Four coordinated explosions killed 15 and injured at least 100 in Iraq’s Shi’ite holy city of Karbala— the latest in a series of recent attacks in the city which have targeted Shi’ite pilgrims as well as security forces.
Indigenous protesters armed with bows and arrows in the Bolivian Amazon broke through a police blockade to continue their cross-country march on La Paz—with Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca in the vanguard of their charge.
At least 25 were injured as National Police fired shotguns and tear-gas bombs on local campesinos blocking access to the Toquepala copper mine, in Peru’s southern region of Tacna, to protest a planned expansion of operations.
A federal judge in Miami sentenced Bolivia’s former top anti-drug official, Gen. Rene Sanabria, to 14 years in prison for cocaine trafficking—although the “Colombian drug lords” he thought he was dealing with were really undercover DEA agents.
Meeting in Manaus, indigenous representatives from across the Amazon approved an action plan that calls for a pan-Amazonian “consolidation” for the survival of ancestral knowledge and the protection of forests, water, biodiversity and the climate.
Italy announced that it will transfer and repatriate all migrants off the island of Lampedusa within 48 hours, following clashes with police and residents. Italian news agency AGI called the riots “an episode of urban guerrilla.”
Bilbao’s Kukutza Gaztetxe community center was evicted after the Basque Country’s highest court rejected a petition by the residents. The Traveller community at Dale Farm is awaiting a decision of the UK’s High Court on an injunction halting their eviction.
Thousands of villagers attacked government buildings in the southern Chinese city of Lufeng, Guangdong province, in a protest over the seizure of village lands and their sale to a real estate development firm.
As Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant went online last week, the government announced that $50 million has been allocated to resettle the 4,000 residents of the nearby villages of Heleylah and Bandargah—despite assurances that the plant is safe.
Five days of armed clashes in the Yemeni capital Sanaa have left dozens dead and hundreds injured. Rebel tribesmen and defected army units battle Republican Guard troops, while student protesters occupying “Change Square” are under mortar and sniper fire.
The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on four Colombian nationals and 12 companies said to be linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel. The move comes amid charges that US law enforcement is favoring the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico’s bloody narco wars.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi took credit for the massacre of 25 Shi’ite pilgrims, members of the Hazara minority, headed from Pakistan to holy cities in Iran. Sunni militants are escalating attacks on the Hazara, who were targeted for genocide in Taliban Afghanistan.
