The Mexican state of Tamaulipas has dismissed its security chief while federal police arrested 16 municipal police officers in the town of San Fernando following the discovery of more than 145 bodies in mass graves over the past weeks. Former army general Ubaldo Ayala Tinoco has been replaced as Tamaulipas public security secretary by another ex-military man, Capt Rafael Lomelí Martínez, who pledges to bring all those involved in the mass killings to justice. In addition to the police, some 20 have already been arrested in connection with the killings. Most of the victims are believed to have been abducted from long-distance buses travelling north to the US border; there is speculation they were killed by cartel gunmen after refusing to join their ranks. The bodies of 72 Central and South American migrants were found in the same area last year. On April 16, the Mexican navy announced the capture of Omar Martin Estrada Luna AKA "El Kilo"—suspected leader of Los Zetas in San Fernando and alleged mastermind of the recent killings. Federal authorities say he will likely be charged in last year's killings as well—for a total of 217 homicides. (BBC News, Hoy Tamaulipas, La Prensa, April 17; LAT, April 14)

More than a hundred protesters gathered outside the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) on April 15, with banners reading "No Nukes" and "Nuclear Kills All Life." Demonstrators demanded a halt to Japan's nuclear development plans, as well as protesting the compensation package announced by TEPCO to those affected by the Fukushima disaster—$12,000 to families of two or more members and $9,000 for people living alone. (NTD TV, April 15) The protest came as the government admitted the area around Fukushima could be uninhabitable for nearly a generation. Kenichi Matsumoto, an aide to Prim Minister Naoto Kan, said (in a classically Orwellian construction) that the contamination will "momentarily"* bar the area's human habitability for between "10 and 20 years." (AGI, April 13)

Baghdad has ordered the expulsion of Mujahedeen Khalq (or People's Mujahadeen Organization), armed wing of the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), following an April 8 raid on Camp Ashraf, the group's stronghold. The NCRI said 34 people were killed when Iraqi security forces attacked the camp 65 kilometers northeast of Baghdad. The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has has given the estimated 4,500 members of Mujahedeen Khalq and their families until the end of 2011 to leave Iraq. "This organization must be removed from Iraqi territory by all means, including political and diplomatic, with the cooperation of the United Nations and international organizations," Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said. (World Tribune, NCRI, April 14)

Dozens were injured as ultra-conservative Salafist Muslims clashed with government supporters in Jordan's northern city of Zarqa on April 15. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowds; six officers were stabbed and 34 others injured in the clashes, authorities said. Meanwhile, up to 1,000 people protested in the capital Amman, calling for political and economic reform. (BBC News, April 15) In neighboring Syria, police fired tear gas to disperse some 2,000 demonstrators at Jobar, north of Damascus, sparking hours of street clashes. (Ennahar Online, April 15)

From the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), April 14:

Today, our friend and colleague, Vittorio Arrigoni, a journalist and human rights defender working in the Gaza Strip, was kidnapped by Salafists, members of a very small extremist group in Gaza.

Magharebia, news organization of the Pentagon's Africa Command, reports April 14 on the siege of Misrata, where Qaddafi forces are shelling the city with Grad rockets and infiltrating snipers across rooftops. Twenty children have been killed in the last two weeks, according to UNICEF, prompting the organization to call for a ceasefire and "an immediate end to the siege of Misrata." Thousands of foreign workers are apparently desperate to flee the city. A Qatari vessel evacuated some Egyptian workers to Alexandria "where they told stories of the bombardment by pro-Kadhafi forces," Magharebia states. We have no particular reason to doubt this, but it is important to note that foreign workers in Libya have been attacked by both sides.

The Syrian regime pledged to free scores of people detained in the recent wave of protests, excluding only those convicted of "criminal acts." Recently appointed Prime Minister Adel Safar also announced formation of a new government on April 14. Meanwhile, snipers shot dead a soldier and wounded another in Banias, state news agency SANA said, a day after a deal was struck for the army to restore order there.

Inspired by the Arab Spring, protesters in Swaziland are calling for King Mswati III—Africa’s last absolute monarch—to allow multi-party democracy and rescind salary cuts to public employees. The king has not responded publicly, but his army and police have unleashed a heavy crackdown, including preemptive arrests of labor leaders, journalists, and student activists, as well as the use of tear gas and water cannons on the streets. On April 13, the third day of protests, labor and student leaders announced a pause in the campaign to rethink their strategy, but some warned against backing down. "You can choose, if you want to, to end the protests and in the process send a clear a message to your government that ... the best way to deal with protests is clubs and tear gas," the Swaziland Support Network (SSN) in a statement. "The alternative is fighting back." (CSM, April 14)