From Reporters Without Borders (RSF), via the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), July 6:

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrests of two journalists by intelligence officers in the past six days. Both Mohammad Asif Nang, editor of the government magazine Peace Jirga, and Kamran Mir Hazar, editor of the Kabul Press website, had been critical of the government.

At the recent African Union summit in Accra, Senegalese music star Youssou N'Dour—recently selected by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential personalities in the world—voiced support for the idea of a United States of Africa, and said he would run for the united continent's first president. "Apart from all demagogy, I solemnly announce my candidacy for leading the future African government," he said to thunderous applause. "I'm aware of the enormous stakes connected to this issue, and I have the required capacities." (Echorouk Online, Algeria, June 28)

From Reporters Without Borders (RSF), via the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), July 6:

RSF deplores President Rafael Correa's verbal attacks on the press and above all his decision not to give any more news conferences. The aggressivity of some of the news media towards him is undeniable, but he should try to defuse the tension between the press and the government, RSF said.

On June 14, the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization approved by consensus a resolution calling on the US government "to assume its responsibility to expedite a process that will allow the Puerto Rican people fully to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence," and requesting that the UN General Assembly "consider the question of Puerto Rico comprehensively in all its aspects." The resolution, presented by Cuba and co-sponsored by Venezuela, "[r]eiterates that the Puerto Rican people constitute a Latin American and Caribbean nation that has its own unequivocal national identity." (El Nuevo Dia, San Juan, June 14; Text of Draft Resolution, June 11; UN Department of Public Information News and Media Division, June 14)

More than 100,000 people filled the giant Zocalo plaza in downtown Mexico City on July 1 for the third National Democratic Convention (CND) called by former mayor and center-left 2006 presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Current president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa was officially declared the winner in the July 2, 2006 elections by a narrow margin in a victory not accepted by Lopez Obrador or his followers. In the July 1 gathering Lopez Obrador called on his followers not to compromise with Calderon, not to accept his program for "fiscal reform" and not to accept "reform" of the Law of State Workers Social Security and Services Institute (ISSSTE). (La Jornada, July 2)

Some 10,000 Colombians marched through Bogota's main avenues on July 1 as part of the worldwide celebrations for International Pride Day (June 28). The march, which went from the National Park to the Plaza de Bolivar, was organized by the Diverse Colombia foundation, and was backed by a number of politicians, including Carlos Gaviria, president of the center-left Alternative Democratic Pole (PDA), and Senator Piedad Cordoba of the Liberal Party. The march was given a somber note by two events in June: the death of 11 legislative deputies held hostage by the FARC in a June 18 incident and the failure of a civil union law to get final approval before Congress recessed on June 20. Some marchers wore black in memory of the deputies; one sign read: "They too deserved to be free." (Milenio, Mexico, July 1 from Notimex; Terra Espana, July 2 from EFE)

According to an open letter from the Provincial Council of Ecuador's Orellana province, starting in June 26 the Ecuadoran armed forces attacked striking residents of 26 communities of the Dayuma-Pindo Zone parish in Orellana. The communities were protesting the refusal of the Chinese oil corporation PetroOriental to comply with a labor agreement it signed on July 28, 2006, in which the company pledged to hire 80% of its skilled and non-skilled workforce from among local community residents. (Adital, July 2) Residents were also demanding that the company carry out promised local infrastructure projects. (El Diario-La Prensa, NY, July 7 from EFE)

An unauthorized migrant drowned in a border canal in El Paso, Texas, on June 27 after a US Border Patrol agent trying to rescue him was hit in the head with a rock thrown by a suspected smuggler, Border Patrol officials said. The agent, who was not identified, fired at least one shot at the suspected smuggler and at another would-be immigrant, who fled back into Mexico, Border Patrol spokesperson Patrick Berry said. It was unclear how many shots the agent fired or whether either of the fleeing men were hit by bullets. The drowned man's body was found in the canal more than four miles east of where the agents saw him go under the water, Berry said. The shooting is under investigation; it was the third involving a Border Patrol agent in the El Paso area this year. (AP, June 27)