At least 85 people were killed and more than 180 injured by a car bomb and coordinated truck bomb in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk July 16. One car bomb exploded in a crowded market near an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the second went off in a commercial area. Later, a third bomber driving a Volkswagen Passat attacked a police patrol in southern Kirkuk, killing one police officer and seriously wounding 10 others. Many victims were women and children shopping in the busy street market. The attacks come amid rising ethnic tensions in Kirkuk, which is 60 miles west of Sulaymaniyah, the largest city in the PUK-controlled region of Kurdistan. Kurds have aggressively moved into Kirkuk since the 2003 invasion, angering Turkmen and Arab residents who fear PUK designs to annext the oil-rich city. (Al-Bawaba, Jordan; NYT, July 16)

With more than 70 killed in bombings over the weekend, Pakistan appears to be lurching towards civil war in the aftermath of the Red Mosque attack. A suicide bomber killed at least 26, including six police, and wounded over 50 others July 15 at a police recruitment center at DeraIsmail Khan in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) near the Afghan border. That same day, militants in North Waziristan, one of the NWFP's autonomous Tribal Areas, announced they are ending a 10-month-old cease-fire accord with the government. Follwing the Red Mosque raid last week, al-Qaeda's number-two man Ayman al-Zawahri called for jihad against the Pakistan government, which has sent thousands of troops into remote areas to try to keep a lid on rirsing popular anger. (Xinhua, LAT, July 16)

From Northern California's Redding Record-Searchlight, July 13, via BoingBoing.net, which notes "The D.E.A. working with National Guard troops and Blackhawk helicoptors set upon Shasta County, California this week to deal with the domestic terror threat of... pot growers":

The latest piece of overwrought effluent from Kurt Nimmo once again exemplifies the fundamental flaw with the Conspiracy Industry. Those sources from the mainstream media which support the Conspiracy Theory are taken as gospel truth; those which point the other way are dismissed as disinformation. It is a fundamentally dishonest as well as pathetically transparent propaganda trick. Alas, the Conspiranoids' legions of true believers never seem to get it. Nimmo writes, July 14 (emphasis added):

Indigenous people in Bolivia are marching cross-country from the lowland city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra to the judicial capital, Sucre, where the country's Constituent Assembly is meeting. About 400 men, women and children from the tropical zone's ethnicities, led by the Confederation of Indigenous People of Eastern Bolivia (CIDOB), launched their 608-kilometer march this weekend. CIDOB leader Adolfo Chávez said the marchers will take their demands for autonomy for indigenous peoples to the Assembly, which has been hashing out a new constitution for Bolivia since it opened in August 2006.

Peruvian unionists, campesinos, leftists and nationalists came together to stage a massive one-day general strike on July 11 to protest the economic policies of President Alan Garcia of the social democratic Aprista party. The July 11 Day of National Struggle, called by the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP), Peru's largest labor group, and backed by former nationalist presidential candidate Ollanta Humala, shut down much of the country.

On July 11 Panama's National Assembly voted 58-3 with one abstention to ratify a "free trade" accord (TLC, the initials in Spanish) which the government signed with the US in Washington, DC, just two weeks earlier, on June 28. The administration of Republican president George W. Bush is expected to have little trouble getting approval from the US Congress, which is controlled by the opposition Democratic Party. The administration and congressional leaders announced a deal on May 10 which gave Democratic support to accords the government had negotiated with Peru and Panama.

One demonstrator was killed and three injured on July 9 when a coalition of Dominican unions held a 24-hour national general strike to protest government economic policies. A spokesperson for the Alternative Social Forum (FSA), which organized the action, estimated that 90% of Dominican workers had observed the strike nationwide. The Associated Press wire service reported that in Santo Domingo stores were closed and the streets were nearly empty.