A Chinese court sentenced human rights activist Huang Qi, a critic of the government’s handling of the Sichuan earthquake, to three years in prison for illegally holding state secrets.
The government of the Czech Republic expressed regret over the illegal sterilizations of mostly Roma women that have been performed in the country in recent years.
Panama’s National Police used tear gas to allow cattle company bulldozers to destroy the Naso indigenous settlement of La Trinchera on contested land in Bocas del Toro province.
A Sandinista party member was killed and an undetermined number of Liberal Party opposition followers injured in clashes between rival demonstrators on highways around Nicaragua.
Magaly Janeth Moreno Vega AKA “La Perla,” wanted by Interpol as a leader of the Colombian paramilitaries, was arrested by Venezuelan authorities—as Hugo Chávez hailed Carlos the Jackal.
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem says the Palestinian conflict has left almost 8,900 people dead over the last 20 years—with 2009 the bloodiest.
After months of dialogue, the Turkish government announced a plan to help end the 25-year conflict with a Kurdish separatist movement that has cost more than 40,000 lives.
The Iraqi parliament has failed to resolve an impasse threatening to delay the country’s election—which could affect the US military’s plans for a partial pullout next year.
Plaintiffs in the civil suit against Blackwater over the 2007 Nisur Square massacre are divided on whether to accept a settlement. The case now heads for an evidentiary hearing.
Federal prosecutors indicated they will drop manslaughter charges against a Blackwater security guard involved in the September 2007 shooting incident in Baghdad that killed 17 Iraqis.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced former vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi to six years in prison for his role in the unrest that followed the disputed presidential elections.
Aymara leader Walter Aduviri was elected governor of Peru's Puno region—just two days after the country's Supreme Court declared void a seven-year prison term against him for "disturbing public order" during a 2011 protest wave in which he was the principal leader. Aduviri had carried out his campaign from hiding, and only emerged from clandestinity with announcement of the high court ruling. He will now face a new trial on the charges related to the so-called "Aymarazo"—an Aymara uprising against an unpopular mineral development project, which was ultimately suspended. His Mi Casita Movement for Regional Integration and Development won 48% of the vote in the race, ahead of the other candidates. It also took several municipal races in Puno region. (Photo: Diario Uno)
