At least 11 were killed and 18 others wounded when gunmen opened fire on a mosque in Joh-i-Rong district of southern Thailand's Narathiwat province during evening prayers June 8. A few minutes after the mosque attack, a car bomb exploded in the same area, killing a villager and wounding 19 others. No group has yet claimed responsibility.

James W. Von Brunn, the elderly man suspected of killing a security guard in Washington DC's Holocaust Museum June 10 is a World War II veteran with links to white supremacist groups who tried nearly 30 years ago to take Federal Reserve board members hostage, according to media reports and Web sites. A Web site maintained by Von Brunn says that in 1981 he tried to carry out a "citizens arrest" on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. (The website, Holy Western Empire, appears to be currently disabled.)

On June 5 Peru's largest labor confederation, the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP), condemned what it called "the slaughter ordered by the government of President Alan García," referring to the deaths of at least 20 police agents and indigenous protesters earlier that day when police tried to break up a demonstration blocking a road in Bagua province in the northern region of Amazonas. The CGTP called for Congress to repeal the decrees on drilling, mining and land rights that Amazonian indigenous groups had been protesting since April 9. The labor group had held a one-day national strike on May 26 to support the demands of the Amazonian indigenous group leading the protests, the Inter-Ethnic Association for Development of the Peruvian Forest (AIDESEP). (CGTP press release, June 5)

Thousands of Guatemalan campesinos blocked roads at seven or more sites on June 4 in a nationwide protest organized by the Committee for Campesino Development (CODECA) to demand that the government carry out agrarian reform, provide agricultural products for about 25,000 campesinos, buy land for cultivation and forgive debts that some campesinos incurred by taking out bank loans to buy land. CODECA spokesperson Mauro Bay said the campesinos had been making these requests of President Alvaro Colom's government since Feb. 5, 2008 but had received no response. Presidential spokesperson Fernando Barillas said the government had offered to meet with CODECA leaders on the demands but CODECA turned down the offer.

In one of the largest demonstrations in recent Puerto Rican history, tens of thousands of people marched in front of the Capitol building in San Juan on June 5 to protest plans by Gov. Luis Fortuño of the conservative New Progressive Party (PNP) to lay off about 30,000 government workers and to privatize some public services. Estimates of participation ranged from 50,000 to 100,000. Many public employees attended despite veiled threats of reprisals if they were absent from work on June 5; supervisors had been drawing up lists of people who planned to take the day off.

On a whirl-wind tour of the Southwest late last week, senior members of the Barack Obama administration laid out the White House strategy for border security, narcotics control and immigration reform. And contrary to the expectations of some border residents and advocates who were betting on a new approach last January, the new administration's strategic policy thrust mainly follows and even expands on the course long pursued by previous Democratic and Republican administrations. A solid alliance with the Calderón administration in Mexico City is a key component of the Obama border policy.

The legacy of Dr. Manuel Arroyo Galvan was remembered in a large rally and march held June 3 in Ciudad Juárez. The 44-year-old sociology and education professor for the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez (UACJ) was shot to death in broad daylight in a May 29 killing that outraged a city practically numbed by more than 2,200 murders during the last 17 months.

Nine more police officers were reportedly killed in a standoff with indigenous protesters in Peru's Amazonas region June 6, bringing the total dead since the previous day's police attack on a road blockade in Bagua municipality to an estimated 60. Authorities say 22 officers of the Peruvian National Police (PNP) have been killed—seven with spears. Indigenous leaders say at least 40 of their people have been killed, including three children. The government says it can confirm only nine civilian deaths. Thousands of indigenous protesters armed with spears are blockading roads throughout the region.