Mexico
Wanted police chief arrested in Mexican massacre
Felipe Flores, former police chief of Iguala, the Mexican city where 43 college students disappeared in 2014, was finally apprehended after two years as a fugitive.
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.
Greater Middle East
Russia delivers Aleppo ultimatum —with war fleet
Vladimir Putin issued an ultimatum to the defenders of Aleppo's rebel-held east that they abandon the city, as a Russian war fleet approaches Syria's coast.
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.
Southeast Asia
Philippines to turn to China for drug war aid?
The Philippines' ultra-hardline President Duterte, in announcing his "separation" from the US, praised China for providing aid without criticizing his atrocious human rights record.
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.
Greater Middle East
Turkey: Diyarbakir mayors detained on ‘terrorism’
The co-mayors of Diyarbakır were arrested in a supposed "anti-terrorism" investigation—part of the ongoing repression against the Kurdish opposition in Turkey's east.
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.