The Andes
Peru: army claims rescue of Sendero slaves
Peru's army announced that it had "rescued" 39 people—the majority indigenous Asháninka and 26 of them underage—who were held captive in Sendero Luminoso camps.
The Amazon
Peru: plan to ‘contact’ isolated tribe draws protest
Indigenous advocates are urgently opposing a plan by Peru's Culture Ministry to establish "contact" with an isolated band in the Amazon under pressure from illegal loggers.
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.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan: rise in women and children casualties
A new UN report shows a significant increase in the number of women and children being hurt or killed in Afghanistan's war with the Taliban and other insurgents.
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
Russia files revised bid for arctic territory
Russia’s Foreign Ministry submitted a new bid claiming over 350 nautical miles of oil-rich Arctic sea shelf before the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
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.
Africa
Burundi rights activist latest injured in attacks
Burundi human rights activist Pierre Claver Mbonimpa was wounded in an assassination attempt a day after the slaying of the divided the country's feared security chief.
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.