Spyware supplied to Mexico officially to track narco-traffickers and terrorists was instead used against human rights investigators looking into the case of 43 "disappeared" college students. Amid the new scandal, the families of the disappeared continue to wait for justice. There has been one arrest in the case, and the remains of only two of the missing students identified.
A new report by Amnesty International charges that ISIS used trapped inhabitants as "human shields" in Mosul, and that the US-led coalition "failed to take adequate measures to protect civilians." The report urged that "the disregard for human life by all parties to this conflict must not go unpunished. Entire families have been wiped out, many of whom are still buried under the rubble today."
The daughter of assassinated Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres survived an armed attack, weeks after being named leader of the indigenous alliance formerly led by her mother.
Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro jacked up tensions with Colombia, telling counterpart President Santos, "Bow down to me, I am your father"—an invocation of Simón Bolívar's rule over both lands.
Peru's government has mobilized thousands of National Police agents to the buffer zone of Tambopata National Reserve in the Madre de Dios region to evict illegal gold-miners operating in the area.
Thousands marched in Lima to demand that Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski not pardon ex-strongman Alberto Fujimori, now serving a 25-year term for human rights violations.
Niger's army killed 14 displaced peasants who were apparently mistaken for jihadists in a "free-fire zone" in the restive southeast, where Boko Haram militants stage regular attacks.
Civil resistance is mounting to the consolidating dictatorship in Turkey, with thousands marching cross-country from Ankara to Istanbul and protests emerging to Erdogan's power-grab.
Colombia released an "Analysis of Vulnerability and Risk" to the country from climate change, warning of devastating territory loss.
Colombia's Supreme Court nullified a prison term imposed on an indigenous leader for the detention and flogging of an army soldier who had entered his people's territory in 2008.
Even as Colombian leaders celebrated completion of the FARC disarmament process, remnant paramilitary forces carry out deadly reprisals against demobilized guerillas.
As Chinese and Indian troops face off on the disputed Himalayan border, the small independent kingdom of Bhutan charges that its own territorial claims are not being respected. Map: Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
