From the Wayne Madsen Report, via VHeadline.com, April 6:

In a replay of US naval maneuvers held during the time the Bush administration tried to unseat Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in an April 2002 abortive coup, the US Navy is deploying a task force led by the USS George Washington to waters off the Venezuelan coast in "Operation Partnership of the Americas."

From AFP, April 6:

TWO British grandmothers are facing up to a year in prison after being arrested under new anti-terrorism legislation that outlaws protests at military bases, The Independent newspaper said today.

Police in Nepal opened fire to break up anti-King protestors. Separately an attack by Maoist rebels last night left 22 people dead. Opposition parties said authorities detained dozens of protest leaders in Kathmandu. The four-day protest was called against the seizure of power by King Gyanendra about a year ago. The main rally will take place on Saturday. The strike left roads deserted with business and schools closing down. Police in armoured vehicles stood guard over empty streets where only protestors could be seen setting fire to tyres. (NDTV, India, April 7)

A school textbook used in India's western Rajasthan state compares housewives with donkeys and says the animals are more loyal and make better companions, The Times of India reported. The book was approved by the state's governing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and has set off protests by the party's women. (Reuters, April 5)

Seventy-six members of the Nukak-Makú, the last nomadic indigenous group in Colombia, including 27 children, arrived March 6 at the town of San José de Guaviare, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. They arrived naked, exhausted and frightened, fleeing their home region of Tomachipán, some nine hours away by fast launch on the Rio Inírida. It is estimated they marched two months through the forest.

WW4 REPORT editor Bill Weinberg will be speaking Thursday, April 6 on New York's Lower East Side, on "International Solidarity with Iraq’s Freedom Struggles." The presentation will also include a screening of the new DVD Go Forward, Iraqi Freedom Congress!, produced by Japanese peace activsts and documenting the activities of a new anti-occupation civilian coalition in Iraq. Weinberg recently returned from a conference in Japan where he met with and interviewed leaders of the Iraqi Freedom Congress.

More than 500,000 people marched in Los Angeles on March 25 to demand legalization for out-of-status immigrants and protest anti-immigrant legislation being considered by the Senate. Police estimated the crowd size using aerial photographs and other techniques, police commander Louis Gray Jr. said. (AP, March 26) The LA demonstration was the largest of a wave of protests sweeping cities across the US, starting with Feb. 14 rallies and strikes in Philadelphia and Georgetown, Delaware, and energized by a massive March 10 rally in Chicago. According to a March 25 article by New American Media, more than 50 demonstrations took place over the previous few weeks, including in Minneapolis, Knoxville, Seattle, St. Louis, Portland (OR), Staten Island (NY) and Grand Rapids (MI).

The Colombian Attorney General's office suspended for 90 days retired army general Pablo A. Rodriguez and Col. Javier V. Hernández for failing to provide security for the village of San José de Apartadó, the self-declared "peace community" in the wartorn Urabá region of the country. The ruling said that the officials' actions left the community "vulnerable to illegal armed groups on several occasions."