On April 22, a riot broke out at the Mira Loma immigration detention center in Lancaster, Calif., which holds nearly 1,000 immigrants. The riot allegedly involved the South Siders and Paisa gangs, according to a detainee who spoke with the Los Angeles Daily Journal. Deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department fired tear gas grenades at the detainees; additional deputies came to the detention center from nearby Lancaster and Palmdale stations to assist the guards with separating detainees.

On April 11, Palestinian professor Sami Al-Arian was transferred into ICE custody after completing a sentence on civil contempt citations for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury. On April 15, ICE agents transported Al-Arian from the Northern Neck Regional jail in Warsaw, Va., to the Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth, Va. Just hours after he arrived at Hampton Roads, jail officials placed Al-Arian on suicide watch in a segregation unit and confiscated all of his belongings, allegedly because of his refusal to eat. Al-Arian had been on hunger strike since March 3, protesting the government's refusal to release him.

In the last six months, food riots in virtually every continent have made headlines, with angry protests reported in India, Mexico, Egypt, Indonesia, Haiti, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mauritania, Cote d’Ivoire, Morocco, and the Philippines. Now impacts are being felt in "first world" countries like Japan, where food prices have risen by an average of 15% in the last year. (Nation Media, Kenya, April 24) Several Asian countries, including India and Vietnam, have halted all rice exports. (China Daily, Spril 28) The "global rice panic" has also hit the Asian-American community in California, as the retail price for a 50-pound sack of Thai jasmine rice has doubled from roughly $20 to $40 in recent weeks. (McClatchy Newspapers, April 24) Panic-buying has exhausted stocks at supermarkets in the Bay Area and Sacramento. A Costco Wholesale store in San Francisco has limited rice purchases to two bags per customer. Wal-Mart Stores' Sam's Club has limited purchases of jasmine, basmati and long-grain white rice to four bags a visit in all US outlets. (Bloomberg, April 25)

Our April issue featured the story "The Audacity of Vagueness: Barack Obama and Latin America," by Nikolas Kozloff of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Wrote Kozloff: "Barack Obama, the likely Democratic nominee, has not been very eager to comprehensively address Latin America as an issue. In recent years, the region has undergone a major tectonic shift towards the left, surely prompting many to wonder how the young Illinois Senator might deal with progressive change throughout the hemisphere were he elected to the White House. Would he seek to continue the rabidly hawkish stance of the Bush administration towards such nations as Venezuela, or could he be convinced to broker a rapprochement?" We have noted before Obama's alarmingly bellicose rhetoric on Pakistan. Our April Exit Poll was: "Are you rooting for Barack Obama? With or without grave misgivings?" As an Extra Credit question, we asked: "Will Cheney pull an 'October Surprise'?" We received the following responses:

George Bush, Felipe Calderón and Stephen Harper, in their statement emanating from New Orleans Summit on the Security and Prosperity Partnership Agreeement (dubbed the "Three Amigos" Summit) said they are "committed to democratic government, the rule of law and respect for individual freedoms," and that the US, Mexico and Canada "have shared interests in keeping North America secure, prosperous, and competitive in today’s global environment." The three leaders moved to extend the Security and Prosperity Partnership, as they did at the Montebello summit last year. (PEJ.org, April 24)

At least 20 Haitians fleeing their impoverished homeland were killed when their boat went down off the Bahamas April 20, leaving only three known survivors—including an alleged migrant smuggler from Honduras, according to the US Coast Guard (AP, April 22) The news comes as World Food Program chief Josette Sheeran called soaring global food prices a "silent tsunami," warning that hundreds of millions worldwide are facing famine. (Radio Netherlands, April 23)

On April 20 a bomb exploded outside the offices of Spain's ruling Socialist party in the Basque town of Elgoibar (Guipúzcoa province), causing considerable damage but no injuries. Police said the blast followed a telephone warning in the name of the armed separatist group ETA. (AP, April 20) While the attack made some international headlines, there was little note that it came one day before a trial opened against 27 members of Basque pro-amnesty organizations on charges that they are ETA fronts. The 27, members of Askatasuna, Gestoras Pro-Amnistía, Behatokia and Senideak, refused to respond to questioning by the Spanish prosecutor. The case stems from an eight-year inquiry by Baltasar Garzón, Spain's leading anti-terror investigator. (EiTB24, April 21)

Agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) interviewed a number of Puerto Rican independence activists in a coordinated operation on April 16 at their homes in San Juan, Yauco, Penuelas, Bayamon and Guaynabo. The activists included Tania Delgado, Miguel Sanchez and Miguel Viqueira. The agents "tried to interview Miguel Viqueira and Tania Delgado on their activities as independence supporters" and asked if they knew about actions by the rebel Popular Boricua Army (EPB)-Macheteros, according to attorney Alvin Couto.