Planet Watch
Four Corners haze: harbinger of climate change
Federal authoriites approved an expansion of coal-mining and burning in the Four Corners area—as NASA has detected a massive methane plume over the region.
Iraq
PKK-aligned Yazidi militia battles ISIS
Young Yazidis—including women—are returning to Iraq's Mount Sinjar from which they were "cleansed" by ISIS last year, fighting to reclaim their homeland from the jihadists.
Greater Middle East
Suez Canal expansion amid regional war
Egypt formally opened an expansion to the Suez Canal amid pomp, spectacle—and a massive troop presence. The new trade hub opens as a jihadist insurgency mounts in the Sinai.
Planet Watch
Obama pursues nuclear ‘modernization’ —not disarmament
Despite early pledges to seek a nuclear-free world, Obama is launching a "modernization" of the US arsenal that actually makes atomic war more likely.
Planet Watch
Anishinaabe ‘Water Walk’ against pipeline plan
Anishinaabe activists in north Ontario are walking 125 kilometers of the proposed Energy East pipeline route to demonstrate their opposition, citing a threat to the region's waters.
Planet Watch
San Carlos Apache caravan to stop mineral grab
Members of the San Carlos Apache tribe returned to Arizona after traveling to Washington DC to protest a land-swap that would turn a sacred site over to copper mining.
Mexico
Michoacán: more clashes over self-defense units
Mexican army troops fired on villagers who blocked roads when soldiers arrived to arrest the leader of a self-defense militia who refused orders to demobilize.
Iraq
Turkey continues to bomb anti-ISIS forces
The US and Turkey have reached an agreement to keep Kurdish forces out of the northern Syria "buffer zone" as Ankara expands its air-strikes in both Syria and Iraq.
East Asia
Taiwan: protesters occupy Education Ministry
Student protesters are occupying the Education Ministry grounds in Taipei to demand an end to planned textbook revisions that emphasize the "One China" view of history.
Inner Asia
China releases imprisoned Tibetan nomad
A Tibetan nomad imprisoned eight years for calling for the return of the Dalai Lama was released, but his home county is tense over the death in custody of an activist monk.
North Africa
‘Narco-jihadist’ threat seen in North Africa
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and related networks are said to control Saharan smuggling routes for Moroccan hashish to fund their regional operations.
The Andes
Colombia: state seizes narco-lands from FARC
Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos announced details of an operation to seize nearly 278,000 hectares said to have been illegally usurped by the FARC.