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OAKLANDAS

The Supreior Court of Justice for Peru's rainforest region of Madre de Dios upheld a lower court ruling that nullified mining concessions as well as the titling of agricultural properties and granting of water rights to third parties on the territory of the indigenous community of Tres Islas, without prior consultation with that community. The regional government of Madre de Dios is ordered to comply with the ruling, as is the National Water Authority and the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation. The National Police are called upon to enforce the ruling if necessary. Peru's International Institute of Law and Society, which represented Tres Islas in the case, hailed the ruling as "historic." (Photo: La Mula)

New York City

NYPD, under fire, to end CIA collaboration program

The New York Police Department, under fire from New York City Muslims, has announced that is ending its program of NYPD-CIA collaboration launched after 9-11. But calls mount for Commissioner Ray Kelly to step down.

North Africa

Libya: revolutionary regime hit by torture claims

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, joined by Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders, charged that several detainees have been tortured to death in recent weeks by forces of Libya’s transitional government.

Africa

South Sudan shuts down oil production in pipeline impasse

Landlocked South Sudan has ordered oil production shut down, at an impasse in talks with Khatroum over terms for use of the pipeline linking the two countries. South Sudan accuses Khartoum of stealing $815 million worth of oil.

East Asia

Japan to be nuclear-free by April

Japan’s last nuclear power plant will close in April as reactors are shut for safety checks. Meanwhile, the mayor of Hakodate on Hokkaido called on the Industry Ministry to freeze a nuclear plant slated for the town of Oma in Aomori prefecture.

Planet Watch

Obama shilling for drilling, backing fracking

President Obama effuses about turning the US into “the Saudi Arabia of natural gas”—as new EPA studies find water wells contaminated with toxic chemicals from “hydraulic fracturing” across the country, sparking anger from affected residents.

Oceania

Australia: Aboriginal protesters occupy Canberra

This Australia Day—marking the 1788 establishment of the New South Wales colony, derided by Aborigines as “Invasion Day”—saw the establishment of a “Tent Embassy” encampment outside the Old Parliament House in Canberra.

Inner Asia

Tibetan protests and deadly repression in Sichuan province

Although the details and even the death toll are disputed by Chinese authorities and Tibetan exile and support groups, a wave of protest and repression has left several dead in the Tibetan ethnic areas of Sichuan province this week.

Greater Middle East

Syria: NATO intervention next?

The Free Syrian Army is taking control of territory just outside Damascus, while the US and allies protest Russian arms sales to Assad’s regime. IWPR interviewed one activist in rebel territory who called for NATO intervention.

Iran

Azerbaijan drawn into Iranian spy-vesus-spy intrigues

Two men in Azerbaijan were arrested in an alleged Iranian-backed plot to kill two Jewish educators and the Israeli ambassador—as Obama in his State of the Union address made an oblique threat to use nuclear weapons against Iran.