The president’s Oil Spill Commission finds that last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill was “an entirely preventable disaster,” especially noting substandard construction work by Halliburton.
Siberia’s indigenous Evenk people have launched a campaign against Russian energy giant Gazprom’s plans for a pipeline through their territory, as BP and other majors plan investment.
Shi’ites held unprecedented protest rallies in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province as security forces fired on demonstrators in northern Yemen and the Egyptian port of Alexandria.
Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters demanding the ouster of Moammar Qaddafi in Tripoli, while rebels clashed with Qaddafi-loyalist forces for control of Raslanuf oil compound.
An Israeli company is said to be recruiting mercenaries to support Moammar Qaddafi, while Zimbabwe’s defense minister was grilled by opposition MPs over similar charges.
Following the success of coca eradication efforts, the FARC and right-wing paramilitaries are in a deadly struggle for control of outlaw gold-mining operations in Colombia’s jungles.
The foreign ministers of Colombia and Venezuela met in Caracas to improve bilateral relations—as the militarized and oil-rich border zone was shut down by indigenous protests.
Colombian “neo-pramilitary” groups containing former armed forces personnel were able to infiltrate the state by exploiting past military connections, according to a WikiLeaks cable.
Brazilian police are questioning a man accused of driving his car at high speed through a crowd of Critical Mass cyclists in Porto Alegre, injuring at least 12.
Activists have identified 10 “zones of extermination” in Ciudad Juárez, where “youthcide” is carried out with impunity—despite warnings from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Peru’s government secretly admitted that 70-90% of its mahogany exports are illegally felled, according to a WikiLeaks cable—amid concerns of illegal loggers encroaching on indigenous lands.
National Police opened fire on a roadblock by small-scale unlicensed miners in Peru’s Amazon region of Madre de Dios, launched to protest a crackdown that included aerial bombardment.
