In the Thai village of Nong Kun Na along the disputed border with Cambodia, security forces are digging in, building bunkers and training volunteers to act as defense guards. The development comes as Red Cross officials report close to 60,000 now displaced. Fighting between the Thai and Cambodian armies over the past six days in the surrounding jungle has killed at least 13 soldiers on both sides and injured dozens more. "Before the fighting started, I was a security guard for an apartment building in Bangkok," said Wonbik Chai, 42, one of the village's newly recruited defense volunteers. "Now I've come to protect my village."

Syrian authorities reportedly arrested hundreds of protesters and dissidents April 26 as the military surrounded Daraa, Duma, Homs and several other cities and villages. Telephone, electricity and water lines have been cut to the besieged cities and villages, which are mostly in the southwestern Hauran plateau region, rights activists say. Activists from the Syrian Revolution 2011 group posted reports on Facebook claiming tanks and snipers in Daraa are shooting "at anything that moves." The Syrian government says the troops were ordered to Daraa to put down a conspiracy by Islamists.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) announced April 26 that a senior al-Qaeda leader, NATO's second most wanted fighter in the country, had been killed in an air-strike in Kunar province 12 days earlier. Abu Hafs al-Najdi AKA Abdul Ghani, a Saudi national, was reportedly killed in Dangam district as he met other senior insurgents and al-Qaeda members. (AlJazeera, April 26) The news came a day after Taliban militants managed to free some 500 of their fellow insurgents from a Kandahar prison thanks to a 1,000-foot-long tunnel the group had dug during the past five months. At least 60 of the escapees have since been recaptured. (AFP, April 27; Slate, April 25)

After pulling back from besieged Misrata, Moammar Qaddafi's forces have reportedly been pouring into Libya's western Nafusah Mountains, surrounding and shelling villages of the Berber minority. The offensive in the remote region follows the seizure of a border post near Wazen by rebels last week. Some 30,000 have fled the region into Tunisia, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. "He has been trying to starve us," said Jamal Maharouk, a Berber rebel fighter in a Tunisian hospital told the New York Times. He insisted that rebel actions in the region were purely defensive. "By my god, these are peaceful people fighting against an evil regime," he said.

In Yemen, security forces shot and wounded at least 10 people April 25 as they opened fire to disperse huge anti-regime protests in the city of Taez, south of the capital Sanaa. In Syria, human rights activists report that 25 people were shot dead as government forces deployed tanks to put down protests in Daraa. Rights activists put the total death toll in the Yemeni protests at 130 since January, and in the Syrian protests at 350 over the last month. However, with Syrian figure is harder to confirm, with journalists barred from the country. (Middle East Online, Middle East Online, Airang TV, BBC World Service, April 25)

A group of Nobel Peace laureates called in an open letter April 21 for all countries to pursue safer forms of renewable energy rather than going ahead with plans for nuclear development in light of the current disaster in Japan. "It is time to recognize that nuclear power is not a clean, safe or affordable source of energy," said the letter written by laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, José Ramos Horta, Betty Williams, Mairead Maguire, Rigoberta Menchu Túm, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi and Wangari Maathai. "We firmly believe that if the world phases out its current use of nuclear power, future generations of people everywhere—and the Japanese people who have already suffered too much—will live in greater peace and security," said the letter which has been sent to 31 heads of state whose countries are currently heavily invested in atomic power production, or are considering investing in nuclear power. (Indian Express, April 21)

Forces loyal to Moammar Qaddafi reportedly retreated from the besieged western city of Misrata April 23—as the US military confirmed the first strike by a Predator drone aircraft in Libya. "Misrata is free, the rebels have won," rebel spokesman Gemal Salem told Reuters. "Of Qaddafi's forces, some are killed and others are running away." A US Defense Department statement confirming the drone strike did not say where the strike occurred. A spokesman for the rebels' Interim Transitional National Council (ITNC) praised the deployment of the drones, while expressing skepticism on reports of a Qaddafi retreat. (VOA, DW-World, April 23)

Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed on April 23 to leave power after 32 years of rule, officials said—but only if the opposition agrees to a list of conditions, including that he and his family are granted immunity. Opposition leaders said they are prepared to accept most terms of the deal, which would establish a coalition government with members of both the opposition and ruling party. The president would turn over authority to the current vice president, though not for at least 30 days. But the opposition said it could not guarantee at least one of Saleh’s demands—that demonstrations be halted. (NYT, April 23)