Hassan Hattab, founder of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC)—now dubbed "al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb," which has claimed responsibility for last week's deadly Algiers bombings—called on militants to put down their weapons under a government amnesty. Hattab made the comments in an open letter to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika published in the Echorouk daily. "I call on the militants to give up the fight," he wrote, accusing the organization of being "a small group that wants to transform Algeria into a second Iraq."

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), called on the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and Manila to abide by a 1996 agreement that was meant to end conflict in the southern Philippines. An ongoing battle over the past three days has killed 18 people, including a child, and displaced thousands. Government forces dropped 250-pound bombs and fired rockets into the base of MNLF commander Habier Malik near Panamao town on the southern island of Jolo over the weekend after he fired mortars on their headquarters on April 13, killing a child that lived nearby. (Reuters, April 16)

Venezuela is advocating regional integration at a two-day, 12-nation energy summit of South American leaders that opens April 16 on the Caribbean island of Margarita. "Gradually, the US empire will end up a paper tiger and we, the peoples of Latin America, will become true tigers of steel," President Hugo Chávez said on the eve of the summit. Chávez is expected to use the summit to promote his plan to build a 8,000-kilometer gas pipeline linking Venezuela to Brazil and Argentina.

A new Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, officially opened on March 19 by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Armenian President Robert Kocharian, is emerging as a source of speculation about regional energy alliances. A trip to Armenia by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili two days after the pipeline's opening has provided fuel for conjecture despite the official line that it was a ski vacation. Saakashvili's spokesmen admit he met with Kocharian and that talks touched on the pipeline.

Tens of thousands of people marched throughout Argentina on April 9 as part of a general strike called to protest the death of a teacher, Carlos Fuentealba, who died on April 5 in the southwestern province of Neuquen after being shot at close range with a tear gas canister. The country's teachers observed a total one-day strike called by the Confederation of Education Workers of the Argentina Republic (CTERA). The protests were backed by the two main labor confederations: the leftist Federation of Argentine Workers (CTA) and the General Confederation of Workers (CGT), associated with the Justicialist Party (PJ, Peronist). The CGT limited its general strike to one hour, from noon to 1 PM.

According to exit polls released after balloting ended, Ecuadorans voted overwhelmingly on April 15 to support President Rafael Correa's plan for a constituent assembly to write a new constitution. The exit polls conducted by the Cedatos-Gallup firm among 40,000 voters in 21 of the 22 provinces showed 78.1% approving the call for the constituent assembly, 11.5% rejecting it, 7.1% casting invalid ballots and 3.3% leaving their ballots blank. The firm said the poll had a 2% margin of error. About seven million of the country's 9.1 million eligible voters participated.

A Mauritanian court indicted six men on terrorism charges April 11—the same day al-Qaeda's North African wing claimed responsibility for two deadly blasts in Algeria. The six are said to belong to a local cell linked to "al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb," formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. Five of the six were charged with "belonging to a terrorist organization whose aim is undermining national security," said chief prosecutor Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Talhata. He said the cell, known as the Mauritanian Group for the Teaching of Jihad, is allied with the authors of the Algerian attack. Talhata said authorities had been tracking the men for three months when they arrested them two weeks ago in Nouakchott, the capital. They were caught with a cache of weapons, including Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

Chanting secularist slogans and waving Turkish flags, more than 300,000 from throughout Turkey rallied April 15 to discourage Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan from running for the presidency. The protesters marched to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern Turkish state.