The Defense Department announced that military commission charges have been brought against Guantánamo Bay detainee Majid Shoukat Khan. He is the second to face a military tribunal under President Barack Obama.
Protesters took to the streets of Tehran one year after opposition leaders were put under house arrest for supporting Iran’s last protest wave. An Iranian patrol boat meanwhile had a “close encounter” with a US fleet in the Strait of Hormuz.
French officials said Tuareg guerillas of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) killed some hundred residents at a village they occupied in northern Mali. Over 50,000 have fled fighting in the remote Saharan region.
The National Transitional Council has lost control of Libya’s west to a new federation of militias that accuses the NTC of trying to “hijack the revolution.” Sufis celebrated the birth of the Prophet in Tripoli despite threats and attacks from Salafists.
Security forces in Bahrain fired tear-gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades at protesters gathered on the eve of the first anniversary of pro-democracy demonstrations. Protesters tried to gain control of the Pearl Roundabout in the capital, Manama.
Benjamin Netanyahu blamed “Iran and its proxy Hezbollah” after a deadly attack on an Israeli diplomat’s wife and attempted bombing in Tbilisi, Georgia— the day after the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Hezbollah’s operations chief.
A 69-year-old Palestinian man was killed in an attack by the Israeli Air Force on tunnels and a weapons depot in Gaza—as managers of the Strip’s only power plant warned of impending blackouts if more fuel is not delivered.
The Puerto Rican Civil Rights Commission has reportedly concluded that the killing of Puerto Rican nationalist leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios by the FBI was illegal and should be investigated—contradicting the findings of the US Justice Department.
Mexico’s Supreme Court ordered the release of seven indigenous Tzotzil Maya men who had been convicted of homicide and other crimes in the December 1997 massacre of 45 indigenous campesinos at Acteal, Chiapas.
Former soldiers of the disbanded Armed Forces of Haiti (FAd’H) have reportedly been occupying old military bases and training camps for several weeks—as right-wing President Michel (“Sweet Micky”) Martelly broaches plans to revive the FAd’H.
Police in northwestern Argentine province of Catamarca used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse some 100 local residents who were blocking a road to protest open-pit mining—the latest in a wave of such actions in the South American country.
A pact between indigenous leaders and the government of right-wing president Ricardo Martinelli ended more than a week of massive protests over mineral and territorial rights that led to at least two deaths and dozens of arrests.
