Central America
Anti-canal leader arrested in Nicaragua
Francisca Ramírez Torres, leader of the movement against the planned Nicaraguan canal, was arrested without charge by National Police agents in a raid on her village.
Author: CounterVortex
South Asia
Revered Sufi singer assassinated in Pakistan
Thousands of people attended the funeral of slain qawwali singer Amjad Sabri in Karachi, the day after he was shot dead in an attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.
The Amazon
Colombia: campesinos block oil operation
Colombia's feared anti-riot force, the ESMAD, used tear-gas against campesinos occupying lands in the Amazonian department of Caquetá to block oil exploration efforts.
The Andes
Colombia: court protects more lands from mining
Colombia’s constitutional court overturned a 2012 government decree that allowed mining in nine areas of the country, together making up 20% of the national territory.
The Andes
Colombia: deal with FARC for bilateral ceasefire
The Colombian government announced that it has agreed to a bilateral ceasefire with the FARC guerillas—hailed as an historic step toward a deal to end the long civil war.
Afghanistan
What was behind Af-Pak border clashes?
Pakistan and Afghanistan saw deadly border clashes and a tense stand-off over Islamabad's plan to build a barbed-wire separation barrier at its Torkham crossing.
Mexico
Oaxaca: six dead as police fire on striking teachers
Police fired on striking teachers blocking a road through Mexico's southern Oaxaca state, leaving six dead—a significant escalation in the battle over a proposed education reform.
El Niño and Ethiopia’s threatened pastoraists
Traditional pastoralists from Ethiopia's drought-stricken Somali region crossed the border into Somliland in search of pasture, but it proved a false hope. Many are now stranded as hundreds of camels died in Somliland's parched plains. More than half a million… Read moreEl Niño and Ethiopia’s threatened pastoraists
The Andes
Peru: incoming admin threatens communal lands
Peru's president-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has unveiled a platform that calls for privatizing and "individualizing" communal lands to facilitate mineral and agribusiness development.
Pressure on Mexico to free peasant ecologist
An indigenous Mexican ecological defender is now in his seventh month behind bars, despite calls for his relase from Amnesty International, Greenpeace and other human rights and environmental groups. Ildefonso Zamora was arrested by México state police last November, in… Read morePressure on Mexico to free peasant ecologist
Mexico
Pressure on Mexico to free peasant ecologist
Mexican ecological defender Ildefonso Zamora is now in his seventh month behind bars, despite calls for his relase from Amnesty International and Greenpeace.
The Andes
Venezuela: left-dissident party raided
Venezuelan investigative police raided the offices of the Trotskyist left-opposition organization Marea Socialista in Caracas on the orders of a local court.