Over 150 are dead and some 1,000 injured following what China's state media call ethnic clashes between Uighurs and Han Chinese in Xinjiang province. The riots began late July 5 in Urumqi, the provincial capital, following a protest march by Uighurs in response the death of two Uighur workers in a mob attack at a toy factory in Guangdong province June 26. After the march was attacked by security forces, protesters torched vehicles and attacked shops. Authorities say Uighur mobs attacked Han residents. Police have conducted raids and arrested several hundred in Urumqi.

The Cuban newspaper Periodico 26 July 3 notes claims by the Honduran Black Fraternal Organization (OFRANEH) of the "undeniable involvement" of former US under-secretary of state Otto Reich and the DC-based Arcadia Foundation in the coup d'etat in the Central American country. The account says OFRANEH accuses Reich of "heading misinformation and sabotage operations, with close ties to international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and the Cuban-American mafia in Miami." The account also names an anti-Zelaya civil coalition, the Movimiento Paz y Democracia, which was apparently funded by USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya attempted to return to Honduras July 5, but was denied permission to land the jet in Tegucigalpa, where military vehicles were arrayed on the runway. Soldiers lined barricades surrounding the airport, and police fired warning shots and tear gas at several thousand protesters who had vowed to protect the ousted president with a human cordon. Organizers said several people were wounded in the clashes.

The Latin American business blog Inka Kola News is running a translation of an interview with the new Honduran chancellor (foreign minister) Enrique Ortez, recently appointed by de facto president Roberto Micheletti, in which he disses world and regional leaders who reject his coup-installed government in contemptuously condescending terms—and refers to Barack Obama as a "little black man who knows nothing."

The de facto regime in Honduras announced plans late July 3 to withdraw from the Organization of American States following a visit from OAS secretary general José Miguel Insulza, who demanded the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. But the OAS—meeting in emergency session in Washington the next evening to consider suspending Honduras' membership—maintains that the coup-installed government of Roberto Micheletti isn't recognized by the body and therefore has no legal power to withdraw from it. OAS assistant secretary general Albert Ramdin told reporters that "only a legitimate government" can move to leave the OAS. (McClatchy Newspapers, July 4)

The former top leader of the disbanded United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), Salvatore Mancuso, presented government prosecutors with the names of 31 high-ranking military and police officers who had ties to the outlawed paramilitaries—and even allowed them to carry out several massacres. Caracol Radio made public a document from the Fiscalía, or public prosecutor's office, that mentions the names of soldiers ranging from the rank of sergeant to general who Mancuso said participated in joint operations with the paramilitaries.

Social organizations in El Salvador have denounced the disappearance of Gustavo Marcelo Rivera, a well-known anti-mining leader from the town of San Isidro, Cabañas department. Rivera is a local leader of the FMLN, the director of the San Isidro Community Center, and the legal representative of Amigos de San Isidro Cabañas (ASIC). He is a vocal opponent of El Dorado gold mine, a project of the Pacific Rim mining company that has been stalled due to disputes over permits. Pacific Rim recently sued El Salvador for $77 million under the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) after the government refused to grant a permit to open the mine.

Peru has given the green light to an Anglo-French company to drill for oil in the Amazon—in the immediate wake of a wave of unrest over government develop plans in the region, in which at least 30 were killed. The Ministry of Energy and Mines announced late last month it has approved the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) submitted by Perenco for the construction of seven platforms and drilling of 14 wells in Block 67. Perenco estimates that Block 67 reserve potential is 300 million barrels of heavy crude—believed to be Peru's biggest oil discovery in 30 years. Block 67 covers the "vacated" community of Buena Vista, in the district of Napo, Maynas province, Loreto region. While protests against the company were taking place last month, Perenco's chairman, Francois Perrodo, met Peru's President Alan García in Lima and pledged to invest $2 billion in the project.