A Beijing court on April 10 sentenced Chinese housing activist and lawyer Ni Yulan to two years and eight months in prison on charges of fraud and "inciting a disturbance" in Beijing. Ni's husband, Dong Jiqin, was also sentenced to two years in prison on similar charges. Ni and her husband had assisted victims of government land seizures, including those displaced by the Beijing Olympics project, prior to their arrest in August 2011. Amnesty International called for Ni and her husband's immediate release, saying that that charges are false and meant to punish Yulan for her activist work. Ni has been confined to a wheelchair since 2002, when prison guards beat her severely while she was serving one of two prior prison sentences. In poor health, lying on a stretcher and relying on an oxygen machine, Ni pleaded not guilty at her trial in December. Although a court spokesperson indicated the trial was open to the public, foreign journalists and diplomats were barred from the proceedings.

An April 9 report on WNYC Radio informs us that last year, 21 bicyclists were killed in vehicle crashes in New York City—but only two drivers were arrested. Local district attorneys, when pressed to cite convictions for cyclist deaths, gripe about how cyclists and their advocates don't understand how tough it is to call a traffic crash a crime. The most maddening quote:

Ali Mushaima, a 28-year-old Bahraini activist, on hunger strike for 10 days in London, on April 4 began a public vigil outside the US embassy on Grosvenor Square to call attention to US complicity in the repression of Bahrain's civil revolutionary movement and Washington's tacit support to the Saudi occupation of the country. He is also expressing his solidarity with human rights activist Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja, who has now been on hunger strike for over 60 days in a Bahraini prison. Al-Khawaja was recently moved to a new facility with medical equipment in anticipation of an onset of coma. His daughter, Maryam al-Khawaja said her father "is entering a critical phase, where his life is at stake." Ali's own father, Hassan Mushaima, is also imprisoned, and suffering from cancer for which Ali says he is not receiving proper treatment inside Bahrain's "torture chambers." (Bahrain Freedom Movement, April 10; CNN, April 6)

Police in Tunis used tear gas and baton-charges against unemployed protestors demanding jobs and relief on April 9. President Moncef Marzouki decried the violence, but criticized the protesters for holding an unauthorized demonstration. "Such a degree of violence is unacceptable,” he said on national television, blaming "the unacceptable standoff between the state that has banned demonstrations on Bourguiba Avenue and those who deliberately violated the ban." At least 15 civilians and eight police officers were reported injured in the street clashes. The violence, the worst in the capital since last year's revolution, has been dubbed "Black Monday" by protesters and the press. (AFP, Now Lebanon, April 10)

While Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) claim to control the north of Mali—the vast stretch of the country beyond the Niger River—there is growing evidence that Islamist organizations have actually taken power in much of this territory. With the Islamist faction Ansar Dine still reported to be patrolling the streets of Timbuktu, the northern region's main city, a second such faction was reported April 8 to have stormed the Algerian consulate in Gao, some 200 miles across the desert to the west, abducting the consul and six members of his team. The Jamat Tawhid wal Jihad fi Garbi Afriqqiya—or Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) —claimed responsibility for the abduction in a statement sent to AFP, saying it "will be making its demands known."

A trial court in the west Indian state of Gujarat on April 9 convicted 23 people of crimes committed during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The individuals were convicted on charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, rioting, unlawful assembly, and destruction of evidence over their participation in the killing of 23 Muslims, 18 of whom were women, in the riots that left more then 2,000 dead. An additional 23 individuals were acquitted. This specific incident became known as the "Ode massacre" for the village of Ode, where Muslim families were locked in homes that were then set on fire. The Ode massacre is the third out of 10 incidents during the riots that have been probed by a Special Investigating Team.

A Brazilian federal judge on March 30 suspended the construction license of the Teles Pires hydroelectric dam in the Amazon rainforest, saying the permitting process violated the riights of the Kayabi, Apiaká and Mundurucu indigenous peoples. Judge Celia Regina Ody Bernardes in Mato Grosso state sided with public prosecutors from the states of Mato Grosso and Pará, who argued the dam would cause "imminent and irreversible damage to the quality of life and cultural heritage of indigenous peoples of the region." The dam would flood a series of rapids on the Rio Teles Pires known as Sete Quedas (Seven Waterfalls), a fish spawning grounds of great importance to the indigenous residents. A declaration by indigenous peoples cited in the lawsuit states, "Sete Quedas is a sacred place, where the Mae dos Peixes [Mother of Fish] and other spirits of our ancestors live." The judge ordered the immediate suspension of all construction activities at the site, "especially explosions of boulders in the region of Sete Quedas."

Peru's government is ignoring new UN guidelines on the protection of isolated indigenous peoples in the Amazon, Survival International charged last week. The landmark February report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "Norms for Protection of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact of the Amazon Region, Gran Chaco and Oriental Region of Paraguay" (PDF, in Spanish), makes clear that the lands of isolated tribes should be untouchable, and that "no rights should be granted that involve the use of natural resources." However, Peru is allowing the country’s largest gas project to expand further into indigenous territories known to house numerous uncontacted Indians. The expansion plan adds to existing controversies around Argentine gas giant Pluspetrol and its notorious Camisea project in southeast Peru.