Friday prayers again exploded into protests in cities nearly across the Arab world April 8. In Syria security forces killed at least 10 people in the southern city of Deraa, while in the east, ethnic Kurds demonstrated for reform despite President Bashir Assad's offer this week to ease rules which bar many of them from obtaining citizenship. In Yemen, two people were shot dead and 25 wounded as security forces fired on protesters in the southern city of Taiz. (Reuters, April 8)

Gen. Abdelfatah Yunis, commander of Libya's rebel forces, said April 7 that NATO apologized for mistakenly hitting a column of rebel tanks near the eastern town of Ajdabiya. Yunis said the deadly air-strike occurred despite a warning to NATO that the tanks were being moved to the front line. By conflicting reports, the air-strike killed between four and 134 rebel fighters. NATO says it is investigating the incident. "We would like to receive answers about what happened. We would like a rational and convincing explanation," Gen. Yunis said. (BBC News, April 7) High-level US diplomatic figures from the US, UK and France are meanwhile said to have met with leading members of the Transitional National Council (TNC) to discuss (ostensibly "humanitarian") aid to the rebels. Only France, Italy and Qatar have thus far officially recognized the rebels as the legitimate government of Libya. (AFP, April 7)

Israeli artillery fire killed five Palestinians and injured some 40 after an anti-tank missile from the Gaza Strip hit a school bus in southern Israel, injuring two people, April 8. One of the dead is reported to be a small child. Hamas's armed wing claimed responsibility for the missile attack, saying it was an "initial response" to Israel killing three of the group's leaders last weekend, when an air-strike hit their car in southern Gaza. But the escalation comes one day after the Hamas administration in Gaza said it had got most armed Palestinian factions in Gaza to sign on to a ceasefire in a bid to prevent further Israeli strikes. (Ma'an News Agency, April 8)

From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), April 5:

Washington, DC — A plan awaiting approval by the US Environmental Protection Agency that would dramatically increase permissible radioactive releases in drinking water, food and soil after "radiological incidents" is drawing vigorous objections from agency experts, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At issue is the acceptable level of public health risk following a radiation release, whether an accidental spill or a "dirty bomb" attack.

From the PBS Frontline website, a translation by Frieda Afary of a March 29 statement from the Iranian site Akhbar Rooz:

Call for Active Opposition to the Nuclear Policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Fukushima completed the warning that was issued by Chernobyl. After Chernobyl, any trust in the ability of technology and the technicians to control the radioactive giant was lost. Fukushima further destroyed any trust in the ability to forecast earthquakes and other factors that turn nuclear power stations into ticking time bombs.

A second attempt to stop radioactive water leaking into the Pacific ocean at the Fukushima nuclear plant by using paper and sawdust bound with a chemical compound failed April 4. Engineers are now resorting to a third plan: building mounds of silt around the reactor to filter radioactive particles. (Daily Mail, April 4) Officials in Fukushima prefecture have launched an emergency program to measure radiation levels in school playgrounds. More than 1,400 schools and nurseries will be tested over two days amid growing anxiety among local parents. Officials say there should be no risk to children if they stay outside a 30-kilometer evacuation zone. (BBC News, April 4) Efforts to protect Tokyo’s water supply from radiation have led to a run on Indonesian coconut husks. Granulated charcoal made of the husks is used in Tokyo area treatment plants. Prices for the absorbent carbon material have jumped 44% since the disaster started. (Bloomberg, April 4)

The Libertarian Book Club,* New York City's oldest continuously active anarchist institution (founded 1946), kicks off a new season of its Anarchist Forum series as Bill Weinberg, editor of World War 4 Report (and until recently a producer at WBAI radio), leads a discussion on the theme: "NEITHER NATO NOR QADDAFI, THANK YOU! Anarchist perspectives on Libya, the Arab Spring and the crisis in North Africa, and what has changed with the Western military intervention."

Peruvian indigenous forest dwellers have been forced to set up a guard post to protect a reserve established for "uncontacted" peoples, after the authorities ignored their repeated pleas for action. The Isconahua reserve on the Peru-Brazil border was set up with the support of Peru’s Amazon indigenous alliance, AIDESEP, to protect uncontacted Isconahua bands living in its forests. But the reserve has been invaded by illegal loggers, and numerous appeals to the authorities have gone unanswered. Now two local indigenous groups, the Ucayali Regional AIDESEP Organization (ORAU) and the Federation of Native Communities of the Ucayali and Tributaries (FECONAU), have united to create a guard post to protect the reserve themselves.