Some 4,000 living in communities on the banks of the Rio Marañón in Peru’s northeastern Loreto department have been affected by an oil spill caused by the Argentine firm Pluspetrol.
A video of a rally in support of the Shining Path, which supposedly took place at Lima’s San Marcos University, has sparked a media frenzy—and fears of police or military intervention on campus.
Mexican campesino rights activist América del Valle, leader of the land defense committee at the village of San Salvador Atenco, applied for political asylum at the Venezuelan embassy in Mexico City.
The Guatemalan government agreed to suspend operations at Goldcorp Inc.’s controversial Marlin gold mine, but says there is “no exact day yet” for closure of the facility.
Soldiers, police and private guards entered La Aurora estate in the Aguán Valley of northern Honduras and attacked campesinos encamped there. One youth was killed in the operation.
Some 85% of the gross profits from trafficking cocaine from South America to the US remain with US distribution networks, according to an official of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Mexican singer Sergio “El Shaka” Vega was shot dead hours after he issued a statement denying reports of his murder. Vega was on his way to a concert when gunmen fired on his red Cadillac.
A federal judge ordered the release of Guantánamo Bay detainee Mohammed Odaini to his homeland of Yemen, despite the Obama administration’s ban on repatriation to the Arab nation.
Two people were killed as Indian security forces fired on protesters at various places around the Kashmir Valley. Local Muslim leaders have called a campaign of civil disobedience.
Somalia marked its 50th anniversary of independence from colonial rule with bullets on one end of the country and ballots on the other, as independent Somaliland held free elections.
A new US drone strike killed four in North Waziristan. According to a count by Iran’s Press TV, the US has launched 36 drone strikes in Pakistan since January, killing at least 390.
At least nine ethnic Hazara men were killed in a Taliban ambush and possibly beheaded. The Taliban carried out a campaign of genocide against the Hazaras during their years in power.
