East Timor Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta met with a rebel representative April 19 to discuss an end to a military operations against a fugitive army defector. Leandro Isaac, who abandoned his seat in parliament to join former army major Alfredo Reinado in the mountains of Manufahi district, said he asked Ramos-Horta to end operations against Reinado and his supporters. "People's fundamental rights have disappeared since the operation began," Isaac said. "We asked the prime minister to establish calm and peace in Manufahi. Law and order should be implemented."

A Darfur rebel group April 17 warned foreign oil firms against exploring oil and minerals in the western Sudan province. "The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) wishes to make clear to foreign investors and the Sudanese government that so long as the people of Darfur are denied their basic rights, the exploitation of natural resources in Darfur for the benefit of the National Congress Party regime or any foreign firm will not be tolerated," said SLM leader Abdelwahid al-Nur in a statement e-mailed to Sudan Tribune.

President Bush, speaking at a Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum April 18, pledged to intensify pressure on Sudan, warning of stiff economic sanctions if President Omar Hassan al-Bashir does not bring a quick end to the violence in Darfur. "The time for promises is over—President Bashir must act," Bush said. "The world needs to act. If President Bashir does not meet his obligations to the United States of America, we'll act." (NYT, April 19; Reuters, April 18) Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, just back from a visit to Sudan, made similar noises two days earlier: "The government of Sudan must disarm the janjaweed, the Arab militias that we all know could not exist without the Sudanese government’s active support," Negroponte said. (AP, April 16)

Despite the early pretense of democracy in drawing up the post-9-11 Lower Manhattan development plans, most New Yorkers were not aware that a special "command center" had been created to oversee the multiple construction projects until a change of leadership there happened to make some small headlines. The militarist terminology is all too appropriate, given the fascistic nature of the redevelopment plans. From AP via Crain's New York Business, April 17 (link added):

The US is planning to use meetings with NATO and Russian ambassadors in Brussels April 19 to defend its plans to build an anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying the West needs a defense shield against the threat of Iran developing nuclear warheads. (Bloomberg, April 18) Polish President Lech Kaczynski has been invited to the White House in July to discuss building European support for the missile plan. (NYT, April 18) Hundreds of Poles marched in Warsaw March 24 against the missile proposal, and against Polish military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Reuters, AP, March 24)

Three people were killed April 18 in an attack on a Turkish publishing house which prints Bibles and Christian literature, according to media reports. CNN Turk television said the victims' throats were cut and that police had detained six people in connection with the slayings at the Zirve publishing house in Malatya. TV images showed casualties being carried out of the building and one man being restrained by police. Nationalists had previously held a protest outside the publishing house, accusing it of proselytising, the Dogan news agency reported. (AlJazeera, April 18)

The massacre of at least 32 students at Virginia Tech university April 16—apparently by a South Korea-born English major, Cho Seung-Hui—is the worst such incident in US history. Many commentators point out, of course, that it came a few days short of the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine massacre. Few are pointing out that Columbine's "Trench-Coat Mafia" chose April 20 as their day to act because it was Hitler's birthday. Even fewer have noted why the days around April 20 have taken on an eerie significance in America in the past generation...

An investigation that has already exposed links between government officials and illegal paramilitary groups in six of Colombia's coastal departments has now reached the home department of President Álvaro Uribe, focusing on his administration's politically powerful allies. Colombia's Supreme Court, responsible for investigating corruption in Congress, has opened a probe into three lawmakers from Antioquia department—including Sen. Rubén Darío Quintero, Uribe's private secretary when he was governor there from 1995 to 1997. Investigators are also said to be probing Sen. Mario Uribe, the president's cousin. Quintero and Sen. Uribe both deny involvement with the paramilitaries.