The Mexican senate has passed a package of reforms to Article 139 of the Federal Penal Code modeled on anti-terrorist legislation in the United States—above the objections of the left-opposition PRD, PT and Convergence, whose legislators assailed the changes as "criminalizing social protest." Under the changes, any act of violence aimed at influencing government policy is classified as terrorism, with a penatly of six to 40 years in prison. (La Jornada, April 27)

Aunty Maiduguri, a Nigerian lesbian who married four other women last weekend in Kano State, has gone into hiding from the Islamic police, along with her partners. Under Sharia law, adopted in the state seven years ago, homosexuality and same-sex marriages are outlawed. The theater where the wedding celebration was held April 22 has been demolished by Kano city's authorities. Lesbianism is also illegal under Nigeria's national penal code, and parliament is considering tightening its laws on homosexuality.

Authorities arrested several hundred Iranian women and issued a warning to thousands of other over their poor Islamic dress this week in the most harsh crackdown on what's known as "bad hijab" for more than a decade. Police cars are stationed outside major shopping centers in Tehran, with patrols stopping pedestrians and cars—warning female drivers not to show any hair. Women are arrested and their vehicles impounded if they argue back. Iranian TV reported that a Tehran opinion poll found 86% in favor of the crackdown. (BBC, April 27)

From the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), April 27:

Safety Force Rescues Innocent People in Baghdad
On April 11, 2007, the Safety Force was deployed to Alatba’a suburb of Baghdad after a fierce fighting erupted between the US troops and unknown armed men in nearby Alfathal suburb. A sniper barricaded on a building started shooting children escaping from Khawla Bent Alzwar primary school.

The Iraqi government has refused to provide the UN with civilian casualty figures for its 10th report on the human rights situation in the occupied country since August 2005, but numbers from various ministries indicate more than 5,500 people were killed in the Baghdad area alone in the first three months of 2007. The numbers, provided to the Los Angeles Times by government ministry employees, could not be independently verified.

From the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), April 27:

The Discriminatory Wall of Adamya Must be Abolished Immediately
In an unprecedented action in the history of Iraq, the U.S.-led occupying troops have begun the building of a wall made of concrete to separate the district of Adamya from neighboring districts on a pretext of stopping the terrorist activities. The Prime Minister, Nouri Almailki, even went further to say that the wall aims to protect the residents of the district from violence.

Security forces in Saudi Arabia have arrested 172 national and foreign "terror suspects." Those arrested are alleged to have been training as pilots in order to launch suicide attacks in the country, an interior ministry spokesperson has reported. Large quantities of weapons and money were also seized in the "anti-terror" raid. [AlJazeera, April 27]

Interim Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi insists that government and Ethiopian forces have successfully "won" their fight against the Union of Islamic Courts in Mogadishu. Fierce combat has been raging in the city for nine days, in an effort led by Somali-Ethiopian troops to clear "pockets of resistance." [AlJazeera, April 26]