Little more than a week after the Canadian government announced the completion of free trade talks with Colombia, that country's national daily, El Tiempo, reports [June 14] that the Águilas Negras (Black Eagles), a violent right-wing paramilitary organization, has sent threatening emails to the Canadian Embassy in Bogotá.

Two weeks after completing the exhumation of the largest mass grave found in Peru's history, the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) returned to Putis [June 18] to begin work on exhuming four additional graves from a December 1984 massacre. As the Peruvian government faces renewed pressure from the human rights community to divulge the names of those responsible for the massacre, EPAF returned to the remote site high within the Andes where 123 men, women, and children were shot more than two decades ago by the Peruvian military.

Chinese mining company Chinalco has gained rights to exploit copper at Peru's Mount Toromocho, to be used in electrification projects in China. The $3 billion project will entail the removal of the entire town of Morococha (Yauli province, Junín region). Residents voted to approve the relocation across the valley last year, on promises of government aid. But nearly half the residents supported a "no" campaign, rejecting the terms as inadequate. (BBC, June 17)

Riots erupted in Osaka's Kamagasaki district after a day-laborer was arrested June 12, and reportedly tied to a chair and beaten in police custody. When he was released the next day and told comrades what had happened, a protest of several hundred was held outside the police station. Riot police with body armor and water cannons were mobilized. At least seven were arrested in two nights of clashes. (Infoshop, June 16; UK Indymedia, June 15)

With the near-simultaneous Beijing Olympics and Hokkaido G8 summit about to open, China and Japan announce they have resolved their dispute over gas fields in the East China Sea. What a feel-good globalization-fest we are going to be subject to this summer. From the IHT, June 18:

What a telling medley of articles in the New York Times June 19. First this, from the front page:

Deals With Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back
BAGHDAD — Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.

Despite the supposed ceasefire, fighting again broke out between Somali insurgents and Ethiopian occupation troops in several attacks around Mogadishu June 18, leaving 11 dead. Nine were civilians; two were Somali police. (Africa News, June 19) Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, about to leave for the signing of the peace deal in Jedda, blasted Arab governments in statements to AlJazeera—singling out the network's home, Qatar: "I want to tell the government of Qatar that the day will come when the Arab people hold accountable all those who helped destabilize Somalia.... The Qatari Government can rectify its policies towards us, and [t]his includes the hostile rhetoric used in its media outlets, starting with Al-Jazeera." (Translated from Arabic broadcast by Shabelle Media Network, June 19)

From Physicians for Human Rights, June 18:

Medical Evidence Supports Detainees’ Accounts of Torture in US Custody
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has published a landmark report documenting medical evidence of torture and ill-treatment inflicted on 11 men detained at US facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay, who were never charged with any crime. The physical and psychological evaluation of the detainees and documentation of the crimes are based on internationally accepted standards for clinical assessment of torture claims. The report also details the severe physical and psychological pain and long-term disability that has resulted from abusive and unlawful US interrogation practices.