Reports from Mali's breakaway northern region of Azawad are as murky and contradictory as ever. Last week we were told that the Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) had cut a deal with the largest jihadi faction in the region, Ansar Dine, for creation of an "Islamic state." Now a May 29 AFP report picked up by Nigeria's This Day and South Africa's IOL News quotes a Tuareg rebel leader as saying the deal has collapsed. But the leader is named as speaking not in the name of the MNLA, but a "National Liberation Front of Azawad (FNLA)." To wit:

A new law granting Israeli authorities the power to detain "illegal migrants" for up to three years took effect June 3, following a wave of Tel Aviv protests over the influx of African migrants who cross into Israel along its border with Egypt. The law even makes asylum seekers liable to imprisonment—without trial or deportation—if caught staying in Israel for long periods. Additionally, anyone found to be aiding migrants or providing them with shelter could face up to 15 years in prison. The law amended the Prevention of Infiltration Law, passed in 1954 to prevent the entry of Palestinians.

An Egyptian court on June 2 found former president Hosni Mubarak guilty of complicity in the killing of protesters during last year's uprising and sentenced him to life in prison. The court also found former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli guilty of the same charge and sentenced him to a life term. But corruption charges were dropped against Mubarak's sons, Alaa and Gamal. And six senior security officials, including former head of the now-disbanded State Security Investigations service (SSI), were acquitted. During the protests that resulted in the overturning of his 33-year regime, Mubarak ordered government officials to use gunfire and other violent measures to subdue demonstrations, resulting in some 850 deaths. Mubarak's 10-month trial marks the first time a former Arab leader has been held accountable for his actions in a court of law.

UK-based indigenous rights advocacy group Survival International warns that Peru's government has drawn up "secret plans" for a natural gas exploration bloc in the Kugapakori Nahua Nanti Territorial Reserve, in what it calls a "flagrant violation" of laws that protect "uncontacted" Amazon tribes within such reserves. The existence of the bloc was first revealed in the April 5 edition of the Lima weekly Caretas, in an article about the Camisea gas project in the lowland rainforest of Cuzco region. While the text of the article didn't mention the new bloc, an accompanying map shows a "Fitzcarrald Bloc" lying immediately to the east of the Camisea consortium's Bloc 88. The map doesn't show the reserve, but Bloc 88 already superimposes the western edge of the reserve—to the protests of environmentalists and indigenous advocates. Survival writes that if confirmed, the Fitzcarrald Bloc "will cut the Nahua-Nanti Reserve in half, and put uncontacted tribes' lives in immediate danger."

An "indefinite" paro (civil strike) was initiated in Cajamarca, Peru, on May 31 to oppose the pending mega-scale Conga gold mine, with thousands-strong marches held in the regional capital. Hundreds of National Police troops were mobilized to the streets, and on June 1 a new march was met with a police charge and even fired shots. The violence broke out when police in full riot gear attempted to clear an open-air kitchen that a group of women had established on a traffic island in one of the city's main thoroughfares to feed the protesters. Although the incident won little media attention, video coverage posted on YouTube appears to show two shots being fired, followed by a woman crying out and collapsing on the pavement. The sparse media coverage did not indicate anyone was actually hit by bullets, and police assaulted the cameraman immediately after the shots, cutting short the film. The incident comes days after four protesters were shot by police in a similar conflict over a mineral project in Cuzco region. (Radio Nacional, June 1)

The conflict over the Xstrata Tintaya mine in Espinar province of Peru's Cuzco region escalated May 30 as dozens National Police troops in full riot gear stormed the office of the mayor, Oscar Mollohuanca, in the midst of a community meeting he was convening there on the issue, and arrested him—presumably on charges of leading the recent angry protests at the mine site. The raid came without warning, and Mollohuanca had not been told there was a warrant for his arrest. He was initially taken to the police outpost at the mine site, but as a crowd gathered there demanding his release, he was transferred to Cuzco's regional capital. “The detention of the mayor is a huge worry because it has ruined the dialogue process," Veronika Mendoza, a legislator from the ruling Gana Perú coalition, said on Canal N television. Cuzco's regional president, Jorge Acurio, also protested the arrest, charging that Prime Minister Oscar Valdés had betrayed his pledge to suspend further arrests and initiate a dialogue.

A Pakistani doctor who helped the US government find Osama bin Laden was convicted last week for his association to a militant group in Pakistan, not for his ties to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as was originally reported. A court document released to the press indicates that Dr. Shakeel Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in prison because of his association with a banned militant group (Lashkar-e-Islam, according to Reuters). The document noted that the court did not have jurisdiction to address Afridi's association with the CIA. Afridi was part of a CIA attempt to gather DNA samples from residents of bin Laden's Abbattobad compound in an effort to determine whether bin Laden was present there. Pakistani court officials originally reported that Shakil was imprisoned because of his work with the CIA. It is unclear why these false reports were made.

Colombia's Juan Manuel Santos and Chinese President Hu Jintao presided over the signing in Beijing May 9 of nine agreements to boost cooperation in a range of industries, emphasizing the oil sector. One pact calls for Colombian parastatal Ecopetrol to join with Sinochem conglomerate and the China Development Bank to build an inter-oceanic pipeline through the Andean country. The plan for the "Oleoducto al Pacífico" is to begin with a feasibility study to be lead by Sinochem's local subsidiary Emerald Energy. Colombian Energy Minister Mauricio Cárdenas, who was also on hand for the signing, said Chinese partners have taken the decision "to enter our country in full, with activities of exploration, with activities of production..." (Portafolio.co, Reuters, May 11; EFE, May 9)