Army harassment is reported at both of the ecological reserves recently declared by the Zapatista rebels at opposite ends of Mexico—one at Cerro Huitepec in the southern Chiapas Highlands; the other at El Mayor, Baja California, just south of the US border. In both cases, Mexican and international volunteers have established "peace camps" in support of the local indigenous peoples seeking to reclaim their rights to sustainable use of the lands. In Chiapas, the local Fray Bartoleme de Las Casas Human Rights Center issued a statement protesting incursions into the Cerro Huitepec reserve by army vehicles. (La Jornada, April 7)

Human Rights Watch April 5 denounced the ongoing impunity for perpetrators of rights violations during the "dirty war" against leftists in Mexico of the 1960s and '70s. HRW said the results obtained by the special prosecutor's office on the repression, created under President Vicente Fox and declared over when his term ended last year, were "deeply disappointing." The statement said that impunity continues for those responsible for more than 600 disappearances, as well as the student massacres of Oct. 2, 1968 and June 10, 1971.

A fierce battle in the Sunni-dominated Fadhil and Sheikh Omar neighborhoods of central Baghdad April 10 left four Iraqi soldiers dead, 16 US soldiers wounded and a US helicopter damaged by ground fire. In the midst of the battle, a rocket slammed into a schoolyard basketball court, killing a six-year-old boy. The Association of Muslim Scholars issued a statement quoting witnesses as saying that the battle began after Iraqi government troops entered a mosque and executed two young men in front of other worshipers.

Here's a glimmer of hope from Eritrea—and how does it square the widespread reports that the Eritrean regime is backing the Islamist insurgents in Somalia? An April 8 report on SomaliNet states: "The Eritrean government has with immediate effect banned female circumcision; a brief statement posted on the Eritrean government website on Thursday said anyone who requests, takes part in or promotes the practice faces a fine or jail sentence."

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a report, "Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability," finding that warmer global temperatures are causing profound changes in many of the earth's natural systems and warning of mass extinctions, desertification and threats to food security. (Science Daily, April 8) In one dire warning, the report found that New Zealand is likely to face waves of refugees over the next century as Pacific islands disappear beneath the waves and off-the-scale cyclones ravage the region. (PacNews, April 11)

The Geeska Africa Online news service, reporting from Nairobi April 10, quoted Jendayi Frazer, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, accusing Eritrea of backing the Islamist insurgents in Somalia. "No insurgency group can survive without support from neighboring countries, certainly Eritrea is the country of greatest concern," Frazer said. She added that while the "global jihadist network" is also supporting the Shabaab insurgents, Eritrea will do "anything that will hurt" its southern neighbor. "This is very much aimed at Ethiopia," she said.

From iWire, April 10:

Google has joined forces with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to create a visual record of the attrocities that began in the Darfur region of Sudan in 2003. The Crisis in Darfur project has assembled photographs, data and eyewitness testimony—from a number of sources that are brought together for the first time in Google Earth.

Halliburton announced April 9 all of the commitments of its subsidiary working in Iran have been completed and it no longer has operations in the country. In January 2005, the company announced it would not accept new contracts in Iran but would complete its existing projects there. Halliburton maintains its operations in Iran, handled through a Dubai office, were legal because they were isolated from the US operations and management. (Kuwait Times, April 10)