The US State Department has for the first time called for withholding Merida Initiative funds based on human rights abuses in Mexco—but at the same time approved release of $36 million.
Taiwan's Council of Indigenous Peoples signed an agreement with the Pacific Island state of the Marshall Islands aimed at increasing bilateral exchanges to promote Austronesian culture. The agreement seeks to promote cooperation between Taiwan's indigenous communities and the linguistically related people of the Marshall Islands, particularly in the fields of language and preservation of traditional wisdom. The agreement, signed last month, coincides with the opening of the UN International Year of Indigenous Languages, which acknowledges to the critical state of many indigenous tongues, and seeks to promote their protection and use, both at national and international levels. (Photo of Bunum people via Mata Taiwan)
Violence continues to escalate in the conflicted northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas. At least 25 were killed as soldiers stormed a training camp allegedly set up by Los Zetas in Ciudad Mier.
Georgetown University announced that former Colombian president and accused war criminal Álvaro Uribe will be named a “distinguished scholar in the practice of global leadership.”
Although before the Deepwater Horizon disaster they won little media attention, government statistics show that more than 100 fires and explosions take place in the Gulf of Mexico each year.
Before Hamas resumed armed attacks this week, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced plans to “hermetically seal” the Gaza Strip—to little media attention.
Thousands of coal trucks and other vehicles are backed up for 75 miles on a highway in northern China. In a recent monster-jam on the Beijing-Tibet highway, motorists were immobilized for five days.
Thousands of Shi’ites marched in mourning in Lahore a day after three suicide bombers blew themselves up amid a procession outside a mosque—the latest in a series of jihadist attacks on Muslims.
A spike in food prices has triggered deadly riots in Mozambique this week, with unrest over price hikes also reported in Egypt, Pakistan and Serbia—leading to fears of a new global food crisis.
Slovakia commemorated the victims of this week’s massacre in Bratislava with an official day of mourning. The targeted family was of mixed ethnic Slovak and Roma composition.
Hamas claimed credit for killing four Israeli settlers near Hebron, as Israel’s right-wing Shas party—which opposes any settlement freeze—said that Hamas terror would sabotage the peace process.
The US Department of Justice announced that it has charged Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimulla Mehsud in connection with the deadly Dec. 30 attack on CIA outpost in Afghanistan.
