State and federal security forces killed 12 gunmen said to be connected to La Familia narco syndicate June 26 in Apaseo El Alto, a small village near the popular resort town of San Miguel Allende in Mexico's central Guanajuato state. Two days earlier in Ciudad Juárez, unidentified assailants tossed petrol bombs into a billiard hall and a money exchange office—the latest in a string of apparently retaliatory arson attacks. More than 30 businesses were burned in the city last year. A June 7 battle killed 16 gunmen and two soldiers in the Pacific beach resort of Acapulco. Official tallies place the toll of drug-related violence in Mexico at 3,000 so far this year—and 10,800 since President Felipe Calderón took office in December 2006. Calderón said this week that Mexico is at an "historic crossroads" in the war on the narco gangs.

At least two soldiers were killed and three others wounded by a suicide blast in Pakistan-administered Kashmir June 26. The bomber targeted soldiers in Shaukat Lines, a military area in Muzaffarabad, the regional capital. He was described as about 18 years of age. Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud reportedly claimed responsibility. It was the first such attack in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. (BBC News, June 26)

Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi said June 25 that threats and pressure would not stop him from pursuing his campaign to scrap the results of the disputed election. Meanwhile, officials stepped up efforts to crush remaining protests. "I won't refrain from securing the rights of the Iranian people... because of personal interests and the fear of threats," he said in a statement on his newspaper website, Kalemeh.

The largest mosque on the Indonesian island of Java was blockaded this week by local residents who fear that radical militants including cleric Abu Bakar Bashir have been using it to promote their teachings. Indonesian media report that Muslims in Surabaya blocked the entrance to the al-Ihsan Sabililla mosque for three days before agreeing to reopen it. Bashir, one of the key leaders of the Jemaah Islamiyah group, visited the mosque recently and gave several sermons.

An ambush on a convoy of Indonesia's elite Mobile Brigade (Brimob) left one officer dead in the restive province of West Papua June 24. The attack in the rugged Puncak Jaya district is the latest in the Tingginambut area, where pro-independence rebels are believed to be active. The attack comes just two weeks before Indonesian presidential elections. The district also saw violence in the lead-up to legislative elections on April 9. (Jakarta Globe, June 24)

Former Kosova prime minister Agim Ceku was reportedly released June 25, two days after he was arrested in Bulgaria on an international war crimes warrant—although he is being asked not to leave Bulgaria. Ceku, wanted by Serbia for war crimes charges, was intercepted on the Bulgarian-Macedonian border following an Interpol "red notice." As a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Ceku is accused of command responsibility for the deaths of 669 Serbs and 18 other non-Albanians. A court in Serbia has sentenced him to 20 years in prison in absentia. (AFP, June 25; Balkan Insight, June 24)

Having already weighed in for Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the disputed elections, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said June 24 he is "completely sure" Ahmadinejad fairly won re-election, and that the protests in Tehran follow a pattern seen in other countries, where "behind it is the CIA and the imperial hand of European countries and the United States." (AP) In response, Venezuela's Revolutionary Marxist Current has issued a statement expressing solidarity with the Iranian protesters.

Bloody clashes were reported from Tehran June 24 as Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he would not yield to pressure over the disputed election. The renewed confrontation took place in Baharestan Square, near parliament, where hundreds of protesters faced off against several thousand riot police and other security personnel.