Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported June 7 that the government is establishing a Sufi Advisory Council, with an aim of combating extremism by promoting Sufism and its pacifistic vision of Islam. Noting this development June 26, Reuters' FaithWorld blog adds that such stateside establishmentarian voices as the RAND and the Heritage Foundation have recently advocated such a strategy.

Iran's electoral authorities insisted June 26 the disputed presidential vote was the cleanest ever, as the G8 urged Tehran to halt repression—but without questioning the poll results. "After 10 days of examination, we did not see any major irregularities," Guardians Council spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai told the IRNA news agency. "We have had no fraud in any presidential election and this one was the cleanest election we have had. I can say with certainty that there was no fraud in this election."

The Supreme Court of Honduras June 25 rejected President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya's dismissal of the country's senior military officer, Gen. Romeo Vásquez, deepening a confrontation over Zelaya's proposal to reform the constitution. Zelaya vowed to push ahead with a vote scheduled for June 28 to measure public support for holding a National Constituent Assembly. At a rally in Tegucigalpa, he told supporters that the court's decision amounted to a coup. As tens of thousands of Hondurans rushed to the defense of the president, filling and surrounding the presidential palace, soldiers were ordered into the streets.

State and federal security forces killed 12 gunmen said to be connected to La Familia narco syndicate June 26 in Apaseo El Alto, a small village near the popular resort town of San Miguel Allende in Mexico's central Guanajuato state. Two days earlier in Ciudad Juárez, unidentified assailants tossed petrol bombs into a billiard hall and a money exchange office—the latest in a string of apparently retaliatory arson attacks. More than 30 businesses were burned in the city last year. A June 7 battle killed 16 gunmen and two soldiers in the Pacific beach resort of Acapulco. Official tallies place the toll of drug-related violence in Mexico at 3,000 so far this year—and 10,800 since President Felipe Calderón took office in December 2006. Calderón said this week that Mexico is at an "historic crossroads" in the war on the narco gangs.

At least two soldiers were killed and three others wounded by a suicide blast in Pakistan-administered Kashmir June 26. The bomber targeted soldiers in Shaukat Lines, a military area in Muzaffarabad, the regional capital. He was described as about 18 years of age. Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud reportedly claimed responsibility. It was the first such attack in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. (BBC News, June 26)

Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi said June 25 that threats and pressure would not stop him from pursuing his campaign to scrap the results of the disputed election. Meanwhile, officials stepped up efforts to crush remaining protests. "I won't refrain from securing the rights of the Iranian people... because of personal interests and the fear of threats," he said in a statement on his newspaper website, Kalemeh.

The largest mosque on the Indonesian island of Java was blockaded this week by local residents who fear that radical militants including cleric Abu Bakar Bashir have been using it to promote their teachings. Indonesian media report that Muslims in Surabaya blocked the entrance to the al-Ihsan Sabililla mosque for three days before agreeing to reopen it. Bashir, one of the key leaders of the Jemaah Islamiyah group, visited the mosque recently and gave several sermons.

An ambush on a convoy of Indonesia's elite Mobile Brigade (Brimob) left one officer dead in the restive province of West Papua June 24. The attack in the rugged Puncak Jaya district is the latest in the Tingginambut area, where pro-independence rebels are believed to be active. The attack comes just two weeks before Indonesian presidential elections. The district also saw violence in the lead-up to legislative elections on April 9. (Jakarta Globe, June 24)