More than 200 people have been killed over the past seven days in Mexico's most violent week since President Felipe Calderón unleashed federal forces against the country's warring drug cartels. In the latest slayings, on June 16 Nuevo León state investigators in the Monterrey suburb of Apodaca recovered the bodies of five municipal police officers who had been abducted at dawn from their homes by armed men. Their bodies, with signs of torture, were found in an abandoned plot of land with a threatening "narco-message." One had been decapitated. Dozens of police have been killed in the Monterrey area in recent months. Authorities also said an armed commando executed three local youths in the Monterrey barrio of Primero de Mayo. (El Universal, El Financiero, Houston Chronicle, June 16)

Peruvian National Police clashed June 14 with protesting workers of the troubled US-owned Doe Run Peru metal smelter at La Oroya, Junín region. Police attacked workers who were blocking roads, paralyzing traffic throughout the central city of La Oroya and the surrounding area. Schools and businesses remain closed in solidarity with the strike, as most La Oroya residents work for Doe Run, which suspended operations last year amid severe financial problems and the firm's failure to comply with a government-mandated clean-up program.

Colombian presidential candidates Antanas Mockus and Juan Manuel Santos both went on record supporting the Colombian army's successful rescue of four hostages held by the FARC guerillas June 13. In an interview with W Radio Jun 15, Green Party candidate Mockus the called rescue mission "admirable" and said that he would "enthusiastically" support any future rescue plans. Santos called the operation a triumph for President Alvaro Uribe's "democratic security" policy, and highlighted the need to maintain the initiative. Observers speculate that the execution of "Operation Chameleon" a week before the second round election may have been a strategy to tilt the election to hardliner Santos. (Colombia Reports, June 15)

The Collective Security Treaty Organization, an alliance of former Soviet republics led by Russia, held an emergency meeting in Moscow June 15 on whether to deploy its rapid-reaction forces to conflicted Kyrgyzstan. CSTO secretary general Nikolai Bordyuzha cautioned that "these measures need to be employed after careful consideration and, most importantly, in an integrated manner." Another senior Russian official, Nikolai Patrushev, said the meeting "did not rule out the use of any means that the CSTO has in its potential, depending on how the situation evolves in Kyrgyzstan." He said a plan had been drafted for approval by the presidents of the member nations.

Violence in Mexico claimed the lives of 15 federal police officers and 29 prison inmates in three separate incidents June 14. Twelve officers were killed when police returning from patrol in four pickups were ambushed by gunmen in the city of Zitácuaro, Michoacán. Several assailants were also killed or wounded, but officials did not provide exact figures. Gunmen also killed three federal police agents on patrol in Ciudad Juárez, and wounded one more. At Aguaruto prison in Culiacán, Sinaloa, 21 inmates were shot to death and three guards were wounded when a group of prisoners attacked members of a rival gang within the facility. Hours later, eight more prisoners were stabbed to death by other inmates. An AK-47 assault rifle and two large-caliber handguns were confiscated. (CNN, AP, LAHT, June 15)

Bill Conroy writes for the Narcosphere, June 12:

A special operations task force under the command of the Pentagon is currently in place south of the border providing advice and training to the Mexican Army in gathering intelligence, infiltrating and, as needed, taking direct action against narco-trafficking organizations, claims a former CIA asset who has a long history in the covert operations theater.

The blogosphere is abuzz with today's front-page revelations in the New York Times of a vast bonanza of mineral wealth, estimated at some $1 trillion, recently "discovered" by the "United States" in Afghanistan, in the vague locution of the story's lead line. The "previously unknown deposits" supposedly include iron, copper, cobalt, gold—and lithium, expected to be one of the most critical substances of the 21st century. The story quotes an "internal Pentagon memo" (no agency, title or date given) that Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium," the key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys (and, it is envisioned, electric cars). Gen. David Petraeus is quoted crowing about the "stunning potential" of the find. But the article is light on the specifics of where this information is actually emanating from...

Now isn't this rich. Washington state troopers are giving $124 tickets to motorists who use hand-held cell-phones, enforcing a new law that critics say isn't tough enough. (The Columbian, The Daily News, Longview, WA, June 11) And last month, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon banned all UN employees from using cellular devices while driving in an effort to take the prohibition global. Ban is teaming up with US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Jennifer Smith, president and co-founder of a national advocacy group, FocusDriven, for the global campaign. Ban told reporters in New York: