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.

From the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), April 3:

On the tenth anniversary of the massacre at the Catholic Church in Liquiça, ETAN urges the international community to finally respond to the demand for justice of the victims of this and other horrific crimes committed during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor (Timor-Leste). Those responsible for the many crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide committed during Indonesia's illegal occupation of East Timor between 1975 and 1999 must be held accountable.

Twenty years after a military regime killed hundreds of mostly black Mauritanians, another military government is promising to compensate their families. While some victims' associations welcome reparations, other affected families and many NGOs say compensation equals impunity for those who ordered the killings—and remain in power.

As protests at the London G20 summit start to wind down, police have arrested some 100 protesters in Strasbourg, France, on the eve of a two-day summit marking the 60th anniversary of the NATO alliance. Police said protesters vandalized bus shelters, smashed shop windows, built street barricades, and set rubbish bins on fire. Police used teargas to prevent the protesters from entering the city center. (Radio Netherlands, April 2)

On March 18, the mayor of the municipality of Libertador in Caracas, Jorge Rodriguez, from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), signed an agreement with Coca-Cola to take over its land located in the low-income suburb of Catia, and use it for public housing.