Now that Julian Assange has taken refuge in London's Ecuadoran embassy and is seeking asylum in the Andean nation, we have three questions. The first, predictably, is only being asked on the political right: Is this supposed champion of transparency and freedom of information going to have anything to say about restrictions on press freedoms in Ecuador? Fox News with great glee quotes Human Rights Watch: "Ecuador's laws restrict freedom of expression, and government officials, including [President Rafael] Correa, use these laws against his critics. Those involved in protests marred by violence may be prosecuted on inflated and inappropriate 'terrorism' charges." Fox also notes that Ecuador has an "insult law" in place known as descato, "which historically has criminalized free speech and expression. Under Descato, which is part of the Ecuadorian Criminal Code, any person who 'offends' the president could be sentenced up to two years in prison and up to three months for 'offending' any government official."

The recent milestone of Planet Earth reaching 7 billion people unleashed the predictable tsunami of Malthusian claptrap. Now a new study documents the obvious—the problem is not how many people, but the sheer acreage of human flesh on the planet, regardless of how many bodies it is distributed amongst. From Live Science, June 17:

A meeting of 60 Iranian trade unionists was raided by security forces June 17 in the northern city of Karaj, and all were arrested. Most were members of the Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers' Organizations, including longtime labor activist Mahmoud Salehi. Most were released the following day, including Salehi, but nine remain in the custody and have been transferred to the special Intelligence Office in the city of Rasht. Advocates note that the meeting was peaceful, and authorities showed to warrants for the arrests.

At the People's Summit being held on the sidelines of the Rio +20 UN environmental summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, leaders of the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of the Bolivian Oriente (CIDOB) denounced President Evo Morales for violating the rights of indigenous peoples in Bolivia's eastern lowlands. Announced CIDOB vice president Nelly Romero: "We have unmasked the double standard that [Morales] has in his discourse on the international level, making believe that he is a defender of indigenous peoples, of the rights of the indigenous peoples of Mother Earth, of the natural resources and the forest." Celso Padilla, president of the Continental Council of the Guaraní People, noted the death of two indigenous leaders in a traffic accident on the cross-country march now underway to oppose construction of a highway through the TIPNIS indigenous reserve. "This wouldn't have happened if the president had not been infatuated with building the highway through the TIPNIS; the only one responsible is him." (Erbol, June 20)

In a statement issued June 19 at its Stuttgart headquarters, US Africa Command chief Gen. Carter F. Ham said last year's Operation Odyssey Dawn, the NATO mission in Libya, "imparted important lessons [for] the Defense Department's newest combatant command" and said it "welcomes a new African partner to the fold while still dealing with some of the residual challenges left by the former regime." Gen. Ham said that AfriCom "is forming a new military-to-military relationship with the Libyans and is working to strengthen its long-term military-to-military relationship with the Tunisians." Speaking about the Pentagon's future role on the African continent, Ham stated: "It is probably not going to be very often where Africa Command goes to the more kinetic, the more offensive operations in Africa. But nonetheless, we have to be ready to do that if the president requires that of us." (US Africa Command, June 19 via AllAfrica)

Thousands of Egyptians filled Cairo's Tahrir Square June 19 to protest the ruling military council's assumption of new powers, amid contesting claims by both presidential candidates of victory in the weekend's election. "General Ahmed Shafik is the next president of Egypt,'' said a spokesman for his campaign, asserting that the candidate won some 500,000 votes more than Muslim Brotherhood challenger Mohammed Mursi. Protesters chanted "Down with military rule!" The rally was jointly called by the Muslim Brotherhood and the April 6 Youth Movement to oppose a decree by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) dissolving the Islamist-led parliament, following a Supreme Constitutional Court ruling last week decried as a "military coup." (AlJazeera, June 19; Ahram Online, June 15; Aswat Masriya via AllAfrica, June 14)

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Bolivia for a brief visit with President Evo Morales June 19, before continuing on to Brazil for the UN summit on sustainable development. Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said the leaders would finalize an accord on increased cooperation between the two nations, which the Iranian embassy in La Paz described as "entering a new stage." The embassy statement notes that Tehran "has realized several infrastructure projects" in Bolivia since normalizing relations with the South American nation in 2007. This constitutes Ahmadinejad's third visit with Morales in La Paz. He will also meet in Caracas with Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez after the Rio+20 conference in Brazil. (AFP, June 19)

Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico's leading presidential candidate, this week appointed Gen. Oscar Naranjo, former chief of Colombia's National Police, to work as an "external advisor" for public security if he wins the July 1 election. Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), called Colombia a "successful example" for Mexico in the fight against drug cartels. Naranjo is credited with helping take down Medellín Cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar in 1993, and more recent gains against the FARC guerillas. In a press conference with Peña Nieto, Naranjo employed the rhetoric of Colombia's so-called "democratic security" model: "Security, understood as a democratic value, is expressed in policies that are totally inclusive, that protect everyone." An official biography of Naranjo distributed to reporters lists him as an "honorary member" of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).