The UN issued its its report on the deadly May 2010 Gaza flotilla raid, criticizing Israel for using “excessive and unreasonable” force but finding that the blockade of the Gaza Strip itself is lawful. Turkey responded by recalling its ambassador from Israel.
Over the past days, more than 500 Tuaregs, including women and children, have crossed from Libya to Algeria, claiming they were forced to flee their homes by anti-Qaddafi fighters, who took reprisals after occupying their towns.
Libya’s Transitional National Council denied charges made by Morocco’s official news service that some 550 Polisario Front fighters from occupied Western Sahara had been arrested for serving as mercenaries for Qaddafi.
Clashes between police and Shi’ite protesters continue in Bahrain, fueled by the killing of a 14-year-old boy by riot police. The new protests erupted on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr festival.
The administration of Ollanta Humala has imposed a two-yea deadline for the Camisea consortium to find new gas reserves to meet its export obligations, saying all gas from existing fields will be used to meet domestic demand.
As NATO carries out air-strikes and NTC forces advance on Qaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, the fugitive strongman’s forces are accused of holding the populace captive to use as “human shields.”
Guerilla attacks on oil operations in Colombia have been escalating since President Juan Manuel Santos threatened to expel those companies that do not halt payment of protection money to the guerilla army.
Authorities in China’s Sichuan province have charged three Tibetan monks with murder over the death of a fellow monk who set himself on fire in an apparent protest action. The local Ngaba Kirti monastery remains under siege by security forces.
Some 300 militants crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan’s territory and stormed seven security checkpoints along the Durand Line, leaving several troops dead. Suicide attacks and NATO air-strikes in Afghanistan meanwhile killed several civilians.
Ali Tarhuni, oil minister of Libya’s Transitional National Council, has assumed executive powers in Tripoli. But the African Union, in an emergency summit at Addis Ababa, refused to recognize the TNC as the legitimate government.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has claimed responsibility for three suicide attacks in Algeria this summer—most recently at military barracks in the coastal town of Cherchel, leaving 18 dead.
Ibrahim ag-Bahanga, the most intransigent of Mali’s Tuareg rebel leaders, died in a mysterious accident in his remote Saharan homeland. Locas say he was involved in a dispute with fellow traffickers who were moving weapons to the Libyan rebels.
