A surge in violence during the past three months has left hundreds dead across eastern and southern Afghanistan. Presumed Taliban militants have carried out suicide bombings and kidnapped or killed aid and election workers, and fighting has also increased between the Taliban and US-led forces. In addition to clashes in remote mountain areas, the latest incidents include the execution of eight kidnapped Afghan police officers and an alleged plot to kill the outgoing US ambassador. The bloodshed has sparked fears that the Afghan war is widening and that the violence could get worse ahead of September's parliamentary elections. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty offers this report today:

The circumstances are still sketchy, but the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas, Mexico, has announced it is going on "red alert". This account from VOA, June 21:

Mexico's Zapatista rebel group has declared a state of emergency, putting its troops on alert and sending its leadership into hiding. In a statement issued Monday, the Zapatistas said they are calling all troops back to their bases and are evacuating their leadership to ensure their safety. The group says its leadership will do its work clandestinely for an indefinite period of time. The group also shut down its radio station. Civil rights activists say the declaration was likely prompted by some action by the Mexican army...

Right-wing settlers from the West Bank have been holed up in the Maoz Hayam hotel in the illegal Jewish colony of Gush Katif in the occupied Gaza Strip. Some 30 families have moved in the past few weeks to fortify resistance to the expected pullout of Jewish settlements. Among them are key Kach militants. Some Jewish militants residing in the hotel went on a rampage Saturday night, June 18, beating and wounding four Palestinians, residents said, in the neaby Muassi area, near the beach. One of the victims was shot. The settlers tried to claim the Palestinians made them attack them, in self-defense, but one unnamed IDF officer was skeptical:

Dozens of workers trapped in the besieged offices of a newspaper in Oaxaca managed to publish on Sunday despite what they call a bogus strike organized by politicians to silence the daily for its criticism of the state government. The standoff at Noticias, the largest daily circulation newspaper in the state of Oaxaca, began before dawn on Friday (June 17) when hundreds of people, apparently including police in civilian clothing and other outsiders, surrounded the offices and declared a strike seeking a 25% pay raise. Genaro Altamirano, the assistant director of Noticias, said the newspaper's 102 union employees had no desire to strike and had agreed to a 6% pay raise. He said the "strike" was organized by a union headed by state Deputy David Aguilar Robles from Oaxaca's ruling party, the PRI. Speaking by telephone from inside the newspaper's offices, Altamirano said he and 30 other employees had been prevented from leaving and were rationing food and water. "Who knows when we'll get out of here," Altamirano said.

Excerpt from a report by Moroccan news agency MAP (via M&C News):

Laayoune, 19 June: Hundreds of citizens today Sunday held a protest at the Hassan I Airport in Laayoune against the scheming intentions and provocative attempts of the Spanish pro-separatist activists who are trying to visit the town despite the Moroccan authorities' refusal to let them step on national soil.

From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), June 20:

The local leader of Hamas was arrested in an often lawless frontier area where Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina meet. Brazilian and Paraguayan news agencies confirmed June 17 that Saiel Bashar Yahya Al Atary and 21 others described as Islamic terrorists had been arrested by Brazilian federal police in the city of Foz de Iguazu. The men were charged with being part of an international ring that committed credit card fraud, counterfeited documents and was involved in drug trafficking.

Israeli security forces suppressing non-violent protest in Bil'in have been using a sound weapon lately called "the screamer," which emits piercing noises to incapacitate and disperse crowds as a non-lethal crowd control measure. According to Ha'aretz, on June 20 the use of the device sparked violence at an otherwise peaceful protest:

Some 15 demonstrators and three members of the security forces were lightly injured Friday during a demonstration against the separation fence near the village of Bil'in west of Ramallah. Hundreds of Palestinians, accompanied by Israeli leftists, took part in the demonstration, which began quietly, but turned violent after the IDF operated a device that emits powerful sound waves. Soldiers and police shot rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas at the crowd, and the Palestinians threw stones. (Ha'aretz, June 20)

Is the current fighting along Iraq's Syrian border actually a prelude to a US invasion of Syria? Certain voices in the Arab world seem to think so. This from UPI, June 15:

AMMAN, Jordan -- The United Arab Emirates' al-Bayan reported Wednesday the United States was massing troops on the Syrian-Iraqi border and Damascus complained of repeated U.S. military penetration into Syrian territory. The pro-government daily quoted unidentified Arab officials as saying Egypt and Saudi Arabia "have reliable information from Damascus of U.S. military mobilization on the Syrian-Iraqi border." They said U.S. forces have repeatedly entered Syrian territory on the "pretext of chasing infiltrators and Iraqi insurgents." The sources told the paper the Syrian leadership told Cairo and Riyadh it was "exercising self-restraint in the face of these American provocations and will not be pulled into any attempt aimed at finding a pretext to attack Syria." They added Egypt and Saudi Arabia will express their "grave concern over the growing U.S. administration's threats against Syria" during Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the Middle East that starts at the end of the week.