There were jubilant scenes at a Belfast court June 11 as six Derry anti-war protesters were unanimously acquitted of destroying property belonging to multinational arms company Raytheon. The six, including 65-year-old author and journalist Eamonn McCann, were each cleared of causing criminal damage to the building and offices of Raytheon and an employee's car at an August 9, 2006 protest over Israel's bombardment of Lebanon.

Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch, which filed more than a dozen lawsuits against the Clinton administration alleging cover-ups, brought suit in Miami district court against the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), accusing the cartel of price-fixing. "It's now quite obvious that what they're doing is intentional," Klayman told the New York Times. "What they're trying to do is bring Western economies to their knees. It's extremely clever."

The Ahmadiyyah Muslim community in Indonesia is planning to file a lawsuit against the government over a new decree banning activities by the sect, condemned as "deviant" by protesters. "We ask the silent majority of moderate Muslims in Indonesia to speak out because now we are being held hostage by a small group of hardliners who commit violence and who want to change the ideology of our state," said Siti Musdah Mulia of the National Alliance for Religious Freedom.

Turkish conscientious objector Mehmet Bal has started a hunger strike, claiming that he was subjected to violence and pressure following his arrest June 8. The Istanbul branch of Turkey's Human Rights Association and Antimilitarist Initiative said in a press release that Bal was beaten and denied water or use of the bathroom as he was kept waiting for hours the night of his arrest. The statement called for his immediate release, and that those responsible for his mistreatment be held responsible. (BIANet, June 11)

A statement from the General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq, via the Iraq Freedom Congress, June 7:

The Ministry of Industry and Minerals Privatizes Its Companies
Brothers and sisters in the working class: Amid chaos and lawlessness, surprisingly the Ministry of Industry and Minerals decides to privatize its affiliate companies. The ministry announced privatization of a number of corporations, including manufacturers of cement, pharmaceutical and petrochemicals companies, despite the fact that these enterprises are economically feasible and substantially profitable.

An estimated 100 people were killed and thousands fled their homes in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in renewed fighting over the weekend following between Ethiopian troops and insurgents. Another 200 were wounded as the Bakara market, Somalia's largest open-air market, was hit by artillery fire. The fighting started when Ethiopian and Somali government forces moved into the restive Yaqshid and Wardigley districts.

Two bombs exploded June 8 at the Beni Amrane rail station in Boumerdès wilaya, just east of Algiers, killing 12, including fire-fighters, soldiers, an engineer from the French water engineering company Razel, and his Algerian driver. A third bomb was successfully disarmed, authorities said. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attacks, but this is the second time Razel has been targeted. Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the first blast last September, when three Razel employees, a driver and five police escorts were injured when a bomb targeted their vehicle in the Koudiet Asaserdoune area of Lakhdaria. Responding to the new bombings, French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika his "unwavering support in the determined struggle against terrorism."

On his June 8 Sunday TV program, Alo Presidente, Venezeula's President Hugo Chávez called on Colombia's FARC guerillas to lay down arms, saying: "Guerilla warfare has passed from history, and you in the FARC should know one thing: you have been converted into an excuse for the empire to threaten us all, you are the perfect excuse. The day peace comes to Colombia, the empire will lose the principal excuse it has—terrorism." (El Universal, Mexico, June 9)