A package of amendments to Egypt's constitution was overwhelmingly approved in a nationwide referendum March 27—but with only 27% turn-out due to a popular boycott. The country's leading rights group, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, put the figure even lower, estimating that only 2-3 percent of the electorate had voted five hours before polls closed. Ironically, Hosni Mubarak praised the vote: "I would like to stress that democracy is not achieved only through the constitutional and legal texts, but by the real expansion of grassroot participation."

Masked men on a motorcycle opened fire on an army vehicle in the Bajaur region of Pakistan's Tribal Areas March 26, killing five members of the military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), including a major and an assistant director. Bajaur, one of Pakistan's seven federally administered tribal zones bordering Afghanistan, was the scene of an air-strike on a school in October 2006 that killed 80 people. In January 2006, a purported CIA missile strike in the same area, reportedly aimed at al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, killed 18 people.

Gunmen rampaged through the Sunni and Turkmen district of al-Wihda in the northwestern Iraqi town of Tal Afar overnight, killing about 50 residents, apparently in reprisal for bombings in a Shi'ite area. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ordered an inquiry into reports the gunmen included police from his security forces. A curfew has been imposed as Iraqi army troops take control of the city.

Speaking to reporters after winning Mauritania's first "free elections," Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdalahi pledged to "transform" the nation and "build a country that conforms to the norms of justice and economic development." In implicit reference to the early-'90s violence, in which Black Africans were expelled to neighboring Senegal and Mali, he said he would work for democracy "founded on tolerance and acceptance" to "reinforce national unity." But IRIN notes March 28 that "because of his association with former Taya supporters, Mr Abdalahi's detractors have alleged that his victory means the military's influence will creep back into politics, a perception not helped by the army chief of staff Ahmed Ould Daddah issuing a statement congratulating Mr Abdalahi on his victory."

The April-May issue of the online alternative fashion magazine IMT Styles (for "I made that") has a feature on WW4 REPORT—including an interview with WW4R editor Bill Weinberg by IMT Styles editor Tiffany Brown. We're happy to make this unlikely connection. The sexy/homespun IMT Styles proves that just because folks reject consumerist culture doesn't mean they have to be dour, frumpy intellectual hippies (although we at WW4 REPORT are). Here's the interview:

The New York Times' March 24 review of a new exhibit on the Abraham Lincoln Brigade at the Museum of the City of New York is a depressingly sinister and hypocritical piece of propaganda. Entitled "The Spanish Civil War: Black and White in a Murky, Ambiguous World" by Edward Rothstein, the piece pokes smarmy fun at the heroic and paints the critical precursor struggle to World War II with a bogus moral equivalism. Rothstein comes close to a fascism-wasn't-so-bad-after-all position, which is particularly frightening when so many of its characteristics (aggressive wars, secret prisons) are once again in evidence.

The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis entered the Persian Gulf March 27, where it will conduct a joint exercise with the Dwight D. Eisenhower, which has been in the Gulf since October. The air wings of the two carrier groups will conduct a joint exercise while surface ships will hold exercises in anti-submarine, anti-surface ship and mine warfare. The Stennis is escorted by the guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam.

From the Center for Constitutional Rights, March 27:

First Military Commission at Guantanamo Deeply Flawed
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) today released a statement on the military commission proceedings at Guantánamo Bay against Australian David Hicks that began yesterday. Hicks pled guilty to material support of a terrorist group last night apparently in exchange for being allowed to serve his sentence in Australia.