The Amazon

Peru: Amazon natives broach separatism

Saying justice is no longer possible within Peru, Awajún and Wampis leaders in Amazonas region announced they plan to seek independence or unite their territory with Ecuador.

Iran

Iran-China pipeline route via restive regions

A new pipeline that would link Iran to China via Pakistan, bypassing the strategic Strait of Hormuz, would pass through the insurgent regions of Baluchistan, Kashmir and Xinjiang.

Southeast Asia

Borneo stand-off: whither Sulu sultanate?

Security forces in Malaysian Borneo are in a stand-off with some 100 men they say are insurgents from the Philippine island of Sulu raising an ancestral claim to the territory.

Central America

Nicaragua raises stakes in border conflict

Edén Pastora, Nicaragua's development czar for the strategic San Juan Basin, threatened a retliatory suit at The Hague for Costa Rica's legal challenge to his dredging operations.

East Asia

East China Sea edging towards war…

Chinese and Japanese aircraft had a near-confrontation over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands on the very day that China officially commemorated the 1937 Rape of Nanking.

East Asia

Anti-China protests: Vietnam’s turn

Anti-China protests in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City follow a maritime confrontation between Vietnamese naval forces and a Chinese fishing fleet in the contested South China Sea.

Central America

Colombia: war with Nicaragua ‘last resort’

Colombia's Juan Manuel Santos stated that war with Nicaragua is a "last resort"—while withdrawing official recognition from the  World Court over the martime dispute.