At least 5,000 people marched in central Tel Aviv on the night of June 4 in support of a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders. The march was sponsored by several parties and organizations, including Peace Now, Meretz, Hadash, Combatants for Peace and Gush Shalom, and Other Voice. Chants and slogans included "Netanyahu said no—We say yes to a Palestinian state," "Palestinian state—An Israeli interest," "Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies," and "Bibi, recognize the Palestinians." A few dozen right-wing activists held a counter demonstration at the start of the march. (JTA, June 5)

Two undocumented Cuban migrants being held at a jail in the border town of Tapachula in Mexico's southern Chiapas state were hospitalized after 21 days on hunger strike May 26. The local Fray Matias de Cordova y Ordoñez Human Rights Center said that the 11 jailed migrants—nine Cubans, a Guatemalan and a Dominican—went on hunger strike to demand their liberty after being arrested following what authorities called a "riot" (motín) at a detainment center of Mexico's National Immigration Institute (INM). The detained migrants were awaiting transfer to Mexico City after being apprehended at the Guatemalan border. The "riot" seems to have been an escape attempt, in which nine migrants succeeded in fleeing the detainment center. (EFE, May 26; Noticias Sin, Dominican Republic, May 24)

According to a report out last month by the German daily Die Welt, Tehran is moving forward with building missile launch bases on Venezuela's Paraguaná Peninsula (in the Guajira region, just south of Aruba—see map). The same German paper also claimed last November that Caracas and Tehran had signed an agreement to establish a joint military base in Venezuela. Die Welt's November report stated that the base is to be staffed by members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The agreement reportedly calls for Iranian Shahab 3, Scud-B, and Scud-C missiles to be deployed at the base—missiles with a trajectory range of up to 900 miles. The report was echoed earnestly by various neocon think-tanks in the US. (Jewish Policy Center, Jerusalem Post, May 17)

Authorities in Tunisia have recovered some 150 bodies of more than 250 African migrants who went missing after their over-crowded boat capsized in the Mediterranean earlier this week, the International Organization for Migration said in Geneva on June 4. The migrants were reportedly on their way to the Italian island of Lampedusa from Libya when their vessel ran aground and capsized some 19 nautical miles off Tunisia's Kerkennah islands. Survivors say there were more than 800 people on board when the accident occurred. Tunisia's coast guard and army managed to rescue about 570 from the ill-fated vessel. (RTT, June 3)

Yemen's embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh is expected to arrive in Saudi Arabia imminently to receive treatment for wounds he suffered in an attack on the presidential palace, Saudi government sources said June 4. Saleh has been left with shrapnel near his heart and second-degree burns to his chest and face after the palace attack. Saudi Arabia has brokered a fresh truce between a tribal federation and Saleh-loyal forces. But a Saudi-brokered truce agreed to a week ago held for only a day before fresh street battles broke out in the capital Sanaa, leading to the most intense fighting there since the uprising against Saleh’s 32-year role began. On June 3, fighting engulfed Sanaa, where residents cowered in their homes as explosions rocked the city. More than 370 people have been killed, at least 155 of them in the last 10 days, since the popular uprising began in January. (Reuters, Reuetrs, Khajeel Times, UAE, June 4; Reuters, June 3)

Somalia's Sufi group, the Ahlu Sunna Waljama (ASWJ), on June 2 announced it is boycotting a "consultative meeting" with the transitional government in Mogadishu next week. In an interview with Somalia's independent Shabelle Media Network, Sheikh Omar Sheikh Abdulkadir, a spokesman for the group, said they would not attend the meeting because they were not invited, and predicted it would be fruitless. The consultative meeting is intended to broker peace among Somalia's political and regional factions. Thousands of families have been displaced in recent weeks of fighting between the Ahlu Sunna and the fundamentalist Shabab insurgents in the central Galgadud region (see map). Dusamareb, the regional capital, has changed hands repeatedly in the fighting, prompting an exodus of the town's residents. Drought conditions in the countryside have worsened the plight of the displaced.

Chinese authorities have tightened security across the province of Inner Mongolia after days of unrest, which began last week when a Mongol herdsman was killed by a coal truck as a group of traditional herders sought to block a convoy from crossing their pastureland. Hundreds of riot police armed with batons have been posted at the main square in provincial capital Hohhot. Access to the internet has been blocked in some areas, and universities and schools are under close watch. "Students were closely monitored by their teachers and security personnel inside the campuses," the New York-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC) said in an e-mailed statement. China accused unspecified "foreign forces" of trying to exploit protests by ethnic Mongolian students, but the government also pledged to address the underlying issues—the mining industry's rapid expansion and its impact on the environment.

For more than a month now, large parts of Nepal have been periodically shut down by a series of bandhs, or civil strikes, called by indigenous groups, regional autonomists and former Maoist rebels. In the town of Hetauda, Makwanpur district, a group led by local businessmen on May 31 held a motorcycle rally to protest the protest campaigns which have demanded a halt to all business and traffic. Local bandhs were called there several days in succession by the Matrika Yadav faction of the CPN-Maoist, and the Sanghiya Loktantrik Party and Tamsaling Autonomous Council, two groups demanding greater autonomy for the Tamsaling region. (Himalayan Times, May 25) Two weeks earlier, a coalition of minority ethnicities and indigenous groups staged a coordinated nationwide bandh, shutting roads and markets across the country to demand greater rights as a new constitution is prepared. (Hindustan Times, May 13)