Three months after the White House successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea over that country's nuclear test, the Bush administration "allowed" Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from Pyongyang in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, the New York Times reported April 8, citing unnamed US officials. The US allowed the arms delivery to go through in January, as Ethiopian troops were in the midst of an offensive against Islamist militias in Somalia. The account said the US was trying to "wean" Ethiopia off its longstanding reliance on North Korea for cheap Soviet-era military equipment.

Thousands of Turkish troops backed by helicopters battled Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) insurgents near the Iraqi border April 8, in clashes that left 10 soldiers and seven guerillas dead. The fighting was centered in the provinces of Tunceli, Bingöl, Bitlis and Şırnak. (Zaman, April 9)

More than a dozen detainees have launched a new hunger strike at Guantánamo, and the military has responded by starting to force-feed the detainees, according to an April 8 New York Times report. Lawyers for the hunger strikers said the strike was prompted by harsh conditions at a new maximum security complex, where some 160 prisoners had been moved since December. "The reports about the conditions at Camp 6 are deeply disturbing, and holding people indefinitely without legal process or access to family is an invitation to disaster," Hina Shamsi, a lawyer with Human Rights First, told AP.

Amado Ramírez Dillane, 50, Acapulco-based correspondent for Mexico's Televisa network and host of the daily news program "Al Tanto" on local Radiorama, was shot to death near the city's main square April 6. He had apparently just left Radiorama's studio when he was gunned down. According to Misael Habana de los Santos, Ramírez's co-host at Radiorama, the journalist had received several death threats on his cellular phone prior. Habana wrote in the national daily La Jornada that Ramírez had not paid attention to the threats, and refused to inform local police.

When Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo was freed from Taliban captivity last month in exchange for prisoners, it made global headlines—if only as an opportunity to portray the Italians as weak-willed. The Afghan journalist he was abducted with was sold down the river. His beheading now barely rates a notice in the global media. From the Committee to Protect Journalists, April 9:

We certianly hope that the expressions of Shi'ite-Sunni solidarity in this story are not exaggerated—or insincere. From AP, April 10 via Turkey's Zaman:

Tens of thousands draped themselves in Iraqi flags and marched through the streets of two Shiite holy cities Monday to mark the fourth anniversary of Baghdad's fall.

Lawmen are warning that growing violence along the Mexican border poses a threat to national security. Chief Lynne Underdown, retiring Border Patrol chief for the Rio Grande Valley sector, told reporters at a press conference in Edinburg, TX, April 6, that attacks on border agents are fast escalating. She especially cited a December 2005 incident in which assailants on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande shot at agents on boat patrol, where they were at "maximum exposure." Ironically, she admitted the increased violence is a result of more agents with more equipment and firepower—making more drug seizures and raising the stakes for smugglers.

From AP, April 8:

Mother's high-speed chase leads to baby's death
9-month-old ejected from SUV when woman crashes trying to evade police
ALVARADO, Texas - A woman led police on a 25-mile high speed chase until she crashed into a concrete median, killing her 9-month-old daughter in the collision, authorities said.