On April 14 Mexico's Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board (JFCA) declared illegal a strike that the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers and the Like of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM) has led since July 30, 2007 over safety issues at Grupo México's giant copper mine at Cananea, in the northwestern state of Sonora. The JFCA ruling cleared the way for the company, owned by billionaire Germán Larrea, to proceed with plans to close the mine and fire all 1,200 workers; it announced the firings the next day.

In a ceremony in Managua on April 24, Nicaraguan National Police director Aminta Granera and US ambassador Robert Callahan signed an agreement making Nicaragua a member of the Mérida Initiative, a program the US government started in 2007 ostensibly to fight drug cartels and organized crime. Nicaragua is to receive $1.5 million in US aid to improve the sharing of fingerprint information among Central American countries, develop a special investigations unit and equip agents better, according to a statement from the US State Department.

Chilean judge formally charged three retired military officers in Santiago on April 20 with the murder of 14 prisoners in Antofagasta in northern Chile on Oct. 19, 1973, near the beginning of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 military dictatorship. The deaths of the 14 prisoners, mostly members of the Socialist Party, occurred on the "Caravan of Death," in which a military group headed by Gen. Sergio Arellano Stark executed more than 90 political prisoners as it traveled through the country.

The planned diamond mine at the centre of an international controversy over the forced relocation of Botswana's Bushmen has been shelved due to the global recession. Demand for diamonds has collapsed in recent months, and all Botswana's diamond mines closed in February for two months. Survival International, the Bushmen and many others maintained that the reserve's diamonds were the principal cause of the Bushmen's eviction.

The federal trial of a former US soldier accused of raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl in 2006 began April 27. Former US Army Pfc. Steven Green is also charged with killing the girl's family in Mahmudiya, Iraq. During opening statements, prosecutors said that Green raped the girl, shot her several times, and then burned her body and that he later bragged about the events. Green's defense lawyer argued that Green was under extreme stress from combat conditions. Green could face the death penalty if convicted.

Israeli security guards working for an Italian cruise line repulsed six pirates who tried to board a passenger liner April 25 in the Indian Ocean, near the Seychelles—some 600 miles from Somalia. The guards aboard the MSC Melody used pistols and firehouses to beat back the pirates, who sprayed the ship with some 200 rounds of ammunition. The ship carried 991 passengers and 536 crew, en route from Durbin, South Africa to Aqaba, Jordan. An MSC cruise line official told Reuters, "We use [Israeli security guards] because they are the best—and we've just had a demonstration of that." (Jewish Week, April 29)

Pakistani security forces backed by warplanes and helicopter gunships launched a new operation in Buner district near the Swat Valley April 28, bombing suspected Taliban targets in Kalil, Shera Turf, and Kandao areas. Fighter aircraft also bombed Mushki Pur, a mountainous area of Mardan district bordering Buner. The strikes were carried out by the paramilitary Frontier Corps in coordination with the army.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki denounced on April 26 a US military raid that morning as violating the bilateral Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). The agreement states that any military offensives by the US are to be performed in accordance with Iraqi laws and prior notice of any military operations is be given to the Joint Military Operations Coordination Committee (JMOCC). Al-Maliki asserted that the attack, which killed two people, was in violation of the SOFA and that he seeks to subject the responsible US forces to judicial proceedings. Under the SOFA, US military personnel may be subject to Iraqi jurisdiction for grave violations of the terms of the agreement. (Jurist, April 27)