Despite a new law that supposedly halts the controversial highway through the Bolivian rainforest, construction in fact continues. Supporters of President Evo Morales rallied in La Paz in favor of the road, as the cross-country march in protest of it continues.
The indigenous Aché community of Chupa Pou in Paraguay sent warriors armed with bows and arrows into a 2,000-hectare area to defend it from Brazilian farmers who had invaded the land, in violation of Aché territorial rights recognized by Paraguayan law.
An Egyptian court overturned a ban that prohibited presidential hopeful Ayman Nour from officially forming the Islamic-based political party Gama’a al-Islamiya. But the ruling military council instated a ban on religious-based campaign slogans.
Syria has rejected calls from several nations to join the International Criminal Court according to a report adopted by the UN Human Rights Council, which again called for the regime to halt its violent crackdown on anti-government protests.
The Afghan Ministry of Interior Affair and the National Security Directorate denied allegations of widespread torture of prisoners made earlier this week in a report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
President Omar al-Bashir announced that Sudan will adopt an Islamic constitution based on sharia law now that the mostly Christian south has seceded. The creation of an Islamic state raises grave concerns the one million southerners living in Sudan.
Did the Quds Force, international arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, contract with Mexico’s blood-drenched Zetas to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington? Or is the whole plot a creation of undercover DEA agents?
On Columbus Day/Día de la Raza, some 10,000 indigenous Mapuche and their supporters marched through Santiago, many dressed in traditional costumes and carrying flags, to demand freedom for political prisoners and restoration of traditional lands.
A Colombian photographer who works with the threatened Nukak indigenous group received a death threat accusing him of being a guerilla—while the FARC guerillas hijacked a shipment of medical supplies bound for the Nukak.
More than 20 displaced indigenous Triqui members of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala were arrested by local police in the “official” municipality of Oaxaca de Juárez for attempting to occupy lands they say were usurped by paramilitaries.
Bolivian lawmakers voted to approve President Evo Morales’ decision to halt a controversial road project through the country’s eastern Amazon rainforest in order to consult with the local population. But protest marchers continue to advance towards La Paz.
Tens of thousands of striking workers were joined by students in marches through Bogotá, Medellín, Cali and other cities across Colombia to demand the right to unionize, public health care and education, and an end to labor contracting.
