Summary: An April 13 NATO airstrike in the Dangam district of eastern Kunar province killed Abu Hafs al-Najdi, AKA Abdul Ghania, a key al-Qaida operative in Afghanistan. Ghani was a regional commander in charge of suicide bombings and cash flow. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 26, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that a review panel invalidated votes cast for 52 candidates in Iraq’s election, throwing into doubt the slim lead of former prime minister Iyad Allawi’s cross-sectarian, Sunni-backed Iraqiya alliance over Shi’ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition and setting the stage for a possible spike in sectarian violence.

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Summary: The State Department is telling American citizens to leave Syria as soon as they can and ordered some personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus to depart the country, as the Syrian government steps up a brutal crackdown against pro-reform demonstrators. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 25, 2010, Aubrey Immelman suggested that reports of Afghan schoolgirls “knocked unconscious” or made ill by suspected Taliban poison gas attacks on their schools should be investigated as possible cases of mass hysteria (mass psychogenic illness).

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Summary: “Urbi et Orbi” — Pope Benedict XVI offered an Easter prayer from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica for diplomacy to prevail over warfare in Libya and for citizens of the Middle East to build a new society based on respect. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 24, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that an explosion that killed an American and an Afghan soldier on a military base in Kabul on April 19, 2010 was carried out by a suicide bomber, the second time in five months an insurgent had managed to infiltrate a base.

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Summary: Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann has been named to Time magazine’s 2011 list of 100 “most influential” people. Rush Limbaugh wrote the citation and Aubrey Immelman offers perspective. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 23, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer ignored criticism from President Barack Obama and signed into law a bill supporters said would take handcuffs off police in dealing with illegal immigration in Arizona, the nation’s busiest gateway for human and drug smuggling from Mexico.

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Summary: Weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, compiled from U.S. Department of Defense news releases and iCasualties.org. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 22, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that months after Pakistani troops chased them from South Waziristan, Taliban and al-Qaida fighters had regrouped and established a new base of operations in North Waziristan near the Afghan border under the protection of insurgent leader Gul Bahadur, who in the past had cut deals with the Pakistani army.

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Summary: As the Taliban spring offensive heats up in Afghanistan, here’s a quick guide to 12 of the most-hunted insurgent commanders on the front lines in the AfPak war. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 21, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the two top-ranking leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, were killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation on Sunday, April 18, 2010, in what Vice President Joe Biden called a “potentially devastating blow” to the terrorist operation.

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Summary: Today is the 12th anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings. Students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves on this date in 1999. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 20, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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Summary: Today is the 16th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing and the 18th anniversary Branch Davidian assault in Waco, Texas. Army veteran Timothy McVeigh planned the OKC bombing as revenge for the deadly standoff between the FBI and Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, that killed more than 70 people on April 19, 1993. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 19, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, at a somber ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, warned of the need for continued vigilance against terrorists.

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Summary: Suicide bombers detonated two explosives-packed cars outside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, killing at least nine people and wounding 23. Separately, hours after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with U.S. House Speaker John Boehner telling him Iraq’s security forces can protect the country after the planned withdrawal of 46,000 U.S. troops by the end of 2011, gunmen stormed the home of a Shiite family living in a mostly Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad and killed all four family members, including two children. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 18, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the Taliban were moving fighters into Kandahar, planting bombs, and plotting attacks as NATO and Afghan forces prepare for a summer offensive.

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Summary: Hispanics accounted for more than half of the U.S. population increase over the last decade and crossed a new census milestone: 50 million, or one in six Americans. In Minnesota, 2010 census figures show the state’s Hispanic population jumped 75 percent in the past decade. The rapid growth of central Minnesota’s immigrant population, if it continues unabated, has the potential to create significant social conflict down the road — though less so in the case of Mexican immigrants than for Somalis. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 17, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that despite an upsurge in threats and violence by far-right radical groups and lone wolves, the Homeland Security Department appeared gun-shy about reporting or monitoring the trend too closely. Domestic security and counterterrorism officials said that even though a controversial report issued a year earlier by Homeland Security about a “resurgence” in far-right radicalization and recruitment appears well informed, if not prescient, the Department had done nothing to re-issue the report or update it.

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