Hamas authorities should end the systematic detention, torture, and execution of political opponents and suspected Israeli collaborators in the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report issued April 20. HRW said at least 32 Palestinians have been killed and several dozen more maimed in a wave of violent persecution since the start of the recent Israeli military offensive in December.

Several hundred demonstrated in Tel Aviv April 18 to protest the killing of a Palestinian activist in the West Bank town of Bil'in the previous day. The march, attended by Hadash MK Dov Khenin, culminated across from the Ministry of Defense offices, where protesters denounced both the IDF and the government. Participants carried signs bearing slogans such as "Uniformed Killers," "Arab Blood Isn't Second-Rate" and "Blood Government, Get Out of the Occupied Territories." Said a statement from the organizers: "The occupying forces have recently escalated their attacks on demonstrators protesting the separation fence." (Haartez, April 18)

Pope Benedict's decision to send a Vatican delegation to Geneva for the UN conference on racism has opened a new rift with Jewish groups. "By participating, the Vatican has given its endorsement to what is being prepared there," Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa, referring to fears that the conference would become an anti-Israel platform. Di Segni said the pope's decision was "the latest imprudent step" in his relations with Jews, which were severely strained earlier this year over the pope's decision to lift the excommunication of a bishop who denied the Holocaust.

Iran's judiciary April 20 ordered fair appellate proceedings for a US journalist convicted this week of espionage and sentenced to eight years in prison. Iran's top judge Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi said the appeal by journalist Roxana Saberi, a dual US-Iran citizen who was originally arrested for illegally purchasing alcohol, should be fair and accurate. Shahrudi's declaration came after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad implicitly criticized the judiciary's handling of Saberi's case. On April 19, Ahmadinejad told Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi to manage the appeal in a way that allows Saberi to defend herself freely. Saberi's lawyer said he would file an appeal by week's end. (Jurist, April 20)

Bolivia's President Evo Morales told a press conference at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago that he had asked US President Barack Obama to publicly repudiate an assassination plot against him. Although Morales stopped short of accusing the US of being behind the plot, he said Obama's speech promising a new policy for the Americas rings hollow without a denunciation: "Obama said three things: There are neither senior or junior partners. He said relations should be of mutual respect, and he spoke of change. In Bolivia...one doesn't feel any change. The policy of conspiracy continues."

Eight Mexican federal officers—including two from the elite Federal Investigation Agency (AFI)—were killed April 18 in an attack on a police convoy transporting Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Jerónimo Gámez AKA "El Primo" (The Cousin) to a prison in western Nayarit state. The shoot-out occurred on the Tepic-Guadalajara highway, as Gámez was being transfered from Mexico City to the top-security Federal Center of Social Readaptation (CEFERESO), known as El Rincón. The ambush by a team armed with AK-47s was evidently an attempt to free Gámez, who was arrested Jan. 29 in Naucalpan, Mexico state.

In a joint operation, French and Spanish security forces arrested the presumed military chief of ETA and eight other suspected members of the Basque separatist organization at the village of Montauriol in southwestern France April 18. As part of the same operation, Spanish forces arrested a further six suspected ETA militants in the cities of Bilbao and Vitoria and the Basque Country town of Renteria.

Nicaragua has issued a passport for Thailand's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Thai authorities have verified. The document allows Thaksin—wanted in Thailand on charges of inciting the recent political riots—to travel internationally. His previous passport had been revoked, and he is currently in hiding. During the protests, he hopped from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Dubai and Cambodia in his private jet, issuing video messages to his followers. The Thai ambassador to Mexico met with the Nicaraguan ambassador to that nation April 17, to convey the message that the Thai government does not wish to see Thaksin using any country as an off-shore base to destabilise the Kingdom. The Thai ambassador also requested Nicaragua extradite Thaksin, although Thailand and Nicaragua have no extradition treaty. (Electric News Paper, Singapore, April 19; Thai News Agency, April 17)