The government of Belize quietly granted US Capital Energy drilling rights to protected Maya lands in Sarstoon Temash National Park. The move comes in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling that recognized indigenous territorial rights.
Guerilla fighters of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) executed four captive members of the security forces as the army raided the camp where they were being held in a rescue attempt, the Defense Ministry charges.
Molajula Koteswar Rao AKA “Kishenji,” most-wanted leader of India’s Naxalite guerillas, was killed in a gun battle with security forces, authorities said. Sympathizers of the Maoist rebel movement charged that Kishenji had been illegally executed.
German police on battled thousands of anti-nuclear protestors—many chained to railroad tracks—who blocked the shipment of radioactive waste returning from a French treatment plant. The rails were blocked for 18 hours.
New street clashes broke out in Cairo after a young protester was killed when he was run over by a police truck. An ongoing sit-in at the cabinet building has been launched to demand a civilian-led “national salvation government.”
Pakistani officials said NATO aircraft killed at least 25 troops in strikes against two military posts on the Afghan border, and responded by closing the strategically important Khyber Pass supply route to Afghanistan.
In factory towns across China's Pearl River Delta industrial zone, thousands of workers walked off the job in response to belt-tightening measures, while thousands of local peasants marched on government offices to protest land seizures.
A 24-hour strike in Portugal against proposed austerity measures adopted in return for a $100 billion EU/IMF bail-out grounded flights and halted public transport, in what labor leaders called a “red card” for the government.
Four men have been killed in protests this week by the Shi’ite minority in Saudi Arabia’s east, while protest leaders in Yemen rejected a deal for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down, saying it leaves his ruling structure intact.
Anonymous Israeli security officials told Haaretz newspaper they believe Turkey is preparing a military intervention in Syria, seeking to create a secure buffer zone on the border where armed opposition forces can operate.
Protests rocked Cairo for a sixth day, as security forces again used tear gas in another effort to clear Tahrir Square. Over 30 are now dead in the street-fighting. The Muslim Brotherhood has split over whether to join the protest movement.
Kuwait’s emir has ordered authorities to tighten security in the Persian Gulf mini-state after the parliament building was stormed by dozens of protesters demanding a probe of corruption claims and an end to the ban on political parties.
