Bolivian President Evo Morales lashed out at Barack Obama July 1, a day after the US ended trade benefits in a move that could cost thousands of jobs in Bolivia's export industries. "President Obama lied to Latin America when he told us in Trinidad and Tobago that there are not senior and junior partners," Morales said, refering to Obama's outreach to regional governments at the April Summit of the Americas. A day earlier, officials in Washington said they had ended import duty waivers because Bolivia is not doing enough to combat coca cultivation. (NYT, July 1)

José Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), gave a grim assessment July 2 of diplomatic efforts to restore the ousted president of Honduras, warning that it would be "very hard" to head off a more severe break with the nation and that he is prepared to call for sanctions. At a news conference in Panama, the ousted Manuel Zelaya insisted that he remains the legitimate president of Honduras, and called on his supporters to keep up their protests. "We may not have the institutions, but the street is ours," he said. "That's the people's place." He added that a "dictatorship has been established" in Honduras.

The Iranian government on July 1 prevented the publishing of the opposition Etemad-e-Melli newspaper in its latest move to quash anti-government reporting in the country. International journalists in the country have also been ordered to stay indoors. The newspaper is linked to opposition candidate Mehdi Karroubi. Both he and candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi have continued to criticize the government for both alleged election fraud and its harsh treatment of protesters and the press following the announcement that incumbent candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won the highly-disputed election. In reaction to Mousavi's increasing criticism of the government, some in the government and its Basij security forces have called for his arrest, calling him a threat to national security. (Jurist, July 2)

De facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti announced a suspension of civil rights for 72 hours the morning of July 1, in a decree approved by the National Congress. Freedom of assembly is restricted, and security forces are granted the power to detain citizens without charges and enter homes without a court order. The dusk-to-dawn curfew that has been in place since the June 28 coup has been extended for six more days.

Iran's Basij militia has asked prosecutors to investigate the role of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in the protests that rocked the Islamic Republic after last month's contested elections. The government-backed militia that enforced much of the crackdown against protesters accused Mousavi of several crimes including undermining national security—which could see him imprisoned for up to 10 years.

The Iraqi Oil Ministry announced that a contract will be signed to develop the Rumaila oil field—the largest in Iraq and one of the largest in the world—with a joint venture formed for the project by BP and the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC). Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani hailed the awarding of the Rumaila contract as a "great achievement". (Dow Jones, July 1) A rival bid was placed by a joint venture of Exxon and Malaysia's Petronas. (Dow Jones, June 30)

Pakistani jet-fighters continued to run bombing raids over North Waziristan tribal region, killing seven people on June 30, residents said. Warplanes bombed the Wacha Bibi area, west of Miramshah. A military convoy was ambushed in the locality on Sunday in which 27 soldiers were killed. The army claimed that 10 militants were killed in a counter attack.

Amnesty International July 21 accused Israeli forces of war crimes, saying they used children as human shields and conducted wanton attacks on civilians during their offensive in the Gaza Strip. The rights group also accused Hamas of war crimes, but found no evidence that the Islamist rulers of Gaza similarly used civilians as human shields during the 22-day Israeli offensive. It reiterated its call for an international arms embargo against Israel.