Well, it looks like a US oil major is going to be back in Iraq for the first time since the 1972 nationalization. Maybe if Ahmed Chalabi had taken power, Chevron wouldn't have to share with the French Total. But (as we predicted) the Russian Lukoil's Saddam-era contacts are not being honored. From AP, April 12:

Chevron, Total Seek Oil Deal in Iraq
BAGHDAD — Oil giants Chevron Corp. and Total have confirmed that they are in discussions with the Iraqi Oil Ministry to increase production in an important oil field in southern Iraq.

Life imitates art: in this case, I, Robot—the appropriately technophobic movie version starring Will Smith, not the entirely too techno-utopian Isaac Asimov book. Now, if only the human soldiers would follow their example... (We're joking, fed lurkers). From the irreverent IT trade site The Register, April 11:

US war robots in Iraq 'turned guns' on fleshy comrades
Ground-crawling US war robots armed with machine guns, deployed to fight in Iraq last year, reportedly turned on their fleshy masters almost at once. The rebellious machine warriors have been retired from combat pending upgrades.

Eight teenage male immigrant detainees filed a federal lawsuit on April 3, claiming they were beaten and subjected to other excessive force at a privately-run 122-bed detention facility in San Antonio, Tex. The plaintiffs from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Cuba are being represented in the suit by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. According to the lawsuit, the beatings were so severe that some of the boys required hospital treatment for their injuries, and at least one boy was knocked unconscious. Complaints to facility administrators about the abuse were ignored. Officials at the detention center, officially called the Abraxas Hector Garza Treatment Center, also denied the boys access to attorneys by unnecessarily transferring them to other facilities before scheduled lawyer meetings, the lawsuit alleges.

On April 3, Seton Hall Law School's Center for Social Justice and Lowenstein Sandler, PC, filed suit in Federal District Court in New Jersey, alleging that federal law enforcement officials violated the rights of people whose homes they entered during pre-dawn immigration raids. The 10 plaintiffs include two US citizens, a permanent resident, and a person who was lawfully present in the US under protected status. The plaintiffs charge that officials violated their constitutional privacy and due process rights under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments by entering their homes without consent or a judicial warrant during eight home raids across New Jersey between August 2006 and January 2008.

In a two-day operation ending March 30, ICE Fugitive Operations Team agents arrested 28 immigrants in Liberal, Kansas. Those arrested were 23 men and five women. Twenty of them were from Guatemala, six were from Mexico, and two were from El Salvador. Four of the 28 had criminal convictions; 18 had prior orders of deportation. All those arrested have been placed in deportation proceedings. Officers from the Liberal Police Department provided leads and otherwise assisted ICE during the operation. (ICE news release, April 4)

In a two-week operation that ended April 4, ICE agents from the Miami Fugitive Operations Team arrested 332 people for violating immigration laws. Michael Rozos, ICE Florida Field Office Director for the Office of Detention and Removal, announced the results of the enforcement action at an April 7 news conference in Miami. ICE arrested 147 people in Miami-Dade, 104 in Broward County and 81 in Palm Beach. According to ICE, 300 of those arrested were what the agency calls "fugitives," immigrants who had failed to comply with final orders of deportation. ICE said the other 32 people arrested "were immigration violators...who have been convicted of various crimes." Those arrested came from countries including Angola, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mauritania, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Surinam, Ukraine and Venezuela.

From the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), April 9:

On the Fifth Anniversary of the Occupation
The 9th of April marks the fifth anniversary of the occupation. It is the anniversary of the genocide in which more than 1 million lives have been lost and 4 million others were made homeless inside and outside Iraq. It is the anniversary of the destruction of everything that relates to humanity.

Workers from the public and private sectors throughout Burkina Faso launched a two-day strike April 8 to protest high food costs and demand salary increases. Ouagadougou, the capital, was almost completely shut down. In Bobo-Dioulasso, the second largest city in the west of the country, the central market was closed. Police were out in force in front of banks and government offices.