On June 3 the Brazilian Senate approved a bill regulating government transfers of land in the Amazon region. The bill—Conversion Bill 09 (PLV 09/2009, originally MP 458/09)—was passed by the Chamber of Deputies in May and awaits the signature of President Luis Inácio "Lula" da Silva. The Catholic Church's Pastoral Commission on Land (CPT), Greenpeace, WWF-Brasil (the Brazilian affiliate of the World Wildlife Fund) and other groups say some articles in the measure will enable companies and individuals to keep lands they seized illegally. The law "especially benefits people who should be on trial for usurping areas covered by the agrarian reform," according to Greenpeace. The groups are urging people to call on Lula (phone +61-3411.1200, +61-3411.1201 or email at https://sistema.planalto.gov.br/falepr2/index.php) to veto the articles. (Adital, June 12)

On June 8 Peru's Transportation and Communication Ministry (MTC) cancelled the license of Radio La Voz de Bagua, a family-owned radio station with a signal of 100 watts in Utcubamba province in the Amazonas region in the north of the country. The MTC cited technical issues with the station's equipment, but La Voz news director Carlos Flores Burgos dismissed this as "a lie." The station is based in the area where dozens of people died on June 5 in a confrontation between police and indigenous protesters, and Flores said the station had made it possible for members of the public to report alleged abuses by security forces. After the June 5 killings, Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas accused the station of agitating the situation and called for sanctions against it, while Congress members Aurelio Pastor, Jorge Del Castillo and Mauricio Mulde, all from the Peruvian Aprista Party (PAP) of President Alan García, accused La Voz and Flores of supporting and inciting violence.

Youths and campesinos in a protest encampment at the edge of Los Haitises National Park in the eastern Dominican Republic reported on June 11 that they were being surrounded by military units and that they feared they might be attacked. This report followed a June 10 attack by National Police on the encampment, where dozens of protesters have been staying since May 16 in an effort to prevent the construction of a cement factory near the town of Gonzalo, in Sabana Grande de Boyá municipality, Monte Plata province. The agents removed a barricade the protesters had set up to block trucks going to the factory site. There was one unconfirmed report that the police fired shots during the June 10 incident and wounded several protesters.

On June 3 students from the State University of Haiti (UEH) began a series of militant demonstrations to protest the failure of President René Préval to promulgate a measure raising the minimum wage from 70 gourdes ($1.74) a day to 200 gourdes ($4.97)—the first increase since 2003. Although Parliament finished the process of approving the measure on May 4, it will not become law until it is approved by the president and published in the official gazette, Le Moniteur. Students from various UEH faculties have been protesting over academic issues at different times since February.

As Iran's embattled President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Russia June 16, Iranian state radio reported that seven people were killed in clashes overnight, escalating tensions after days of unprecedented demonstrations that have forced a formal review of elections results. The reports said the deaths came after "thugs" attacked a military post. (NYT, BBC News, June 17) Our correspondent in Tehran says: "At the end of non-violent rally which is called illegal by officials (in spite of lots of attempts to get permission from competent authorities), Basij started to shoot at people from northwestern corner of Azadi square."

North Sudan has been accused of providing arms that were used to attack barges carrying UN food aid. A governing party leader in South Sudan told the BBC arms were being distributed in the south to spread dissent between rival ethnic groups. Pagan Amum, secretary general of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, told the BBC's Focus on Africa program Khartoum wanted to destabilize the region before a referendum on southern independence due in 2011.

A power-sharing deal between Mauritania's military junta and opposition is being delayed by disagreement over the composition of an interim government. Under the deal, signed June 5 after lengthy talks involving international mediators in Senegal, the transitional Government of National Unity was to ave taken effect on the 13th—with the civilian president toppled in last August's military coup as its head. But Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi must first formally resign as president, and he wants to do so in the office he was driven from by Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.

Nigeria's Ogoni people are divided over Shell Oil's agreement to pay $15.5 million as an out-of-court settlement rather than face a trial over accusations that it was complicit in rights abuses in the Niger Delta in the 1990s. The families of nine people executed in 1995—including famed writer writer Ken Saro-Wiwa—accused Shell of collaborating with the military regime of Gen. Sani Abacha to silence the activists for protesting against the oil company's environmental practices.