In the latest development from army-occupied Nuevo Laredo, 44 kidnapping victims freed June 26 when over 200 Mexican federal agents raided three safe houses. Shots were fired at one of the houses, but nobody was injured. A crowd of relatives of the disappeared gathered, awaiting word on kidnap victims. Some of the victims – 38 men and six women – had been held as long as three months. Many were in their teens. Few were older than 30.

Authorities in Mexico City said many were abducted because of their loyalty to rival drug cartels, which are waging a bloody war for control of the lucrative corridor through Nuevo Laredo and Laredo, TX. Some of the families were from Nuevo Laredo, where scores of residents have reportedly disappeared in recent months. Others came from Texas, where some US citizens have crossed the border and have never been heard from again. (San Diego Union-Tribune, June 28)

I know we're all supposed to hate Judith Miller, but she is absolutely on the right side in her current battle with the Justice Department. And the Supreme Court's decision not to hear her case is a dangerous blow to freedom, as Miller's employer, the New York Times notes in an editorial today:

A stir is being caused by a probe by the Russian state prosecuter over Shulan Arukh, a sixteenth-century commentary on Halakha (Jewish law), written in Safed, in what is now northern Israel. The prosecuter is checking if some comments in Shulan Arukh constituted incitement against non-Jews. Jewish groups have asked for clarification and Israel has protested. (Ha'aretz, June 27)

After an international campaign brought shame on the government of Pakistan, a turnaround in the case of Mukhtaran Mai. Two weeks ago she was under arrest and her attackers were free. Now the reverse is true.

Defendants in Pakistan's Infamous Gang Rape Ordered Re-Arrested
By Ayaz Gul, VOA
Islamabad
28 June 2005

Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered the re-arrest of 13 men accused of involvement in the gang rape of a woman in 2002, pending completion of the final appeals in the case. The high-profile affair has been the object of great international attention.

A little-reported story from Paraguay on an eviction of peasants from contested lands by the private gunmen of local big land-owners (apparently Brazilians), backed up by the army and police. It is the biotech opponents who are distributing this news, as the landowners are seeking to plant genetically-modified soy. As we recently noted, there is a growing US military presence in Paraguay at the moment. It is ostensibly there to train and back up Paraguayan security forces in a crackdown on supposed Islamic terror networks in the country, but here is an ugly taste of how the new prowess could be used. Our friend Javiera Rulli of Argentina's Grupo de Reflexion Rural (GRR) provides this report:

If the Iraq war is not about oil, somebody forgot to tell the editors of the New York Times and, it seems, the leadership of the People's Republic of China. On June 27, the Times runs a front-page story on the current $18.5 billion bid to purchase Unocal by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), which the Bush administration is considering barring on national security grounds. Drawing an unsettling analogy "with Japan in the 1930's," the Times says China's bid for control of a US oil major is also seen by Beijing explicitly in terms of national security—an inexorable result of growing Chinese energy consumption combined with US military control of the Persian Gulf:

Israeli pot activists try to stone the Gush:

Settlers Urged to Smoke Pot During Gaza Evacuation
Gush Katif, Gaza Strip (CNSNews.com — June 27) - Activists of all stripes are flocking to the Gaza Strip, some to lobby for pet causes, while others dig in to resist the Israeli government's disengagement plan.

As we noted yesterday, reportage on the oil market jittters sparked by the Iran elections included a quote from one analyst predicting an imminent rise to $100 a barrel. This ominous figure is being heard more and more. The Wall Street Journal on June 22 ran an overview of predictions concerning the oil market and its impact on the world economy that quoted Tom Petrie, an "oil bull" who runs his own energy investment bank and research operation out of Denver. Petrie puts the chances that oil will rise to $80 to $100 a barrel in the next couple of years at greater than 50 percent.