Iran's Fars News Agency reported April 10 that the US nuclear submarine Newport News polluted the Persian Gulf waters with radioactive and chemical materials after it collided with a Japanese super-tanker, and was forced to leave the Gulf following strong protests by Iranian officials. The Newport News, accompanying the USS Eisenhower, sustained heavy damages when it collided with the Japanese tanker Mogamigava east of Hormuz Strait on Jan. 8, according to Fars. The report also said the ship's captain Mathew Vinegar was dismissed as a result of the accident. According to an April 12 report in the UAE's Gulf News, the US Navy has denied the claims.

A bomb blast tore through a busy market in the town of Yala in southern Thailand April 12, injuring 11 people. The attack happened amid a protest held by mourners after the funeral of Buddhist woman, Patcharapom Busamad, who was shot dead and then set on fire April 11. Police say Islamist insurgents, who have been blamed for over 2,000 deaths in the last three years, were behind this attack as well as the April 11 shooting. A second bomb near the scene was safely defused. Some 200 residents paraded the charred remains of Patcharapom Busamad through the streets of Yala to protest the escalating violence. The villagers wrapped her body in white cloth and placed it outside a government building where Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, head of the Thai junta, was meeting with local leaders.

An explosion has hit the lunchtime cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament building, located in the “Green Zone” stronghold of Baghdad [April 12]. It is thought to have injured several members of parliament and employees. The al-Sarafiya bridge in Baghdad, connecting the two northern neighbourhoods of Waziriyah (predominantly Sunni) and Utafiyah (largely Shia), has been severely damaged by a bomb blast, killing at least 8 and injuring 26 people.

Representantives of dozens of ejidos (agricultural collectives) in the northern zone of Mexico's Chiapas state issued a statement denouncing the approval of illegal sales of collective lands. The protesters, mostly Chol Maya from the municipalities of Tila and Salto de Agua, acused the federal Certification Program for Eijdo Rights and Land Titles (PROCEDE) of skirting regulations by approving sales which had not been agreed upon by all collective members, as required by law. The statement said the illegal sales have "left entire families without their patrimony."

The president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH), Florentín Menéndez, was in Mexico April 11 to meet with officials from the federal Government Secretariat. Menéndez urged officials to seek a solution to the ongoing teachers' strike in the conflicted southern state of Oaxaca. (El Universal, April 11) The meeting came days after the Government Secretariat had declared the Oaxaca crisis over. Florentino López Martínez, spokesman for the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) said the Secretariat was "gravely mistaken." He accused the government of trying to avoid sitting at the dialogue table with APPO, and pledged "the movement and the strugggle have not ended." (La Jornada, April 7)

Mexico, Colombia and seven Central American nations held a 24-hour summit April 10 in Campeche, issuing a nine-point plan for revitalizing the regional development alliance known as the Puebla-Panama Plan (PPP). Joining Mexico's President Felipe Calderon were the presidents of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia, and the prime minister of Belize. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was represented by his vice-president, Jaime Moreno. "Latin American integration is not a dream," President Calderón told the gathering. "As our Octavio Paz saw, it's a reality that we're constructing day by day." The major achievement of the summit was an agreement to pursue a region-wide oil refinery, to be located in an as-yet undetermined Central American country. Officials said four companies have expressed interest in bidding on the project.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte leaves April 11 for Sudan, where the State Department says the Khartoum government can expect new sanctions if there is no movement on a long-delayed expansion of international peacekeeping in Darfur. But State officials also made clear they are not saying Negroponte is delivering an ultimatum to Sudan over the issue. Negroponte's North Africa mission will later take him to Chad, Libya and Mauritania. (VOA, April 11)

Morocco and the Polisario Front independence movement have both turned proposals for the future status of Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara over to the UN. The Moroccan proposal calls for regional autonomy for the territory under Morocco's sovereignty. The Polisario proposal calls for a referendum with three options: local autonomy, complete integration with Morocco, or independence. Polisario's plan does offer a "special relationship" with Morocco, maintaining close economic and political ties, even in the case of independence.