Seven Maori tribes signed New Zealand's largest-ever settlement on grievances over the loss of lands and fisheries during European settlement in the 19th century. Hundreds of Maori, some wearing traditional feather cloaks, gathered at Wellington to watch the agreement being signed in parliament by the government and tribal leaders. Some wept during the ceremony, while others chanted, sang and blew conch shells.

From Human Rights Watch, June 25:

Russia: Stop 'Dirty War' Tactics in Ingushetia
Killings, Torture, Disappearances in Chechnya-Style Counterinsurgency
Moscow – The Chechnya armed conflict has spread human rights abuses and instability across the North Caucasus, and particularly in Ingushetia, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch urged the Russian government to amend its counterinsurgency techniques and address impunity for violations in Ingushetia to ensure that the situation does not descend to the appalling abuses that characterized the conflict in Chechnya.

Islamabad has angrily denied findings by Afghanistan's intelligence agency that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was the "real schemer and organizer" behind the failed April 27 assassination attempt on President Karzai at a military parade. (Gulf Daily News, June 26) That was the fourth attempt on Karzai's life by our count.

From the WCBS-NY, June 23:

Truck Hits Bus; Bus Crashes Into Bank
One person is dead and four people are injured after an out-of-control dump truck coming off the Manhattan Bridge slammed into a waiting bus that was loading people for a trip to Boston.

Yet more evidence (as if we needed any) that the media are making us stupid. From a June 23 New York Times story entitled, "Correspondents Say Networks Put Wars on the Back Burner":

A new Energy Department report says much about how elites view the oil shock—and why the US is in Iraq. It actually mentions the impacts of biofuels, but that's a sideshow to the inexorable threat of China's economic rise. This synopsis does not even mention Iraq—but effective US control of the Persian Gulf will be a lever of control over China's access to energy. From Oil Voice, June 25:

The National Intelligence Council (NIC) has completed a new classified assessment that explores how climate change could threaten US security in the next 20 years, causing political instability, mass movements of refugees, terrorism, and conflicts over water and other resources. The House Intelligence Committee was briefed June 25 on the main findings.

The Supreme Court on June 25 dealt a blow to victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, cutting the $2.5 billion in punitive damages award for the worst oil spill in US history to $507 million. The court ruled 5-3 that the damages were excessive under maritime law. The ruling in Exxon Shipping v. Baker, No. 07-219 brings to a close a long-running legal battle between Exxon and a group of 33,000 fishermen, cannery workers, Native Alaskans and others affected by the disaster.