An estimated two million people took part in coordinated demonstrations in more than 140 US cities on April 10, a National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice demanding legalization and other rights for out-of-status immigrants. Organizers scheduled the protests for a Monday during congressional recess so elected officials would be in their home districts to witness them. Hundreds of thousands more marched on the previous day, April 9. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Los Angeles Times, April 11)

Received by e-mail from UK Pledge of Resistance:

SUPPORT MALCOLM KENDALL SMITH
Yesterday, Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a Flight Lieutenant with the RAF was jailed for 8 months for refusing to go to Iraq on the grounds that the war was illegal.

Somebody please wake us when this madness is over. From the New York Times, April 15:

Jazz Lover Fiddling With Bass Causes Bomb Scare on East Side
The easy listening habits of Grantley Richards met with a large police response early yesterday, shutting several Manhattan blocks and causing a brief panic.

We recently argued that the planned NATO intervention in Darfur has more to do with securing the oil resources of neighboring Chad for Exxon than with saving lives in Darfur. Yeah we know, us leftists and our conspiracy theories. But all we do is read the newspapers, honest. First, from Reuters, April 16:

Chad says to stop oil output if no WB deal

N’DJAMENA: Chad will stop its oil production from Tuesday unless it reaches an agreement with the World Bank to end a dispute over the use of oil revenues, a government minister said on Friday.

As in recent similar cases in Bangkok and Nazareth, the attacks on religious targets in Alexandria are being dismissed as the work of a "mentally disturbed" loner. Could be (although note that in this case there were three near-simultaneous attacks). But (as we argued before) even the choice of targets by the proverbial lone nut reflects a general zeitgeist—and the response to the attacks is assuredly political. "Fanatics"? Certainly. But why are there so many fanatics in the world these days? (They are, of course, asking the same question in Delhi right now.) From AP, April 15:

Is forgotten Mongolia about to enter the global stage? Suddenly civil unrest breaks out in the capital, Ulan Bator, with a struggle over mineral resources in the background. Dare we hope that the anti-government protesters represent an indigenous ecological movement and not (or at least not yet) mere pawns of Washington, Moscow or Beijing? From AP, April 11:

ULAN BATOR - Thousands of protesters from rival civic groups faced off in Mongolia's capital on Tuesday, as hundreds of police intervened to prevent minor scuffles from escalating.

More than a year after Kyrgyzstan's "Tulip Revolution," the supposed democratic renewal isn't looking too good, is it? President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, so recently a revolutionary leader, now warns against "lawlessness and anarchy" like a good despot. But is he Washington's son of a bitch now? Or are the neocons planning yet another revolution, deeming him insufficiently compliant? From Reuters, April 14:

From Gulf News, United Arab Emirates, via TMCNet, April 15:

New Delhi: Delhi was put under red alert after two low-intensity blasts rocked the historic Jama Masjid yesterday.