Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by fighting in northern Mali and dozens have been subjected to arbitrary detention, extra-judicial executions or sexual violence including rape, Amnesty International said May 16. In a report "Mali: Five months of crisis, armed rebellion and military coup," Amnesty International catalogues a litany of human rights violations committed against the backdrop of a food shortage affecting 15 million people in the Sahel region. "After two decades of relative stability and peace, Mali is now facing its worst crisis since independence in 1960," said Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty's West Africa researcher who just returned from a three week research mission to the country. "The entire north of the country has been taken over by armed groups who are running riot. Ten of thousands of people have fled the region, creating a humanitarian crisis in Mali and in neighbouring countries."

Venezuela on May 16 demanded that the US extradite a former supreme court judge who has accused high-ranking figures of the Hugo Chávez government of links to drug-trafficking. The fugitive judge, Eladio Aponte Aponte, was removed from office in March over charges that he provided forged documents to accused trafficker Walid Makled. Aponte is co-operating with US authorities after his April 2 flight to Miami in a DEA-chartered plane. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said the US must hand over Eliado Aponte, as there was a judicial process underway against him in Venezuela, and noted that an Interpol "red notice" has been issued for him. From the US, Aponte has publicly claimed that Chávez's office and top military officials including Defense Minister Henry Rangel Silva asked him to be lenient in the case against a lieutenant accused of trafficking drugs. Maduro counter-charges that the DEA is working to protect criminals and undermine the revolutionary process in Venezuela. He said if the US does not return Aponte, Washington would become "direct accomplices of these drug-trafficking mafias." (InSight Crime, FT, May 15; Radio Nacional de Venezuela, May 14; WSJ, April 19)

Palestinian prisoners on long-term hunger strike agreed May 14 to a deal ending the strikes in exchange for improved conditions. The Egyptian-brokered deal to end the mass hunger strike in Israeli facilities will see the prisoners—including Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla on a 77-day strike—released at the end of their "administrative detention" terms. Four hunger strikers will be transferred to civilian hospitals within Israel for treatment. Hamas official Saleh Arouri, who was a member of the negotiations team, said that under the deal Israel agreed to provide a list of accusations to administrative detainees, or release them at the end of their term. Israel also agreed to release all detainees from solitary confinement, to lift a ban on family visits for detainees from the Gaza Strip, and revoke the "Shalit law." The "Shalit law" restricted prisoners' access to families and to educational materials as punishment for the five-year captivity of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Shalit was freed in October in a prisoner swap agreement. (Ma'an News Agency, May 16)

Chile's Supreme Court on May 11 issued a ruling blocking construction of the Cuervo hydroelectric dam in Patagonia until further environmental studies have been carried out. The dam was one of three hydroelectric plants proposed by Energía Austral, a private joint-venture between Anglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata Copper and Australia's Origin Energy, to supply power to copper mines in the area. The court found that the project failed to file a required soil study with the National Geology and Mining Service, overturning a decision earlier this month by Aysén region's Environmental Evaluation Commission giving the project the green light. The environmental advocacy group Chile Sustentable welcomed the decision, hailing it as "a tremendous achievement for the citizens." Chile, the world's leading copper producer, needs to double its electrical generating capacity in the next decade to meet requirements of a planned massive expansion in the mining sector. The two remaining hydro-plants in the Energia Austral mega-scheme, Blanco and Cóndor, still await approval. (International Water Power, May 14; Jurist, May 13; Reuters, May 11; AFP, May 8)

National Police troops in the service of the Antamina company detained 16 local campesinos from San Marcos municipality, Huari province, in Peru's central Andean region of Áncash, in the pre-dawn hours of May 10. Eight were taken off a combi microbus, and eight detained at their homes in the hamlet of San Pedro de Pichiu by elite troops of the Special Operations Directorate (DINOES). Witnesses said they were beaten as they were detained, and then taken to a police post at Yanacancha, on land within the Antamina mining camp, where the are still being held. Pablo Salazar Solís, San Marcos municipal agent for the district, was able to visit the detainees, and told the National Confederation of Communities Affected by Mining (CONACAMI) that they had been tortured during interrogations and forced to falsely confess that they had taken part in a recent protest against the company. San Pedro de Pichiu residents this week held a 24-hour civil strike (paro), blocking roads to protest the contamination of local waters in an Antamina petrol spill. In the May 4 truck accident, a tanker full of petrol was spilled into Laguna Huatucocha, a highland lake in the watershed of the Río Mosta, a tributary of the Marañón, the central river of Peru's Andes.

The US is to resume military sales to Bahrain, suspended last year due to human rights concerns, the State Department announced May 11. The Obama administration notified Congress that certain sales would be allowed for Bahrain's defense force, coast guard and national guard, although it would maintain a hold on TOW missiles and Humvees. "We have made the decision to release additional items to Bahrain mindful of the fact that there are a number of serious unresolved human rights issues that the government of Bahrain needs to address," the State Department statement said. A scheduled $53 million sale was halted in October when members of Congress voiced concern about arming the dictatorship. At that time, the State Department assured Congress that it would take into account progress of human rights reforms in Bahrain before proceeding with the sale.

The Pentagon is this week leading the largest multinational military exercises in the history of Jordan, with maneuvers planned along the Syrian border as well as in the Gulf of Aqaba, across from Israel. The "Eager Lion 2012" exercises are bringing together army units from 17 countries, including Jordan, the United States, France, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. In response to the obvious question from journalists, officials said that the war game scenarios are not directed at any particular enemy, and that Operation Eager Lion was planned three years in advance. Maj. Robert Bockholt, public affairs officer at US Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT), said: "Execution of Eager Lion 2012 is not connected to any real-world event. It has nothing to do with Syria. It is just a coincidence."

The New York/Hong Kong-based Human Rights in China (HRIC) reports that You Minglei, a bank employee and independent activist in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, was taken into police custody last month on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power" after distributing political leaflets. He is apparently being held at Nanchang Municipal No. 2 Detention Center. Jiangxi-based independent election candidates Liu Ping and Li Sihua told HRIC that on April 27, You Minglei distributed the leaflets at Jiangxi Normal University, with the slogans, "Oppose communism and love our country; reinstate China; human rights are innate; freedom and democracy" (爱国反共、恢复中华、天赋人权、民主自由), as well as opposition figure Zhu Yufu's poem "It's Time." Hangzhou dissident Zhu Yufu was sentenced to seven years in prison for this poem and other activities in 2012.