An improvised bomb exploded outside a popular fast-food restaurant near a public square, killing at least two people and wounded eight others April 3 in Isabela township, Basilan Island, in the conflicted southern Philippine region of Mindanao. Although nobody has claimed responsibility, Basilan is a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf, a militant group which is on the US list of terrorist organizations. The group on April 2 freed a Filipino Red Cross worker after 10 weeks of captivity in the nearby island of Jolo, but continues to hold two other hostages— a Swiss and an Italian. (AP, April 3)

Officials in Nuevo Laredo have destroyed more than 35 statues dedicated to a "Death Saint" popular with drug traffickers—prompting protests from followers of the "folk Catholic" cult, who charge religious discrimination and have demanded a meeting with President Felipe Calderón. The statues, most depicting a robed skeleton resembling the Grim Reaper, line roads and highways around the Mexican border city. More than 30 such shrines have been destroyed in the campaign launched this week by city police backed up by federal army troops.

Eleven people were found shot to death around Mexico April 4, some bearing signs of torture and left with threatening "narco-messages." Four of the victims were found in a car in Apatzingán, Michoacán, along with a message threatening the Zetas, the paramilitary arm of the Gulf Cartel. The message was signed "La Familia," Michoacán's reigning crime machine.

The Obama administration's chief law enforcement officials traveled to Cuernavaca April 2 on Thursday to meet with their Mexican counterparts and begin formalizing plans to join forces against the drug cartels. "There's no doubt that the vast majority of weapons seized in Mexico come from the United States," said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. "This is a reality we have to face in the United States, and it's one Mexicans have long had to confront. We will take responsibility on our side to work with Mexico to get a handle on this serious problem."

The Mexican Senate April 2 passed an amendment to the country's constitution that would permit seizure of property from suspected drug traffickers and other criminals prior to conviction. Under the proposed amendment, which will now be sent to the lower house, prosecutors may seek the seizure of property and income derived from organized crime, including illegal narcotic sales and kidnapping. Currently, a conviction on the charges is required before property can be seized. The proceeds of the seizures will be used to pay for criminal investigations and to compensate victims. The bill passed only after safeguards for tenants and landlords who are uninvolved in crime were included. (Jurist, April 3)

French President Nicholas Sarkozy said April 3 that his country would accept one Guantánamo Bay detainee in a symbolic effort to aid the closure of the detention center. Sarkozy made the announcement ahead of this weekend's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Strasbourg, France, and Kehl, Germany. According to reports, the detainee that would be taken in by France could be of Algerian origin. Sarkozy congratulated US President Barack Obama on his January decision to order the closure of Guantánamo during the first meeting between the two heads of state this week.

Much of the international aid to Afghanistan over the past seven years has been spent to achieve military and political objectives, and the current approach to aid lacks "clarity, coherence and resolve," a group of international NGOs said in a report to the heads of NATO-member states. The report warns of over-reliance on short-term military gains at the expense of longer-term peace and development.

Authorities in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province are calling the release of a video of a 17-year-old girl being brutally flogged in public a deliberate attempt to sabotage the peace deal signed with the Taliban in the Swat Valley. The shocking two-minute video shows bearded Islamic militants—one of whom is apparently her brother—holding the girl down as she screams in pain. It was aired April 3 on a Pakistani TV talk show and has outraged public opinion in the country.