On April 8 a German development bank, DEG Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, cancelled a previously approved loan to Grupo Dinant, a large Honduran company that produces snacks, other food products and cooking oil; the loan was reportedly worth $20 million. Shortly afterwards, EDF Trading, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the French energy firm Electricité de France SA, cancelled a contract to buy carbon credits from a Dinant subsidiary, Exportadora del Atlántico, under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for carbon trading.

A group of activists for the rights of indigenous Mapuche Chileans interrupted the Easter mass at Santiago's Metropolitan Cathedral on April 24 to call for the release of four Mapuche prisoners who have been on hunger strike since March 15. The activists, led by the prisoners' spokesperson, Natividad Llanquileo, waited until a few minutes after the homily to begin their protest; they shouted slogans and unfurled a banner that read: "Freedom for the Mapuche political prisoners." Carabinero police agents arrived and dispersed the demonstrators; two were detained but were released later.

After pulling back from besieged Misrata, Moammar Qaddafi's forces have reportedly been pouring into Libya's western Nafusah Mountains, surrounding and shelling villages of the Berber minority. The offensive in the remote region follows the seizure of a border post near Wazen by rebels last week. Some 30,000 have fled the region into Tunisia, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. "He has been trying to starve us," said Jamal Maharouk, a Berber rebel fighter in a Tunisian hospital told the New York Times. He insisted that rebel actions in the region were purely defensive. "By my god, these are peaceful people fighting against an evil regime," he said.

In Yemen, security forces shot and wounded at least 10 people April 25 as they opened fire to disperse huge anti-regime protests in the city of Taez, south of the capital Sanaa. In Syria, human rights activists report that 25 people were shot dead as government forces deployed tanks to put down protests in Daraa. Rights activists put the total death toll in the Yemeni protests at 130 since January, and in the Syrian protests at 350 over the last month. However, with Syrian figure is harder to confirm, with journalists barred from the country. (Middle East Online, Middle East Online, Airang TV, BBC World Service, April 25)

WikiLeaks on April 24 began publishing "The Guantanamo Files," a collection of more than 700 classified documents relating to the evidence against and treatment of almost all detainees held at Guantánamo Bay between 2002 and 2008. The documents—detailing things such as the circumstances of detention, the evidence justifying detention, detainee risk evaluations, and the decision process of which detainees to transfer, hold, or release of 758 of the 779 total detainees—were published in part on the WikiLeaks website and released to media outlets. According to the media outlets that have analyzed the documents, they reveal that 220 "high value" al-Qaeda operatives had been held at Guantánamo, in addition to 150 who had been held for years without significant evidence against them. The documents also detailed the practice of US forces detaining people in Afghanistan based on their wearing a particular model of watch that is known to be used by al-Qaeda leaders. Additionally, 20 juveniles were held at the detention facility, including Omar Khadr, who was classified as a high value detainee by the Obama administration and agreed to a plea agreement after eight years in detention.

A group of Nobel Peace laureates called in an open letter April 21 for all countries to pursue safer forms of renewable energy rather than going ahead with plans for nuclear development in light of the current disaster in Japan. "It is time to recognize that nuclear power is not a clean, safe or affordable source of energy," said the letter written by laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, José Ramos Horta, Betty Williams, Mairead Maguire, Rigoberta Menchu Túm, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi and Wangari Maathai. "We firmly believe that if the world phases out its current use of nuclear power, future generations of people everywhere—and the Japanese people who have already suffered too much—will live in greater peace and security," said the letter which has been sent to 31 heads of state whose countries are currently heavily invested in atomic power production, or are considering investing in nuclear power. (Indian Express, April 21)

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on April 22 urged the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to reverse its decision to dissolve the board of directors of a prominent civil rights group. UAE social affairs minister, Mariam Mohammed Khalfan Al-Roumi, dismissed the elected board members of the Jurist Association civil rights group and appointed state officials in their stead. The decree dismissing the board members alleged that the Jurist Association violated UAE's recently enacted laws that prohibit nongovernmental organizations and its members from interfering "in politics or in matters that impair State security and its ruling regime." Al-Roumi issued the decree in response to a petition filed by the Jurist Association, other nongovernmental organizations, and hundreds of UAE citizens seeking political reform. The petitioners are calling for increased representation in the UAE government and Federal National Council, the country's legislative body.

Forces loyal to Moammar Qaddafi reportedly retreated from the besieged western city of Misrata April 23—as the US military confirmed the first strike by a Predator drone aircraft in Libya. "Misrata is free, the rebels have won," rebel spokesman Gemal Salem told Reuters. "Of Qaddafi's forces, some are killed and others are running away." A US Defense Department statement confirming the drone strike did not say where the strike occurred. A spokesman for the rebels' Interim Transitional National Council (ITNC) praised the deployment of the drones, while expressing skepticism on reports of a Qaddafi retreat. (VOA, DW-World, April 23)