Japan raised the severity level of its nuclear crisis to seven on April 12—putting it on par with the Chernobyl disaster—as stricken reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex continue to release large amounts of radioactive substances. The Nuclear Industry and Safety Agency (NISA) had previously assessed the crisis at at level five, the same as the Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979. The move came as engineers were fighting another fire at reactor Number 4, and as a 6.3 aftershock centered off the coast of Chiba rocked eastern Japan. (Brisbane Times, April 12; Reuters, April 11)

French special forces April 11 aided in the capture of Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan. Gbagbo surrendered after French tanks moved in on his residence while it was surrounded by opposition leader Alassane Ouattara's forces. Gbagbo had refused to leave office since his defeat in presidential elections last November. France deployed forces to the Ivory Coast as part of a UN-backed peacekeeping mission to stem the post-electoral violence. It was reported that French special forces captured Gbagbo and turned him over to Ouattar's forces, but Youssoufou Bamba, UN envoy of president-elect Ouattara, said it was the opposition leader's forces who made the arrest. However, there are still conflicting reports over what forces actually made the arrest. Gbagbo is being held in a hotel with his family under the protection of UN and pro-Ouattara forces. France claims that its intervention in its former colony is only at the UN's request.

As battles rage for the Libyan coastal cities of Misrata and Ajdabiyah, refugees arriving in Tunisia report atrocities by Moammar Qaddafi's forces in the remote Western Mountains—including the shelling of homes, poisoning wells with petrol, and threatening women with rape. "The bombardment...is targeting homes, hospitals, schools," said Mohamed Ouan, from the town of Kalaa, who arrived at Tunisia's Dehiba border crossing with about 500 other Libyans from the Western Mountains. "No one is interested in this region, which is suffering in silence." The Western Mountains region, which includes the towns of Nalout, Kalaa, Yafran and Zintan, is populated by Berbers, a group traditionally viewed with suspicion by Qaddafi, and has been the scene of a local civil rebellion. Videos posted on the Internet show crowds in Kalaa waving the green, black and red flag of the anti-Qaddafi rebels and chanting slogans in the Berber language. Another video, from Nalout, showed people at a protest holding up a banner with the words: "The rebels of Nalout are supporting the Benghazi rebels." (Reuters, April 10)

Security forces and pro-government gunmen killed four protesters April 10 in Syria's port city of Banias. The army had sealed off the city as hundreds of protesters gathered. State television reported that nine soldiers were killed in an ambush near the city. (AP, April 10) In Egypt, several hundred protesters staged an overnight vigil in Cairo's Tahrir Square in defiance of a military crackdown, and say they will not be moved. The protesters, who have barricaded the square with a burnt-out army truck, barbed wire and beams chanted against military chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who has headed the country since president Hosni Mubarak was ousted. One person was killed and several wounded the previous day when the army tried to clear the square, although the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said the shooting was the work of pro-Mubarak provocateurs. (Middle East Online, CSM, April 10)

Thousands marched in cities across Mexico April 6 to call for an end to drug-related violence after the slaying of the son of poet Javier Sicilia. Juan Francisco Sicilia, 24, five other men and a woman were found dead March 28 in a car in Cuernavaca, Morelos. They had been missing for a day. The bodies bore signs of torture and were accompanied by a note signed by the Gulf Cartel, authorities said. Press reports said the message accused the victims of having called in tips to a government hot line. Several thousand joined the demonstration in downtown Mexico City, chanting "No More Blood!" and "Not One More!" A similar number marched through Cuernavaca.

Members of local organization Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio on April 4 staged a brief occupation of the Mexican consulate in New York City as part of a global action campaign in solidarity with the Chiapas community of San Sebastián Bachajón, fellow members of the "Other Campaign" network launched by the Zapatista rebels. The "Bachajón Five" are among over 100 Tzeltal Maya Zapatista supporters from the community arrested in recent months in what the community calls a campaign of harassment. One is accused of murder, another is accused of attempted murder, and all five are accused of "crimes against the peace." The government portrays the conflict as a dispute between rival indigenous factions over control of a tollbooth that charges a fee to enter the Agua Azul waterfalls, one of Chiapas' most popular tourist attractions. The Bachajón adherents charge that the government orchestrated the confrontation at the tollbooth "as a pretext to take over the Agua Azul Waterfalls Ecotourism Center for its transnational interests and projects. (Radio Zapatista, April 4; Upside Down World, March 29)

In a series of raids last month, some 1,000 soldiers and national police troops evicted more than 3,000 Q'eqchi Maya campesinos from lands claimed by an agribusiness firm in the Polochic Valley of Alta Verapaz department, Guatemala. During the eviction, the security forces torched or bulldozed the campesinos' homes. One person was killed and nearly a dozen injured during the principal operation on March 15. After the evictions, private security guards of the Chabil Utzaj sugar mill destroyed the community's crops, despite a court injunction blocking the company from taking actions that fall within the jurisdiction of the security forces. A complaint by the Committee for Campesino Unity (CUC) said the evicted campesinos had been been living and working on the land for 30 years. (IPS, March 29)

US President Barack Obama and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on April 7 agreed to a deal on the Andean country's appalling labor conditions, clearing the way for the pending Free Trade Agreement. "This is going to be a win for the US," Obama said while speaking in the Oval Office with Santos. The plan sets out a timeline for Colombia to address concerns about violence against union members, with Bogotá agreeing to "dramatically expand" protection for workers by April 22, come up with a plan by May 20 to build up the capacity of its regional judicial offices, and revise its criminal code by mid-June to make threats against workers' rights punishable by up to five years imprisonment. The action plan is considered a "precondition" for the trade agreement to go into effect, though some of those measures are expected to be taken after congress acts on the FTA.