al-Raidi, told AlJazeera: "My son is innocent. He is innocent. Shame on them [the police] for taking him away from us. He never left my side. And he is very young." (AlJazeera, April 15)

Hungary's Finance Minister János Kóka has presented a bill in Parliament to make the country an attractive route for transnational gas transport. The intended beneficiaries of the tax exemptions on gas transported across Hungary are the interests behind the planned Nabucco and Blue Stream pipelines, both slated to carry gas from Turkey to the EU. Nabucco is backed by a consortium headed by Austrian oil firm OMV and championed the EU, and would carry gas produced in Caspian Sea countries. The Blue Stream pipeline is a planned extension to an existing pipeline carrying Russian gas under the Black Sea to Turkey. György Gilyán, Government Commissioner for Eastern Economic Relations, said in an interview with daily Népszabadság, "it is in Hungary's interest to have as many transit gas pipelines cross its territory as possible." (Budapest Times, April 16)

Moqtada al-Sadr has pulled his faction out of the Iraqi government in protest of the continuing US presence in the country. Said Nassar al-Rubaie, head of the bloc: "Al-Sadr's ministers will withdraw immediately and give the six cabinet seats to the government." While relinquishing their cabinet seats, the Sadrists are expected to remain in parliament. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki says he sees no need to set a timetable for a US troop withdrawal, but his government is working to build up Iraq's security forces as quickly as possible so the US-led forces can leave. (AlJazeera, April 16)

Unregistered Afghan refugees face an uncertain future after the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) announced it will discontinue the repatriation program April 15, the same day that the Pakistani government had set as the deadline for all unregistered refugees to return home. Last year more than 2.15 million Afghan refugees received registration cards from the Pakistani government recognizing them as legally residing in Pakistan until December 2009. After this date, the Pakistani government says it will consider unregistered Afghans to be illegal immigrants, and that there will be no extension of the deadline.

A new Human Rights Watch report, "The Human Cost," accuses the Taliban, Hezb-e-Islami and other insurgent groups of war crimes in Afghanistan. Joanne Mariner, HRW's terrorism and counter-terrorism director, said in a statement: "Suicide bombings and other insurgent attacks have risen dramatically since 2005, with almost 700 civilians dying last year at the hands of the Taliban and other insurgent groups. The insurgents are increasingly committing war crimes, often by directly targeting civilians. Even when they're aiming at military targets, insurgent attacks are often so indiscriminate that Afghan civilians end up as the main victims." (AlJazeera, April 16)

Late at night on April 5, a permenant protest vigil (plantón) outside the government palace in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, was attacked without warning and borken up by the state police. The vigil, organized by the San Luis Potosí State Front of Social Movements and Organizations (FEMOS) had been ongoing for several days to demand a halt of mining operations by the company Mineria San Xavier. Pedro Rebolloso and several other protest leaders were arrested on what the organizers call false charges. (Colectivo Nuevo Huachichil via Enlace Zapatista, April 11; La Jornada San Luis, April 6) On April 15, some 30 organizations joined for a "mega-march" in the state capital to demand the release of the prisoners and a halt to the mining operations. (La Jornada San Luis, April 16)

On April 14, a group of gunmen opened fire with small arms on Rufino Juarez Hernandez, director of the Triqui Region Social Welfare Union (UBISORT) in Putla de Guerrero, Oaxaca. Hospitalized with a leg wound, Juarez named as intellectual author of the attack Heriberto Pazos Ortiz, director of the rival Triqui Movement for Unification and Struggle (MULT). MULT is linked to the Popular Unity Party (PUP), while UBISORT is linked to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). (La Jornada, April 15)

Hussein Aideed, a veteran Somali warlord who is now deputy prime minister of the transitional government, accused Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu of committing "genocide" since arriving in December. Ethiopia dismissed the comments as an absolute fabrication. Hundreds of residents have been killed and thousands forced to flee since Ethiopian troops arrived in the Somali capital at the transition government's invitation. Aideed, an influential leader of the Hawiye clan, many of whose members are joining the armed resistance. (BBC, April 13)