Speaking to the Caracas-based Union Radio, Archbishop Roberto Luckert Leon of Coro, vice president of the Venezuelan bishops' conference, charged that the newly established Reform Catholic Venezuelan Church is a ploy by the government of President Hugo Chávez to divide the Catholic Church, and warned that liturgies celebrated by the new church had no religious validity. He said the new church's bishops "are going to dress like priests and carry out baptisms and confirmations, all paid for by the government which has tried to finish off the Catholic Church but failed."

The government of Peru issued a statement saying it formally "rejects" recent comments by Bolivia's President Evo Morales about the supposed installation of US bases on Peruvian territory. Lima has called its ambassador in Bolivia, Fernando Rojas, to discuss the controversy. Morales said June 29 that, denied bases in Bolivia and Ecuador, the US "is taking Peru," and called on that country's people to "resist and expel" them from their territory. (AFP, July 1)

Panama's Supreme Court has overturned a 2004 pardon of anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles and three other right-wing Cubans—Pedro Crispin Remon Hernandez, Gaspar Jiménez Escobedo, and Guillermo Novo Sampoll—charged with plotting to kill Fidel Castro at the 2000 Ibero-American summit. The militants were accused of attempting to bomb a University of Panama auditorium where the Cuban leader was due to speak. Panamanian courts ruled there was too little evidence to try them for attempted murder but convicted them on charges of conspiracy, possessing explosives and endangering public safety. US-friendly President Mireya Moscoso issued the pardons in 2004—sparking a diplomatic spat with Cuba and Venezuela.

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) told the Biloxi Sun Herald July 2 he witnessed a confrontation between John McCain and a Nicaraguan Sandinista leader—a lieutenant of President Daniel Ortega—during a 1987 diplomatic mission in which the Arizona senator "got mad at the guy and he just reached over there and snatched him." In a tense atmosphere, as the US was pressing Nicaragua "pretty hard," Cochran noticed a disturbance at the meeting table in a room lined with armed personnel:

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has released declassified portions of a June 20 decision that a Combatant Status Review Tribunal had improperly designated a Chinese Uighur detained at Guantanamo Bay as an "enemy combatant." In the opinion, Judge Merrick Garland dismissed government arguments that classified documents established Huzaifa Parhat's terror connections, finding: "Parhat has made a credible argument that—at least for some of the assertions—the common source is the Chinese government, which may be less than objective with respect to the Uighurs."

While the world media have moved on, Tibetans continue to defy authorities by launching protests in their homeland. According to "confirmed information" received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), several local Tibetans have been severely beaten and detained by the Chinese security forces for staging peaceful protests in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, in recent days.

Mongolia imposed a four-day state of emergency in the capital, Ulan Bator, after the opposition Democratic Party claimed fraud in last weekend's elections and violent protests broke out. Military vehicles patrolled the streets, five people were killed, and the headquarters of the "victorious" Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) was ransacked and torched. Clashes also took place in the country's second city, Darkhan. (DPA, July 1) The Wall Street Journal fears the unrest "could slow the country's economic transformation and delay investment plans of Western mining companies that have been waiting to push through deals."

Mauritanian refugees in SenegalMauritania's new government resigned July 3, pre-empting a no-confidence motion filed by dissidents from the ruling National Pact for Democracy and Development (PNDD). But President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi immediately reappointed Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf. (AFP, July 3) The no-confidence measure was also supported by the main opposition parties, the Democratic Forces Rally (RFD) and New Forces for Change (NFC). NFC Prime Minister Zeine Ould Zeidane was forced to resign in early May, after a year in office marked by a food crisis and terror attacks. Opposition leaders denounced the return to office of many officials from the Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya dictatorship, ousted in 2005. (Afriquenligne, July 3)