Indigenous journalist Mauricio Moreno Medina, founding member of a community radio station for the Pijao people, was murdered April 11 by unknown assailants at his home in the town of Ortega, Tolima department. Medina, 50, died of multiple knife wounds. Police say they see no link to illegal armed groups, asserting that Moreno had not received any death threats. But Reporters Without Borders (RWB) suggest that the murder was not a "crime of passion" as police maintain. "The label 'crime of passion' is too often used to avoid investigation of any link with the victim’s work, even to the extent of covering up a case. This has already happened in several other murders of journalists in Colombia," RWB said. "As a director of a community radio, the kind of media often targeted by the authorities, particularly in conflict areas, Medina ran risks as a result of his work."

Iran announced it will lodge a formal complaint at the UN against remarks by US President Barack Obama that Washington could use nuclear weapons against Tehran. "We will submit our formal complaint against this kind of threats to the United Nations," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast in an interview with the Fars News Agency, calling the remarks "a threat to global security."

Israel's leading human rights groups are mobilizing to halt two new military orders that are to take effect April 13, which will make any resident of the occupied West Bank who does not have an Israeli-issued permit liable for deportation or imprisonment. The new "Order Regarding Prevention of Infiltration" and "Order Regarding Security Provisions" have "severe ramifications," the rights groups say. Palestinians, and any foreigners living in the West Bank, could be labelled infiltrators and deported within 72 hours or imprisoned for seven years if they are found without the correct permit. But the orders do not define what Israel considers a valid permit.

Former Kyrgyz foreign minister Roza Otunbayeva announced April 8 that she will lead an interim government in Kyrgyzstan after violent protests the previous day apparently ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev and his administration. Otunbayeva, leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, urged Bakiyev to resign and said that her temporary government will rule for six months until the country holds democratic elections. Bakiyev, who has fled the capital Bishkek for the southern city of Osh, said in a statement that he will not resign.

World War 4 Report will be at a reduced level of activity for the month of April while editor Bill Weinberg is traveling overseas, including to attend the alternative conference on climate change that Evo Morales has called in Bolivia. Please check back with us periodically, and feel free to make a small donation to facilitate this work.

On March 23, just as a group of seven Honduran lawyers were presenting information to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission in Washington DC concerning systematic abuses against the members of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), a death squad comprised of heavily armed men wearing ski masks and civilian clothes killed a prominent FNRP figure in an attack on the school where he worked. José Manuel Flores, a teacher at Tegucigalpa's San José del Pedregal high school, was assassinated in front of his students.

In a signal that the Obama administration is preparing a return to military tribunals for detainees at Guantánamo Bay, the Pentagon last week appointed a retired three-star admiral with international law experience to run the war court. Retired Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald replaces Susan Crawford as Convening Authority for Military Commissions. MacDonald, formerly top legal counsel for the Navy, has repeatedly testified before Congress in support of the tribunal system. (Miami Herald, March 25)

At least 35 people were killed and some 70 injured when female suicide bombers blew themselves up on the Moscow metro during the morning rush hour March 29, Russian authorities say. Two separate blasts hit the Lubyanka and the Park Kulturi metro stations within an hour. Alexander Bortnikov, head the FSB security service, said preliminary findings suggest the attacks were organized by a North Caucasus militant group. (BBC News, MarketWatch, March 29)