A large number of Kichua and Arabela indigenous people have for two weeks blockaded one of the Amazon's main tributaries, the Río Napo, in response to the violation of their rights by oil companies and Peru's government. The protesters have blocked the Napo with canoes and a cable to stop oil company vessels getting upriver at Santa Clotilde, Napo district, Maynas province, Loreto region. According to Survival International, two boats, including one from the Anglo-French company Perenco, have managed to break through the blockade. Three shots were allegedly fired at the Indians who chased after them.

The co-educational schools that the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) runs for Afghan refugees in Pakistan are under attack from Pakistan's new Taliban movement. This statement from RAWA was forwarded to us by the Support Association for the Women of Afghanistan (SAWA-Australia), April 21:

A Sudanese court sentenced 11 members of Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to death by hanging April 22 in relation to last year's attack on Khartoum. As the sentence was read, the defendants yelled slogans, decrying what they said was an injustice and expressing support for JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim. Five other defendants were acquitted. (AlJazeera, April 24)

The trial opened this week for respected Tibetan lama who faces 15 years in prison on a weapons possession charge. Phurbu Tsering Rinpoche, who headed the Pangri nunnery in Ganzi Prefecture of Sichuan Province, was arrested on May 18 after over 80 nuns from his and another nunnery staged a peaceful protest march to the town. Police claim to have found a pistol and more than 100 bullets and cartridges under a bed in Rinpoche's room—a charge the lama denies.

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit rejected April 24 a lawsuit by four UK citizens and former Guantánamo Bay detainees against former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other military officials. The opinion affirmed a district court decision dismissing illegal detention and mistreatment charges under the Alien Tort Statute, the Geneva Conventions, and the Fifth and Eighth Amendments of the US Constitution against Rumsfeld and other military officials—but reversed the lower court's decision to reject a motion for dismissal of two additional charges against the defendants.

A US district court judge in Washington DC April 22 adopted a new standard for authorizing and reviewing the detention of terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay proffered by the Department of Justice last month. The DoJ submitted a memorandum in March asking the court to use a new standard for adjudicating habeas corpus petitions filed by Guantánamo detainees.

Kenyan prosecutors brought piracy charges April 23 against 18 Somali nationals who were captured at sea by European naval forces over the past two months and handed over to Nairobi. The suspects were captured by French and German forces off the Somali coast, where they allegedly attacked several merchant ships in the area. The European Union and Kenya have reached an agreement that allows EU navies to apprehend alleged pirates and turn them over to Kenyan authorities for prosecution.

Isaac Manuel Godoy Castro, a mid-level operative of the Tijuana Cartel wanted in the US, was arrested by Mexican army troops in Tijuana April 24. His face appeared on a wanted poster released Jan. 11 by the DEA that showed the Tijuana Cartel's leaders. Six other suspected members of the cell led by Godoy were also arrested. (EFE, April 24)