Weeks after Tuareg rebels seized the northern half of the country (with its precious uranium deposits) no move has been made by Mali’s government to try to take it back—a sign that the state has in fact collapsed.
UN aid agencies in the occupied West Bank protested that Israel destroyed 21 homes of Palestinian Bedouin refugees at Khalayleh north of East Jerusalem—leaving 54 people homeless, including 35 children.
China and Russia team up for joint maneuvers in the East China Sea, while the US and Philippines do the same in the South China Sea. The drills follow confrontations in the South China Sea between Chinese, Philippine and Vietnamese forces.
A protest leader was found dead after overnight clashes between the pro-democracy demonstrators and police in Bahrain, as the Formula One Grand Prix car-racing spectacle is set to open in the conflicted Persian Gulf mini-state.
After re-taking the contested oil-rich border enclave of Heglig, Sudan’s President Omar Bashir called the South Sudanese “insects” and said he will will not allow the South to export any oil through the cross-border pipeline.
An elderly man set himself on fire in Kyrgyzstan’s southern city of Osh, the scene of repeated rival protests between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks. Labor strikes and local protests have meanwhile shut down the country’s giant Kumtor gold mine.
Contradictory accounts of the Tibetan self-immolations—now numbering over 35—reveal rival conceptions of Tibet’s borders by the Chinese state and the Dalai Lama’s exile government, with control of critical resources in the background.
As the Libyan regime consolidates control over regional militias, Amnesty International warns of torture and killings of Black African detainees at militia-run camps. Fighting between Arab militias and Black Libyans continues in the country’s south.
With Sudan and South Sudan effectively at war, each are apparently arming guerillas in the other’s territory. The Geneva-based Small Arms Survey finds that the South is arming rebels in Kordofan, while Khartoum arms insurgents across the border.
Peru’s Panamericana TV broadcast an interview with the leader of the Sendero Luminoso guerillas who last week took hostage some 40 Camisea gas pipeline workers—adding further confusion to the already extremely murky affair.
The special panel charged with conducting a review of the controversial Conga mining project in Peru’s northern Andean region of Cajamarca handed its findings in to the government—as anti-mine protesters occupy Cajamarca’s central plaza.
At the Summit of the Americas, President Obama announced approval of Colombia’s supposed progress in protecting labor rights, allowing the Free Trade Agreement to take effect next month—to protests of the country’s embattled trade unions.
