Authorities have arrested five suspects in the killing of a journalist in the northern Mexican city of Torreón, Coahuila, the federal Prosecutor General's office announced June 12. Hooded gunmen abducted the journalist, Eliseo Barrón, 35, from his house on May 25, and his body was found the next day. He covered the police for the local newspaper La Opinión, and had written about a police corruption scandal shortly before he was killed. The Prosecutor General's office said the five men had been stopped by soldiers who found drugs and weapons in their car. One of the men, Israel Sánchez Jaimes, confessed to being part of the Zetas narco gang and said he killed Barrón after the group had abducted him. Mexico's drug war has made the country one of the most dangerous in the world for reoporters. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 27 reporters have been killed since 2000 and another eight are missing. (NYT, June 12)

First, the local police in Monterrey, Mexico's third largest city, lost their assault rifles after an armed confrontation with federal agents while protesting the arrest of city officers for suspected drug corruption. Now police in the city will be stripped of cellphones. The legislature in Nuevo León state, this week approved a bill banning city and state police from carrying personal cellphones while on duty in an effort to stop corrupt officers from communicating with narco gangs. Federal forces raided police stations this month in 18 towns in Nuevo León, detaining 78 officers suspected of working with narcos. The operation came after soldiers found lists of police names in the possession of suspected traffickers. (AP, June 10)

Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a senior judge in Russia's volatile southern republic of Ingushetia June 10, the latest in a series of attacks in the largely Muslim region. Aza Gazgireyeva, deputy head of Ingushetia's supreme court, died of bullet wounds shortly after her car came under fire in the town of Nazran. The attackers also injured several bystanders before escaping in two cars. Investigators as saying Gazgireyeva was likely killed for her role in investigating the 2004 attack on Ingush police forces by Chechen fighters. (AlJazeera, June 10)

Militants bombed two mosques in in Pakistan June 12, killing at least eight, including a cleric who was an outspoken critic of the Taliban. In Lahore, a suicide bomber detonated his payload inside the religious complex run by Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi, a leading Sunni cleric who was vocal in his opposition to suicide attacks and other Taliban tactics. The attack seemed aimed specifically at Naeemi, whose quarters near the entrance of the mosque were completely destroyed. At least four others were killed in the attack. Another mosque bombing in Nowshera, northwest of Islamabad, killed at least three and injured more than 20.

Following the wave of violent unrest in the Amazon region, on June 10, Peru's congress temporarily suspended two decrees issued by President Alan García that would open vast areas to corporate exploitation and allow companies to bypass indigenous communities in winning permits for resource extraction. The following day, police used batons and tear gas to turn back protesters who marched on the congress building in support of indigenous demands that the laws be overturned. At least 20,000 students, trade unionists and indigenous Peruvians from both the Andean highlands and Amazon lowlands joined protests. Some of the students reportedly hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at police. Several were arrested, but police did not release a figure.

A Council of Elders of the Miskito indigenous people on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, citing the central government's opening of the region to corporate exploitation with little return to local residents, have announced their secession from the country and declaration of a "Communitarian Nation of Mosquitia." But the ruling Sandinista government are charging that the US embassy has fomented the move.

By order of President Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua granted asylum June 9 to Alberto Pizango, the Peruvian indigenous leader wanted on charges of sedition for leading protests in the Amazon over the past two months. Pizango, a member of the Shawi people, sought refuge in Nicaragua's embassy in Lima the day before. The Nicaraguan chancellor, Samuel Santos, said his government will guarantee Pizango's safe conduct to the Central American nation.

Security forces fired on protesters in Indian-controlled Kashmir June 8, wounding at least seven in the worst clash since unrest broke out last week over the deaths of two young women. The protesters say the women, a 17-year-old and her 22-year-old sister, were raped and killed by Indian soldiers. The police, who are investigating the killings but have not charged anyone, released forensic reports confirming that both of the women had been raped. Thousands protested in the streets of Shopian, the women's hometown, before police fired tear gas shells and live ammunition at the crowd. Angry demonstrations—and a general strike that has closed businesses and schools—have spread across Kashmir since the women's bodies were found May 30. (AP, June 8)