California authorities are threatening disciplinary measures as more than 12,000 inmates in the state's prisons have missed nine consecutive meals over three days in a hunger strike against solitary confinement. The nine-meal point is considered a critical benchmark that requires officials to recognize the action as a hunger strike. About 30,000 prisoners across the state began refusing meals on July 8 in support of supposedly "gang-affiliated" inmates being held in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison. Some prisoners are also refusing to work and to attend classes. "Participating in a mass disturbance and refusing to participate in a work assignment are violations of state law, and any participating inmates will receive disciplinary action," California prison officials said in a statement. A total of 4,527 inmates at four state prisons are now in solitary confinement.

National Police troops in Peru's Cajamarca region opened fire July 6 on campesinos attempting to attend the public presentation of an environmental impact statement on the Chadín II hydro-electric project at the highland town of Celendín, witnesses said. According to a statement from the group Tierra y Libertad, nine were wounded when the troops fired on the opponents of the project who were trying to gain access to the public building where the meeting was being held. Marle Libaque Tasilla, a leader of the local ronda, or peasant self-defense patrol, and an organizer for Tierra y Libertad, said that among the injured is the noted Peruvian environmentalist Nicanor Alvarado Carrasco.

Two explosions shut down Colombia's 80,000 barrel-per-day Caño Limon-Covenas oil pipeline, state-controlled oil company Ecopetrol said July 5, with a military source describing them as attacks carried out by leftist rebels. The explosions on Colombia’s second largest pipeline, used by US oil producer Occidental and owned by Ecopetrol, had no immediate impact on production or exports in Latin America's fourth largest oil producer, according to an Ecopetrol official. No details on how much crude was spilt by the explosions or the environmental damage was immediately available, the Ecopetrol official said.

A former commander of Colombian neo-paramilitary group Los Paisas and four other alleged members of illegal armed groups escaped July 5 after armed men ambushed the van the suspects were transported in. At the time of his arrest in 2011, "La Pantera" was said to be the second in command of the Paisas, which later joined forces with the Rastrojos to combat the expanding rival Urabeños gang. According to prison authorities, the van taking the suspects from the city of Montería to Medellín for a court hearing was ambushed while traveling through the municipality of Taraza, the heartland of the Paisas. Two of the five prison guards transporting the suspected criminals were injured in the attack.

A string of nine near-simultaneous bomb blasts in and around the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya in India's Bihar state, revered as the birthplace of Buddhism, left two monks injured on July 7. Another two live bombs were reportedly found near the temple and defused There was no damage to the temple, or to the holy bodhi tree within the complex, said to be that under which Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment. The right-opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) immediately accused the central and Bihar governments of failing to take steps to avert the attack despite warnings from the intelligence services.

Some 40 supporters of Egypt's deposed president Mohamed Morsi were injured as soldiers opened fire on protesters outside a government office in El Arish, a town in the northern Sinai Peninsula July 6. (Euronews, July 6) That same day, a Coptic Christian priest, Mina Aboud Sharween, was shot dead while walking on a street in El Arish—apparently the first sectarian killing since the power transfer. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood had criticized Pope Tawadros, spiritual leader of Egypt's 8 million Copts, for giving his blessing to the removal of the president and attending the announcement by army chief Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, suspending the constitution. (The Guardian, July 6)

On June 30, a demolition crew with rock drills and a backhoe razed a pyramid at El Paraiso archaeological site in the working-class district of San Martin de Porres in Lima, Peru. The pyramid, 2,000 square meters in extension, was one of 12 at site, dating to the Late Pre-Ceramic Age (2000-3000 BCE). Archaeologist Marco Guillén Hugo, in charge of excavations at the site, said he had reason to believe two private construction companies, Compañía y Promotora Provelanz and Alisol SAC Ambas, were behind the destruction. “This isn't the first time they have tried to take over this land," Guillén told the daily El Comercio. "They say they are the owners, even though this land is untouchable." He charged that the companies "have committed irreparable damage to a page of Peruvian history."

World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg's presentation about Peru at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) on New York's Lower East Side last week is now on YouTube. The talk and slide show focused on struggles for urban space in Lima (community centers, squats, gardens); the movement for legalization of coca leaf, and against US-led eradication efforts; and peasant struggles for land and water against US mineral companies in the Andes. There was also a report on recent protests in Lima against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, with a representative from NY Metro Trade Justice.