Mexico's Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (Semarnat) announced that six more setlements—some which have been established for 70 years—have been slated for relocation from the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in the lowland rainforest of Chiapas, the Lacandon Selva. The named settlements are San Antonio Miramar, Rancho Corozal, Salvador Allende, Nuevo Salvador Allende, El Buen Samaritano and Nuevo San Gregorio. The communities are made up of some 60 families, covering around 5,000 hectares.

The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 April 2 that global warming is real, and that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts lost valuable shoreline because of its effects. Writing for the majority in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, Justice John Paul Stevens found: "A well-documented rise in global temperatures has coincided with a significant increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere."

The Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), the civil alliance opposed to both the US occupation and political Islam, announces that Sana TV, its new satellite station, will be braodcasting soon. With a studio and production team in London and funds raised by supporters in Japan, the new station should reach throughout the Middle East and the world. It can be received at the following coordinates:

A bomber driving a truck loaded with TNT and chlorine gas crashed into a police checkpoint in Iraq's Anbar province April 6, killing at least 27 and wounding dozens. The bombing near Ramadi marked the ninth use of suicide chlorine bombs in the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. The attacks come as many Anbar tribes have switched allegiance, with large numbers of military-age men joining the police force and Iraqi army in a bid to expel fighters of "al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia." Police Major Mohammed Mahmoud al Nattah, a member of the Anbar Salvation council, told state-run Iraqiya TV that the bomber hit a residential complex, and that dozens of wounded were taken to the Ramadi hospital. Nearby buildings were heavily damaged and police were searching the rubble for more victims. (AP, March 6).

A slight irony. On April 7, the New York Times runs an optimistic op-ed by Munir Akram, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, entitled "A United Front Against the Taliban." He assures readers that tribal leaders along the Afghan border are being turned against the Taliban, and that the Afghan refugee camps where the Taliban recruit are about to be cleared out (which the Afghan refgees themselves might not consider such good news). He writes that the largest camps—Pir Alizai and Gidri Jungle in Baluchistan Province, and Jallozai and Kachi Garhi in the North-West Frontier Province—are about to be moved across the border under a deal with the Afghan government (where, we note, they will likely remain recruitment fodder for the Taliban).

The FBI has arrested two Indian nationals running an electronics company in South Carolina, and cited two unnamed Indian government officials as "co-conspirators" in the alleged export of sensitive dual-use items to three Indian entities: Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), for possible use in production of missiles and missile-launch vehicles; the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), for use in the development of the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft; and Bharat Dynamics Limited for various defense projects.

The New York Times reports April 5 that US officials are reviewing an informal request from Tehran for an envoy to visit five Iranians who were imprisoned after a US raid in northern Iraq in January. Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV told at a news conference that the request is "being assessed at this time."

CNN reports April 6 that the US military is providing logistical support for the Mujahedeen Khalq, an Iraq-based Iranian guerilla group—which is on the US State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations. According to the report, the US military "regularly escorts" MEK supply runs between Baghdad and its base, Camp Ashraf. "The trips for procurement of logistical needs also take place under the control and protection of the MPs," said Mojgan Parsaii, vice president of MEK and leader of Camp Ashraf.