A suspected suicide blast in the middle of a Nairobi street June 11 has left at least one dead and dozens injured. The blast occurred during rush hour near the Ambassadeur Hotel in the city's packed central business district. It shattered shop windows and damaged a nearby bus. Kenyan anti-terrorism police are investigating the attack, with suspicions pointing to either Islamist Somali militants or the local Mungiki cult, which has been the subject of a crackdown in recent weeks. The blast took place blocks from where a bomb killed more than 200 at the US embassy in 1998. It appears to be Kenya's first terrorist attack since 15 were killed in a blast aat an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa in 2002. (Reuters, June 11)

The rights group Global Witness charges in a new report that cocoa profits fueled the brutal civil war in Ivory Coast just as diamonds did in Liberia, with both the government and rebels profiting from the trade. The study finds that 30% of the government's military costs during one six-month period were funded by cocoa proceeds, while rebels have reaped some $30 million per year from cocoa since 2004. Global Witness wants companies exporting cocoa to make public the origin of the beans. The industry is resistant. "Tracing or labelling individual beans is, as a practical matter, impossible," said Susan Smith, spokeswoman for the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, a trade group that includes Nestle and Hershey's.

A Sri Lankan probe into rights abuses blamed on both security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels fails to meet international standards, foreign observers say. Experts appointed by the international community to observe the presidential commission's investigation charge the most serious abuses saw "hardly any noticeable progress." Topping the list is the massacre of 17 local staff of Action Contre La Faim (Action Against Hunger) in August 2006, called the worst attack on aid workers since the 2003 suicide bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad. In the days after the killings, Nordic truce monitors were prevented by security forces from reaching the site in the northeastern town of Muttur. They now say charge that security forces were behind the killings, which the government strenuously denies. The bodies have been exhumed and examined by forensic experts, but no arrests have been made. (Reuters, June 11)

Buddhist monks and other Thais rallied over the weekend to have Buddhism enshrined in the constitution as the national religion of Thailand. [Some 5,000 blocked traffic outside the parliament building in Bangkok.] With ongoing violence in Thailand's predominantly Muslim south, such a move is only likely to alienate the country's religious minorities further. [Reuters, June 10] Three school teachers, all Buddhist, were killed by gunmen in the south [Srisakorn and Rangae districts, Narathiwat province]. Teachers are becoming an increasingly common target in the region. [The Nation, Thailand, June 11]

The Philippine military has deployed helicopters and spy drones with the help of US intelligence to search for Muslim rebels who kidnapped Italian Catholic priest Carlo Bossi of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in the Zamboanga peninsula. Bossi was taken at gunpoint after saying Sunday mass in Payao town June 10. Bossi, 57, is the third Italian priest to be kidnapped in the area since 1998. The other two were released after some months and it was not clear if a ransom was paid. Philippine security forces said the kidnappers, led by a certain Commander Kiddie, were linked to either the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) or Abu Sayyaf. A MILF spokesperson said Khidi's real name is Abdusalam Akiddin and he is a loyal commander of imprisoned MNLF leader Nur Misuari. "He was once an MNLF member, but when the organization had a peace agreement with the government, this Akiddin formed his own group," said MILF spokesperson Eid Kabalu. (Asian Journal, June 10; Reuters, June 11; Sun Star Network, June 12)

A bomb blast outside a shop in Istanbul wounded at least 14 people [June 10]. Turkish security forces believe that Kurdish separatists are behind the attack. [Reuters, June 10] Ongoing fighting in the Turkish southeast between the army and Kurdish separatist fighters of the Kurdish Workers' Party [PKK] has left several dead. [Reuters, June 10]

From Reuters, June 10:

TEHRAN - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who wants more aid from the United States, called on Sunday for a new world order to replace "capitalism and imperialism", at the start of a trip to arch U.S. foe Iran.

Police in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar have found a propaganda CD by a group claiming to be "al-Qaida fil Hind" (al-Qaeda in India), with the aim of launching a jihad beyond the borders of Kashmir into all of India. The emergence of the organization is in keeping with a growing trend of militants in disparate places claiming to be part of an indigenous chapter of al-Qaeda. [India Times, June 9]