The killing of five African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Darfur—the deadliest single attack against the force since late 2004—is being widely condemned and has led to calls in the United Nations for deployment of a hybrid UN-AU force to the war-torn region. The Italian news agency AKI reports the Senegalese soldiers with the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) were shot April 1 by "unidentified men" in an unprovoked attack in Um Baru, about 220 kilometers from the North Darfur provincial capital of El Fasher. On March 31, armed men also fired at an AMIS helicopter as it was carrying staff from Zalingei in West Darfur to El Fasher. The Angola Press reports April 5 that the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) took responsibility for the attacks through its Army Public Relations Division (DIRPA).

On April 1, the eve of Passover, the synagogue of the Neturei Karta congregation in Monsey, NY, was nearly burned to the ground. Threats had been mounting against the anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish sect since congregation members, led by Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, traveled to Tehran and shook hands with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Holocaust-denial conference in December. The New York Times reported that the local Ramapo Police Department has ruled out arson. Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) called the fire "the latest attack on the group by pro-Israeli gangs in the US."

From Newsday, April 4:

Wife killed in hit-and-run after seder
Maurichiu Burman, 73, struggled to his feet in the middle of the road, injured by a car that moments earlier had struck him and his wife as they returned from a family Seder on the first night of Passover. He fell to the ground before he could reach his dying wife, the woman from whom he was inseparable in life.

A new report claims the CIA and FBI operate secret prisons in Ethiopia to interrogate terror suspects. According to the Associated Press, which worked with Human Rights Watch in the investigation, the US has interrogated hundreds of suspects from over a dozen countries in Ethiopian detention facilities—partially because of the lax standards on torture.

Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) denied government charges it has become a drug trafficking organization, saying the accusations jeopardize preliminary peace talks set to resume this month. Peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo told Reuters the previous day that cocaine smuggling has supplanted kidnapping as the group's main source of income.

Violence has forced up to 7,000 people in the southern Colombian department of Nariño from their homes over the past two weeks as soldiers battle to retake land from FARC guerillas producing cocaine in the area, officials said. The displacement, which started on March 23 when the military launched an offensive in the area, is one of the biggest in recent years. "People are leaving their homes because they are afraid of getting caught in the confrontations between the FARC and government security forces," Gloria Paredes, human rights ombudsman for the town of El Charco told Reuters. (Reuters, April 4)

Colombia April 3 denied a request from jailed paramilitary leaders to campaign for candidates in local elections. Fourteen of about 60 para bosses jailed near Medellin sought permission to campaign in their cental and northern hometowns on behalf of gubernatorial and mayoral candidates in October's elections. "The president does not think it would be viable for them to leave jail," Colombian Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo told local radio.

Oil prices fell from $68.38 to $66.93 hours after Iran decided to free 15 UK naval personnel it holds captive, easing fears that the international dispute could escalate and disrupt crude supplies. (Forbes, April 4) Meanwhile, it was revealed that Robert Levinson, a US citizen who mysteriously disappeared on a business trip in Iran last month, is a former FBI agent. (AP, April 5)