The summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the Thai resort town of Pattaya was abruptly canceled April 11 after hundreds of protesters forced their way past security forces into the convention center where leaders were preparing to discuss the global economic crisis. About half of the leaders at the meeting were evacuated by helicopter, including those of Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines, while other officials fled by boat.

The administration of President Barack Obama will appeal a ruling made last week by Judge John Bates of the US District Court for the District of Columbia that allowed detainees being held by the US in Afghanistan to proceed with habeas corpus challenges to their detention. Word of the appeal came April 10 in a motion filed by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) seeking certification of the court's order so that the DoJ can file an interlocutory appeal of the ruling, which approved habeas challenges by four foreign-born detainees being held at Bagram Air Base.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of the long-ruling National Liberation Front (NLF) won 90.24% of the vote to secure his third mandate on April 9, in elections marred by terror attacks despite tight security throughout the country. A bomb exploded at a polling station in Imeghenine, near Boumerdes, and a police officer was killed by a roadside bomb in Tebessa. At least nine polling stations in eastern Algeria were vandalized and ballot boxes set on fire, while in Bouira, in upper Kabylie, streets were reportedly blocked to prevent ballots from being delivered to polling stations.

After Turkmenistan accused the Russian state energy company Gazprom of causing a pipeline explosion by giving less than a day's notice before abruptly cutting its imports, observers see heightened tension between Moscow and Ashgabat. Dimitri Alexandrov, an analyst for the investments company Financial Bridge, said "that kind of explosion can only happen when the pipes are defective.... [T]he tone of the Turkmenistani Foreign Minister's accusation suggests that this is a political issue."

CIA director Leon Panetta said in an official statement April 9 that the agency will no longer use secret overseas prisons or "black sites" to hold terrorism suspects, adding that plans are being made to shut the remaining overseas detention facilities down. Panetta also wrote that he has ordered that the "contracts for site security be promptly terminated." The statement did not give details as to where such detention facilities have been or are still located.

The Lhasa Intermediate People's Court in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), April 8 sentenced two Tibetans to death on charges relating to "starting fatal fires," according to an official report. These are the first known death sentences passed against Tibetans in connection with the Lhasa riots of March 2008. Two other Tibetans were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and one other was sentenced to life imprisonment in a total of three separate cases of arson, reportedly involving the deaths of seven people.

An appeals court in Baghdad April 7 reduced the sentence for the Iraqi journalist accused of throwing his shoe at former US president George W. Bush from three years to one year. Lawyers for Muntadar al-Zaidi based their appeal on an Iraqi law that provides a maximum two-year sentence for the public insult of a foreign head of state. This appeal followed last month's sentencing by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) on charges of assault, which carries with it a longer sentence than insult. The court's decision to reduce the sentence was based in part on the fact that al-Zaidi had no prior criminal record.

Italian lawmakers April 8 rejected a bid to triple the amount of time undocumented immigrants can be detained, in a rare defeat for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's ruling coalition. In a narrow vote, opposition deputies—joined by some members of Berlusconi's own conservative coalition—voted against extending the period from two months to six months.