A Libyan military commander filed a lawsuit April 17 against former UK Justice Minister Jack Straw alleging that the minister was instrumental in his illegal rendition to Libya, where he was tortured under the regime of Moammar Qaddafi. Abdel Hakim Belhadj and his wife were transferred to Libya in 2004 as prisoners and were allegedly tortured at the hands of former Qaddafi officials. The lawsuit was launched in response to an April 15 Sunday Times report alleging documentation of Straw's involvement in the transfer of prisoners to Libya for torture. Papers served on Straw request access to documents from 2004 to 2010, including the documents referenced in the recent news article. Belhadj's lawyers maintain that his primary purpose is to seek an apology from the responsible parties.

The Canadian government released details April 17 of a plan to dramatically "streamline" (as press accounts put it) public oversight for big energy and mining projects, capping the timeline for federal reviews and ceding more regulatory oversight to the provinces. The "Responsible [sic] Resource Development" plan would impose a 45-day limit to decide whether federal environmental review is necessary after a new project is announced, and then limit such reviews to two years. The number of agencies allowed to participate in such reviews—now numbering 40—would be limited to three: the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, the National Energy Board and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. It would also allow the provinces to conduct such reviews in place of these agencies, if they meet the standards of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. Resources Minister Joe Oliver made clear that an intended beneficiary of the reform is Enbridge Inc's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which would ship oil from Alberta's tar sands fields to Canada's West Coast—and has been meeting stiff opposition from environmentalists and First Nations in British Columbia. (Dow Jones, CTV, April 17)

On March 29 the AFL-CIO, the main US labor federation, joined with two Honduran union federations to file a petition with the US Department of Labor's Public Office of Trade and Labor Affairs (OTLA) asking the US to push the Honduran government to address labor violations. Evangelina Argueta Chinchilla, representing Honduras' General Workers Central (CGT), and Francisco Joel López Mejía, deputy general secretary of the smaller Independent Federation of Workers of Honduras (FITH), traveled to Washington to file the petition.

After 15 days on hunger strike, on April 10 Antonia López Cruz sewed her lips together and had herself tied to the fence outside the federal Senate building in Mexico City in a mock crucifixion to demand the return of her six-year-old daughter, Concepción ("Cuco") Antonia Fernández López. Puebla state Public Ministry coordinator Leticia Villaraldo took the child from her parents on March 21 and turned her over to the state Integral Family Development (DIF) service, claiming she was an abuse victim because of an injury to her arm.

Retired Dominican general Pedro Julio ("Pepe") Goico Guerrero has been heading a plot to destabilize the administration of Haitian president Michel Martelly ("Sweet Micky"), Dominican president Leonel Fernández's information secretary, Rafael Núñez, announced at a Santo Domingo press conference late on April 12. The alleged plot also involves a Haitian citizen, Pierre Kanzki, according to Núñez, who was accompanied by Dominican foreign affairs minister Carlos Morales Troncoso, Haitian justice minister Michel Brunache, Dominican attorney general Radhamés Jiménez, and ambassadors Fritz Cineas (Haiti) and Rubén Silie (Dominican Republic). Returning to Haiti on April 13, Justice Minister Brunache announced that his department was investigating Kanzki; he didn't mention any criminal charges against either of the two men named in the alleged plot. (AlterPresse, AlterPresse, AlterPresse, Haiti, April 13)

Imprisoned former Argentine dictator Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla has admitted for the first time that the military disappeared—detained and killed—thousands of people and sometimes abducted the victims' children during its 1976-1983 "dirty war" against leftists and dissidents. The killings "were the price that regrettably Argentina had to pay to go on being a republic," Videla said in one of several interviews journalist Ceferino Reato held with him from October 2011 to March 2012 in the Campo de Mayo prison. Now 86, the former dictator was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2010 for crimes against humanity. Human rights groups estimate that the military disappeared some 30,000 people in the violence and turned over several hundred of their children to foster parents.

The Taliban launched coordinated attacks in the Afghan capital and three other provinces on April 15. In Kabul, the Taliban targeted seven different locations in the Wazir Akbar Khan diplomatic enclave, seizing control of several buildings under construction and opening fire on the US, German, Russian, and British embassies, the Afghan parliament, the Kabul Military Training Center, and other sites. Gunfire and at least 10 explosions were heard in locations throughout the capital. Two people were reported killed and fighting is said to be ongoing. In Jalalabad, Nangarhar province, a suicide assault on the airstrip left several wounded. Attacks were also reported in the provincial capitals of Paktia and Logar. (Long War Journal, AFP, April 15) Hours earlier, Pakistani Taliban militants launched a nighttime assault on the prison at Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, freeing nearly 400—including what the Taliban Movement of Pakistan called "special members" in a statement. (Long War Journal, April 15)

Six days after they were abducted by apparent Shining Path guerillas, hostage Camisea Consortium workers were freed in the rainforest of Peru's Cuzco region April 14, allowing President Ollanta Humala to boast of a "flawless victory" upon his arrival that day at the Sixth Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia—but accounts were typically sketchy and contradictory on exactly how the captives were released. The Defense Ministry said the guerillas let the workers go before dawn after they were encircled by some 1,500 police and army troops, and tried to flee. The Ministry's account said there had been a clash, in which one National Police officer was killed. But press reports said the kidnapped workers walked seven hours through the jungle to the village of Chuanquiri, where they were transferred by bus to Kiteni, another village which was being used as a staging area by security forces. There, some freed hostages disputed the official story, with one telling Peru's Canal N TV: "We were freed voluntarily. Be careful with the press and armed forces saying that we have been rescued."