Early on May 31, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed Benito A. Gonzalez after trying to handcuff him in an unincorporated area north of Escondido, California, just east of Interstate 15. Gonzalez was an out-of-status immigrant who lived in Sun City in Riverside County. The incident began when undercover Border Patrol agents pulled over a van suspected of carrying unauthorized immigrants, arrested the driver and 11 passengers and took them to a Border Patrol station. Gonzalez arrived in a separate vehicle and according to officials, confronted the lone undercover agent who had stayed behind to wait for a tow truck. The agent and Gonzalez scuffled in a parking lot and again in an adjacent lot after Gonzalez tried to run away, sheriff's investigators said. It was unclear whether Gonzalez was linked to the van stopped earlier. (San Diego Union Tribune, May 31; AP, June 5)

On June 15, a federal judge in Trenton, New Jersey, ruled that officials at the Monmouth County jail in Freehold can use intravenous or feeding tubes to force feed immigration detainee Samuel Izrailovich Shevaniya, who is on hunger strike. Shevaniya arrived at Monmouth County jail on June 7 and stopped eating on June 9. According to a petition filed on June 14 by the US Attorney's Office in Newark and obtained by The Star-Ledger, Shevaniya has "steadfastly indicated he has no intention of eating," and if he doesn't get food soon "his health will continue to deteriorate and he will ultimately die." Undersheriff Cynthia Scott, a spokesperson for the Monmouth County Sheriff's Department, said Shevaniya was cooperating with doctors, who will use either an intravenous tube or a feeding tube to deliver nourishment.

From Long Island Newsday, June 23:

Boy on a bike is killed
An 11-year-old Wyandanch boy was killed Friday when he biked into the path of a tractor-trailer, which then struck an oncoming minivan, critically injuring two children, police said.

Ten civilians were killed June 23 inside the Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan in a mortar attack from Afghan territory—fired by foreign forces, a local authorities say. "Ten innocent people were reported killed when some mortars hit civilians in Mangroti village in the Shawal region," said military spokesman Maj-Gen. Waheed Arshad. Thirteen others were injured, he said. Some locals put the death toll at 20, and a home was destroyed. Residents said the dead included a child, a woman and seven men, all from the same family. "Pakistan has lodged a strong protest with coalition forces seeking an explanation," Gen. Arshad said.

An internal debt crisis has prompted Zoroastrians in Mumbai to allow advertising billboards into an ancient funeral ground—sparking a split in the community. Zoroastrian dissdients say the signs—exhorting motorists to "Rev up your night life" by buying a popular model car—desecrate the sanctity of the grounds. Trustees who approved the billboards say they are needed to raise cash to maintain the Tower of Silence where the Parsi Zoroastrians have wrapped their dead in white muslin and left them to be devoured by vultures since 1673. "I have told people who are objecting, bring me three million rupees a year and I will stop the advertisements," said Burjor Antia, trustee with the Bombay Parsi Panchayat, local Zoroastrian council. (The Scotsman, May 30)

Mexico took the first steps June 21 toward extraditing former Quintana Roo governor Mario Villanueva Madrid to the US, where he is wanted in New York City on charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering. President Felipe Calderón has already sent 21 narco suspects to face charges across the border this year, but Villanueva would be the highest-ranking former Mexican official to stand trial in the United States on drug charges.

Spain's regional Basque Parliament June 22 voted down a motion submitted by the right-wing People's Party (PP) advocating "freedom of expression" and "pluralism in news media in Venezuela," following the refusal of the Hugo Chávez government to renew the broadcast license for RCTV. Instead the Parliament endorsed a resolution reasserting its "unequivocal stance to advocate freedom of opinion and expression," without condemning Venezuela. (El Universal, Caracas, June 20, El Universal, June 20)

A NATO air-strike on supposed Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan has killed dozens of civilians, including women, children and a Muslim cleric, Afghan officials charged June 22. The clash began the previous night when Taliban fighters attacked NATO troops in the Gereshk district of Helmand province and then fled to a residential area, said Mohammed Anwar Esaqzai, a local member of parliament. After a firefight of several hours, he said, NATO forces called in an airstrike that killed 36 civilians belonging to three families. "This is happening a lot," Esaqzai said. "If it continues to happen, it will raise the anger of the people and cause big problems for NATO."