Bolivian authorities are hoping the arrest of Robin Rosales Agreda, “big fish” in the country’s cocaine trade, will be a final blow against the criminal machine that controls land and politics in eastern Santa Cruz department.
World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg, exiled from New York's WBAI-FM for his political dissent, has launched the first Internet edition of the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade.
Óscar Osvaldo García Montoya, AKA “El Compayito,” a drug lord arrested by Mexican police in connection with 900 murders, is a deserted navy corporal who trained with Guatemala’s feared Kaibiles.
The Economist sees “Anarchy in the UK” in the riots that have spread from London to Birmingham and Liverpool, as Trinidadian writer Darcus Howe tells the BBC the riots are “an insurrection of the people,” similar to what “is happening in Syria.”
Brazil’s indigenous agency FUNAI has launched an emergency investigation after a guard post at a reserve for isolated indigenous peoples in the rainforest of Acre state was overrun by heavily armed men thought to be drug traffickers.
The Tripoli regime accused NATO of killing 85 of civilians, including children, in an air attack on a village in western Libya. NATO responds that the regime was using farm buildings for military purposes, and said the casualties were likely “mercenaries.”
Lebanese singer Zeid Hamdan of the band Zeid and the Wings was briefly jailed on charges of defaming President Michel Suleiman in his single “General Suleiman.” He was released following a Facebook campaign.
Israeli officials responded harshly and immediately when Honduran president Pepe Lobo announced that his country plans to support statehood for Palestine during the UN General Assembly meeting in September.
Workers at Chile’s Escondida copper mine voted to end a 15-day-old strike despite failing to win their demand for a bonus of 5 million pesos ($10,562). Union officials admitted the members were worn out after two weeks without pay.
Street-fighting erupted in Santiago, with tear-gas and mass arrests, after the government of rightwing president Sebastián Piñera refused to issue permits for student marches, using a decree from the Pinochet era.
Acting on a court order, police destroyed homes that 500 squatters had improvised out of canvas, cardboard and sheet metal when they occupied land near the provincial capital, San Miguel de Tucumán.
More than 200,000 marched in Tel Aviv, under a banner with the word “Go!” in Arabic—a key symbol of the protest movement that brought down Hosni Mubarak, and a clear reference to Bibi Netanyahu. Below, in Hebrew, were the words: “Egypt is here!”
