The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released data on Thursday, April 26, showing that the Mexican government has recovered 68,000 guns in the past five years that originated in the United States.  Many of the weapons were recovered from drug cartel members, who are responsible for the deaths of over 47,000 people in Mexico during the past six years.  While the statistics have caused some tension between the Mexican and U.S.

On April 26, 2012 the judges of Special Court for Sierra Leone delivered a guilty verdict in the trial of Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor, on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Taylor had been charged with 11 counts of war crimes, ranging from murder to sexual slavery, which occured during Sierra Leone's civil war in the 1990s. Taylor, who will be imprisoned in a maximum security prison located in Britain, will be sentenced at a later date.  Taylor is also the first head of state to be convicted by an international court.

Special Court for Sierra Leone Judgment

On April 24, 2012, Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced  that U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain entered a default judgment and final order of forfeiture for over $16 million seized from the U.S. correspondent account of Wegelin & Co., a Swiss private bank.  The funds will be deposited in the Treasury Forfeiture Fund. 

On April 23, 2012, speaking at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. to observe a Day of Remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust, U.S. President Barack Obama announced three initiatives to prevent the occurrence of international atrocities.

He announced the issuance of an executive order that authorizes new sanctions against the Syrian and Iranian government and those that help them for using technologies to monitor and track and target citizens for violence. 

On April 17, 2012, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and IRS issued final regulations and a revenue procedure implementing the final regulations regarding the reporting requirements for interest that relates to deposits maintained at U.S. offices of certain
financial institutions and is paid to certain nonresident alien individuals. These regulations will affect commercial banks, savings institutions, credit unions, securities brokerages, and insurance companies that pay interest on deposits.

Bruce Zagaris appeared on Al Jazeera yesterday to give an interview on the trial of Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik.  The video clip for the interview can be found here.

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On April 12, 2012, the Israeli media reported that Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer is considering asking the cabinet to reach a tax agreement with the United States to calm Israeli banks about strict new U.S. tax regulations on Americans living abroad.

On April 15, 2012, in response to growing bilateral and multilateral dialogues on citizen security, the U.S. President Barrack Obama and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced on the margins of the VI Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, that they agreed to deepen coordination of ongoing security cooperation activities throughout the hemisphere and West Africa. Both presidents agreed to formalize this coordination in the form of a U.S.-Colombia Action Plan on Regional Security Cooperation.

IELR editor-in-chief Bruce Zagaris has written an article for Tax Notes International, titled U.S. Senate’s Passage of Anti-Tax-Haven Provisions Would Be Counterproductive.  Read the full article here.