As South Sudan formally declares independence, thousands of Ethiopian “peacekeepers” are headed for the contested border enclave of Abyei, and the indigenous Nuba people take up arms in the North’s Kordofan region.
As a desperate Qaddafi threatens suicide attacks on European capitals, signs of a split emerge in the rebel National Transitional Council—raising fears of a widening of the civil war even after the dictator falls.
The Kichwa people of Sarayaku, a remote community in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest, have brought suit against the Quito government before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights over oil contracts on their traditional lands.
FARC guerillas attacked the central plaza of the indigenous Nasa village Toribio in Colombia’s Cuaca department, leaving two civilian residents dead and 73 injured. Indigenous authorities condemned the assault as a threat to their autonomy and survival.
Famed Argentine folksinger Facundo Cabral, an icon of Latin American protest music, was shot to death by unknown gunmen who ambushed his car on the way to the airport in Guatemala City.
The Honduras Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that the removal from office of former President Manuel Zelaya was a coup—but also that Zelaya’s referendum on constitutional change was “a point of no return” in the crisis.
Israel’s Civil Administration on the West Bank declared 189 dunams of land belonging to the Palestinian village of Karyut to be state land, so as to retroactively “legalize” a nearby settlement outpost.
In a resolution that passed 406-6, the US House of Representatives threatened to cut off funding to the Palestinian Authority if it pursues recognition of statehood outside of negotiations with Israel.
In another contradictory message, the US House of Representatives voted down a measure to defund US military operations in Libya but approved an amendment barring aid to the Libyan rebels.
A Yemeni man pleaded guilty to acts of piracy for the hijacking of a US vessel that resulted in the deaths of four US citizens. Prosecutors pledged that “pirates who attack on US citizens on the high seas will face justice in a US courtroom.”
Bolivia formally notified the UN of its withdrawal from the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, in protest of the treaty’s provision that “coca leaf chewing must be abolished.”
Key state elections in Mexico returned the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to power, in what commentators are calling a signal that the once-discredited party could regain the presidency next year.
