US troops are building a three-mile wall to separate one of Baghdad's Sunni enclaves from surrounding Shi'ite districts, as part of a contentious security plan that has fueled fears of the Iraqi capital's "Balkanization." When the barrier is finished, the Sunni community of Adamiya, on the eastern side of the Tigris River, will be completely gated. Traffic control points staffed by Iraqi troops will restrict access, the US military said.

Shelling and gunfire are rocking Mogadishu as Islamists and Hawiye clan insurgents battle government and Ethiopian troops for control of the Somali capital. The UN says 321,000 people—nearly a third of the city's population—have fled since February, in the country's worst refugee crisis since 1991. Since April 18, violence has killed 113 people and wounded another 222, the Elman Peace and Human Rights Organization said. "We call on both sides to cease the war immediately without any pre-condition," Elman chairman Sudan Ali Ahmed told Reuters.

Authorities say gunmen who stormed a hospital and battled police in Tijuana April 18, leaving three dead, were soliders for the city's Arellano Felix drug cartel. The clashes began when police tried to stop a truck carrying two alleged Arellano Felix gunmen suspected of plotting to attack members of a rival cartel. The two men fled, firing at their pursuers and crashing into another vehicle. One suspect was killed, and another wounded and taken to Tijuana's public hospital. Four gunmen then headed to the hospital to free him, but were confronted by state police escorting some prisoners for routine surgery. A new shootout erupted and the gunmen fled inside, seizing a ward for several hours until dozens of federal police and army troops stormed in and subdued them.

The Other Campaign of Jovel—local chapter of the Zapatista civil initiative in the Chiapas highland city of San Cristobal de Las Casas—has turned over to the agrarian authorities in the state capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, a critical analysis of land conflicts in the restive southern Mexican state. The analysis accuses the federal Agrarian Reform Secretariat and the local Agrarian Tribunals of favoritism in approving land claims by those seeking to expel Zapatista communities. A statement in support of the analysis is signed by over 200 grassroots and non-governmental organizations, and more than a thousand individuals.

The Section 22 teachers union in the conflicted southern Mexican state of Oaxaca has entered into dialogue with the federal Government Secretariat (Gobernación). There are two issues they have agreed to discuss: release of unionists detained in the strike over the past year, and resolving the situation at 227 Oaxaca schools divided by labor strife. These schools are currently in the hands of the rival Section 59 union, formed by Oaxaca's ruling political machine to divide the movement. (La Jornada, April 19)

From Cuba's Prensa Latina, April 19:

International terrorist Luis Posada Carriles was released by US authorities on Thursday, despite evidence of his involvement in criminal acts.

Nicaragua has arrested 17 people in two days in a crackdown on Mexico's Sinaloa cocaine cartel, which has established a foothold in the Central American country and reportedly issued death threats against the national police chief, Aminta Granera. The Nicaraguan national police said they uncovered a secret landing strip and seized shotguns, automatic weapons, vehicles and speed-boat engines. The arrests come a month after Nicaraguan authorities said they thwarted a Sinaloa cartel plot to assassinate Granera.

Petroleos de Nicaragua (Petronic) has announced construction of an oil refinery in the Central American nation, with aid from Venezuela as part of Hugo Chavez's proposed Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). Work is to begin on the "Sandino-Bolivar" refinery by June, when Chavez is slated to visit Nicaragua. Petronic director Francisco Lopez said that besides satisfying Nicaragua's annual demand of 10 million barrels, the refinery will supply fuel to other countries of the isthmus from Guatemala to Panama. Lopez said the project is unprecedented in Central America, comparable only to the Panama Canal in magnitude. (Prensa Latina, Cuba; El Universal, Caracas, April 16)