On May 31 Colombian senator Piedad Cordoba told reporters that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest leftist guerrilla organization, was close to freeing Ingrid Betancourt, the 2002 presidential candidate of the Oxygen Green Party, and her running mate, Clara Rojas, along with Rojas' child, who was born in captivity. The FARC captured Betancourt and Rojas in 2002. Apparently this is in response to a government plan to free a number of captured FARC members.

Former Peruvian presidential adviser Vladimiro Montesinos Torres, former Armed Forces commander Gen. Nicolas Hermoza Rios and retired colonel Roberto Edmundo Huaman Azcurra went on trial on May 17 for the alleged extrajudicial killings of three members of the rebel Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) during the military's assault on the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima on April 22, 1997. Prosecutors were seeking a 20-year prison sentence for Montesinos, intelligence adviser to former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), 18 years for Hermoza Rios and 15 for Huaman Azcurra. The trial was being held at the Callao naval base, near Lima.

Just two days after a mass anti-G8 demonstration in Rostock turned violent, protestors skirmished with police June 4, this time in a part of town known for neo-Nazi attacks in the early 1990s. Nearly 1,000 staged a sit-down protest in front of the immigration office in Baltic Sea port city to protest the asylum policies of the world's major industrialized countries. Police said the rally turned violent when black-clad anarchist bloc began throwing bottles. Four protesters were detained there for violating a police ban on wearing masks at rallies. However, a photo showed police detaining a protester in a clown outfit armed with a water pistol.

As the Lebanese army continues to pound Fatah al-Islam positions at the Nahr el Bared refugee camp, fighting also broke out June 3 with a second Islamist faction, Jund al-Sham, at Ein al-Helweh, Lebanon's largest refugee camp. Mediators from other Palestinian groups are attempting to negotiate a ceasefire at Ein al-Helweh.

Thousands of protesters at a mosque in Pattani, Thailand, agreed to stand down June 4 after Fourth Army Region Lt. Gen. Wirote Buajaroon signed an order to establish an independent panel to investigate widespread reports of assaults and harassment of Muslims by the Thai military. Local Muslims businesses had shut down in support of the protest, led by students from Ramkamhaeng university. The protest was launched June 1. Protest leader Tuvaedaniya Tuvaemaengae defended the students who hid their faces with scarves, saying that they were concerned about their safety. (The Nation, Thailand, June 4)

A telling story in the June 2 New York Times, "Advocacy Group's Publicity Campaign on Darfur Angers Relief Organizations," reveals a rift between the Save Darfur Coalition and the aid agencies actually on the ground in Darfur. Save Darfur takes a hard line, calling for UN intervention, which has prompted the Sudanese regime to turn up the heat on aid workers. This is a real dilemma. Are the Save Darfur folks naive do-gooders—or, worse, cynical exploiters of the Darfur genocide with hidden agendas—who are (even if unwittingly) actually making things worse by interfering with relief efforts? Or are the relief organizations being coopted by the Sudan regime and (even if unwittingly) allowing the genocide to continue by opposing intervention? Via the exile-based Sudan Tribune, links and emphasis added:

Assyrian Christian leaders in Iraq say the future existence of the country's dwindling Christian population hangs in the balance as violence continues unabated. According to a report by the Assyrian International News Agency, direct blame has been leveled at Iraqi government and Coalition forces' inaction in the face of mounting attacks against Christian populations.

Now, let's see. A May 26 AP account by Larry McShane on the case of Syed Hashmi, a 27-year-old Pakistan-born US citizen and former Queens resident extradited from England back to New York to face terrorism charges, says he is accused of providing "military gear" to al-Qaeda in Pakistan. A June 1 AP account by David Caruso informs us that this "military gear" was rain gear—"waterproof socks and rain coats." And all he did was allow a friend to keep them in his London apartment. Are we the only ones who feel these "terrorism" cases are becoming alarmingly specious?