Father José Andrés Tamayo, an activist Honduran priest who was the Central American recipient of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for 2005, went into hiding shortly after the June 28 military coup that removed President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales from power, according to phone calls he made on July 1 to New York's Spanish-language daily El Diario-La Prensa and the US-based Catholic News Service.

Thousands of riders were stranded in Lima early on June 30 at the beginning of a 24-hour national strike by Peruvian urban transportation workers and owners. The strikers were protesting new regulations that were to take effect on July 1 and a new rate for fines that starts on July 21. In the southern Lima neighborhood of Villa El Salvador, a group of strikers hurled rocks at buses not honoring the strike call; police agents responded by shooting in the air, according to Radio Programas del Perú (RPP). In the north of the city some strikers stoned buses and burned tires; others used rocks to block the Carretera Central, which links Lima to the center of the country.

During the week of June 29 Haitian president René Préval and pro-business groups pushed hard to water down a bill Parliament passed in May to raise the minimum wage from 70 gourdes ($1.74) a day to 200 gourdes ($4.97). Claiming that the wage increase would jeopardize the free trade zone (FTZ) factories—maquiladoras that assemble goods largely for export—Préval has proposed an increase to 125 gourdes for that sector. On June 29 Préval met with journalists to explain his position. Jobs in the FTZ sector have grown from 8,000 in 2007 to 25,000 now, he said, and those jobs would be put at risk by a large wage increase. (AlterPresse, June 29)

Despite harsh restrictions on media and Internet in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, wire services report continuing clashes between Han and Uighur residents of Urumqi in the wake of violence July 5 that left some 150 dead. Riot police used tear gas to disperse mobs armed with pipes and sticks. Han youth chanting "defend the country" attempted to invade Uighur neighborhoods, seeking retribution for the previous day's violence. In Hong Kong, Human Rights Watch Asia researcher Phelim Kine said the Chinese government needs to bring in an "international investigator from the United Nations to try to determine what exactly happened on Sunday and what were the reasons for it." (NY Daily News, BBC News, VOA, July 7)

At least six people were been killed and many others wounded when a powerful bomb exploded on the southern Philippine island of Jolo on July 7. The bomb, hidden on a motorbike, exploded outside a hardware store; the store owner was one of those killed. The blast was followed around two hours later by a car bomb attack next to a parked military patrol jeep in Iligan City. The second blast wounded at least 24 people, including three soldiers. Police said they had also defused another bomb near the Mount Carmel Cathedral in Jolo. On July 5, a bomb blast outside a cathedral in the Cotabato killed five people and wounded 55. Authorities blamed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for the Cotabato attack, Mohaqher Iqbal, although MILF spokesman Mohaqher Iqbal denied any involvement. (BBC News, Philippine Star, July 7)

Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, barred by the military from landing at the airport in Tegucigalpa on July 5, has been shuttling between Managua and San Salvador, and plans to fly to Washington July 7 to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In Nicaragua, he insisted to reporters: "I am going to return to Honduras, of this there can be no doubt. I'm not going to tell them how, because then they will be prepared, but they can wait for me in any municipality or any department" of Honduras. (AFP, July 7)

Thousands of protesters opposing expansion of the US military base at Vicenza clashed with Italian police over the weekend as world leaders gathered for the G8 summit. Riot forces fired teargas at demonstrators, some of them wearing crash helmets and carrying makeshift shields, who retaliated with hurled bottles and fireworks at a bridge leading to the base.

Over 150 are dead and some 1,000 injured following what China's state media call ethnic clashes between Uighurs and Han Chinese in Xinjiang province. The riots began late July 5 in Urumqi, the provincial capital, following a protest march by Uighurs in response the death of two Uighur workers in a mob attack at a toy factory in Guangdong province June 26. After the march was attacked by security forces, protesters torched vehicles and attacked shops. Authorities say Uighur mobs attacked Han residents. Police have conducted raids and arrested several hundred in Urumqi.