The Caribbean
Cuba: #YoTambienExijo and ‘regime change’
Was Tania Bruguera's #YoTambienExijo a US-inspired "regime change" charade? Should Cubans not press free speech now because of US rapprochement with the regime?
Afghanistan
US ‘ends war’ in Afghanistan —not!
The NATO "withdrawal" from Afghanistan was quietly marked by a Kabul ceremony—as air-strikes, suicide attacks and gun-battles with Taliban insurgents continued without pause.
North Africa
Libya: air-strikes on Misrata as fighting spreads
Warplanes under the command of renegade Gen. Khalifa Haftar fired missiles at Misrata's rebel-held airport, as Libya's oil exports remain effectively paralyzed by civil war.
Mexico
Chicago link to Mexican mass abduction?
Another major bust of an accused Mexican cartel operative in Chicago this time involves the Guerreros Unidos—the gang named in the the disappearance of 43 college students.
Central America
Nicaragua: protests as canal construction begins
Official ceremonies marked ground-breaking on Nicaragua's inter-oceanic canal project—marred by angry campesino protests, with scores detained and injured.
The Amazon
Peru to evacuate village in Amazon conflict
Riverboats were sent to evacuate a rainforest village after it was raided by an isolated indigenous band, apparently pushed from its lands by illegal loggers and narco-traffickers.
The Amazon
Brazil: victory for indigenous land struggle
Brazil's Congress concluded work for the year, having failed to approve a constitutional amendment aimed at gutting the process of indigenous land demarcation.
Palestine
Israel high court orders settlement demolished
Israel's Supreme Court issued a rare ruling to demolish a Jewish settlement at Amona in the West Bank. The settlers pledge resistance as a deadline for eviction looms.
Greater Middle East
Turkey: clashes between PKK, Islamists
Three were killed in southeastern Turkish town of Cizre in clashes between Islamist militants of the Huda-Par and followers of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Palestine
Fatah under attack over statehood proposal
A Hamas leader said that the draft resolution for Palestinian statehood presented to the UN Security Council is "disastrous," and has "no future in the land of Palestine."
Greater Middle East
Syria: new rebel alliance in besieged Aleppo
With regime bombardment intensifying, Syrian rebel factions in Aleppo announced a new "Shamiyya Front"—a further consolidation of "moderate" Islamist forces.
The Caribbean
Assata Shakur as political football
The US political right uses Assata Shakur to take a hit at Obama's Cuba opening while simultaneously getting subliminal licks in at the Black Lives Matter protests.