Mexico

El Chapo one step closer to extradition

Mexico's imprisoned top drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán came another step closer to extradition when a judge turned down five requests for an injunction to halt it.

The Andes

Lima: indigenous squatter camp burns

Shipibo indigenous shanty-dwellers near downtown Lima are pledging to resist forcible relocation after a mysterious fire swept through their community.

The Andes

Peru: stand-off continues at Las Bambas mine

Blockades at the mammoth Bambas copper mine were relaxed after Peru's vice president flew in to meet with protesters, but local communities refuse to accept government terms.

The Andes

Peru: heir to Tupac Amaru II comes forward

A descendant of Túpac Amaru II attended commemorations in Cuzco, marking 236 years since the claimant to the Inca throne  launched his indigenous uprising.

Greater Middle East

Turkey: Kurdish opposition leaders arrested

Leading lawmakers with the leftist and Kuridish-led Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) were detained in police operations across Turkey, ostensibly as part of a terrorism investigation.

North Africa

Libya: civilians under siege in Benghazi

Civilian residents are trapped in a neighborhood of Benghazi, amid fighting between the Libyan National Army and Islamist militias of the Benghazi Revolutionary Shura Council.

Mexico

Mexico: paramilitary terror stalks Chihuahua

A wave of paramilitary terror grips the Sierra Tarahumara in northern Mexico's Chihuahua state, as the Sinaloa Cartel seeks control over the opium and cannabis cultivation zone.

North Africa

Protests in Morocco after death of fish vendor

Thousands of Moroccans held protests in several towns and cities after a fish vendor was crushed to death in a garbage compactor while trying to retrieve fish confiscated by police.

Planet Watch

UN moves to outlaw nuclear weapons in 2017

The UN adopted a resolution—hailed by disarmament campaigners as an important landmark—to launch negotiations in 2017 on a treaty outlawing nuclear weapons.