More than 100 Romanians were moved to emergency accommodation in Belfast June 17 after a racist gang attacked homes in the university area of the city. Several of the immigrants were wounded, and one of the attackers was said to be brandishing a gun. Most of the displaced say they no longer feel safe in Belfast and intend to return to Romania. The intimidation culminated in an attack on a rally being held in support of the Eastern European migrants June 15, in which thugs threw bricks and bottles and made Nazi salutes, chanting slogans associated with Combat 18, a far-right faction. (London Times, June 18)

International rights organizations say hundreds of activists and opposition figures have been detained in Iran in response to protests over the country's disputed elections. Hadi Ghaemi, director of the New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, said he had spoken with family members and colleagues of people who have been arrested or disappeared—saying there have been at least 200 such cases across the country.

Venezuela's Hugo Chávez is one of the few world leaders to stand by Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, even as hundreds of thousands take to the streets of Iran's cities to protest his re-election claim. A Venezuelan foreign ministry statement, "in the name of the people," hailed the "extraordinary democratic development" that resulted in Ahmadinejad's victory.

Fox News warns in a June 16 headline, "Bolivia Becoming a Hotbed of Islamic Extremism, Report Concludes"—citing the findings of a recent study by the Open Source Center (OSC) of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. "There's a theory that they may believe—Latin America, particularly with its Leftist leanings in recent years, may be more receptive to the anti-American-type rhetoric that we've been accustomed to hearing from Iran," an anonymous "US intelligence official" told Fox.

Peru recalled its ambassador to June 16 after President Evo Morales described the recent killings of indigenous protesters in the Peruvian Amazon as "genocide." Ambassador Fernando Rojas said Morales' comments were a "totally false assessment." Peruvian Foreign Minister José García Belaunde said the measure was "a redress manifestation for the continued intromissions of the Bolivian government on internal issues of the country." He added that he considered Morales an "enemy of Peru."

Senior figures in Peru are threatening a clamp-down on both Peruvian and foreign NGOs in the wake of the violent protests which have erupted in the country's Amazon region. The Congressional Foreign Relations Committee is examining a proposal to restrict the funding of Peruvian NGOs by outside agencies. Many indigenous organizations have for decades received financial support from Western funding agencies.

Malian security forces clashed with a group of suspected al-Qaeda militants June 17 in the northern Tessalit region, killing several people, a senior military source told Reuters. The armed forces sent out patrols to try to track down the suspected militants around Mali's northern border region with Algeria after the assassination this month of the security chief of the Timbuktu region.

Thousands of Iranians took to the streets of Tehran June 16 in rival demonstrations over the country's disputed presidential election, pushing the crisis into its fourth day despite a government offer to recount a limited number of ballots. With a harsh media crackdown in place, word has been slow to get out of protests outside Tehran—but at least two are reported dead in Tabriz, capital of Azerbaijan province.