After hundreds of Embera Chamí and Embera Katío indigenous people from Colombia's departments of Chocó and Risaralda marched in Bogotá July 11, the city government met with their leaders and brokered a deal for them to return to their lands which were usurped some 10 years ago by paramilitary groups. Under the deal, the some 70 Embera families are to return to their lands within 60 days, accompanied by a delegation from the national government to assure their security. (Radio Caracol, El Espectador, Bogotá, July 12) But just days earlier, Embera leader José Vicente Jarupia Domicó in Los Canales de Tierralta community, Córdoba department, was assassinated in a hail of bullets fired by two men on a motorcycle. (El Universal, Cartagena, July 5)

As the giant Mother Earth flag from Cajamarca arrived in Peru's capital of Lima on July 12, a demonstration of some 1,000 construction workers with the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP) marched in solidarity with the struggle against the Conga gold mine project—as well their own demands of better pay and working conditions. In reference to the protesters killed in Cajamarca, marchers carried signs reading "¡Ni un muerto más, Sr. Humala!" (Not one more death, Mr. [President Ollanta] Humala!). The demonstration was addressed by lawmakers Rosa Mavila, Javier Diez Canseco, Jorge Rimarachín and Lima council member Marissa Glave. After the rally in Lima's Plaza San Martín, the moment there to the liberator José de San Martín was spray-painted with graffiti against the Conga project. The CGTP said this was done by young students, not unionists, and a volunteer crew of workers scrubbed the statue clean. The rally saw a brief clash between National Police in full riot gear and student protesters.

Some 30,000 people gathered July 11 to remember the massacre of an estimated 8,000 captive Muslims, mostly men and boys, on that day in 1995 at the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, when it was overrun by besieging Serb rebel forces. The remains of 520 newly identified victims of the massacre, in rows of green-draped coffins, were buried during a commemoration ceremony at the Potocari memorial cemetery outside the town. Among the remains were those of six children and four women, the eldest aged 94. With them, the total laid to rest in Srebrenica comes to 5,657. After years on the run, Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic and political leader Radovan Karadzic face genocide charges at The Hague for the massacre (Europe's worst since World War II) and other crimes committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war that left some 100,000 dead. Both deny all charges.

It was reported July 9 in the Times of London that the US will retain control of non-Afghan detainees at Parwan Detention Center at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, despite plans to transfer control of the facility to the Afghan government in two months. Under the terms of the agreement with Kabul, the Afghan government is to assume control of all prisons in the country, including the Bagram facility. The US, however, will retain control over about 50 non-Afghan detainees in a separate US-run section of the compound, with US officials claiming the agreement does not cover foreign nationals. The detainees apparently will be held without access to legal assistance or prospect of release. Such quarantining of prisoners and officials' attempts to distinguish between "prison" and "detention facility" have reportedly led many commentators and human rights activists to condemn the deal, questioning its legitimacy. The Bagram facility has widely become known as "the other Guantánamo" since its opening in 2009.

A panel commissioned by the Israeli government recommended July 9 that the state "legalize"* dozens of unsanctioned West Bank settlements. The government has not yet endorsed the recommendations, which include facilitating settlement construction by annulling orders of the Supreme Court of Israel and other legal rulings. The Palestinians, 2.5 million of whom live in the West Bank, claim the West Bank for a future state and have refused to continue peace negotiations with Israel until settlement construction is frozen. A 2004 World Court ruling held all Israeli West Bank settlements "illegal." There are currently over 200 settlements and outposts in the West Bank, home to more than 500,000 Israeli settlers. Last week the Israeli Supreme Court postponed the demolition of "illegal" West Bank settlements at Ulpana, with 30 apartments having had been scheduled for demolition on July 1.

On July 6, in a silent mass demonstration that filled the central plaza of Celendín town, last rites were held for three of the five campesinos killed in protests against the Conga mine project in Peru's northern region of Cajamarca last week. The caskets, draped with banners reading "CONGA NO VA," were carried in a motorcade through villages in the region, where gathered crowds paid their respects. The flags at the offices of the regional government were flown at half mast. Cajamarca remains under an indefinite paro, or civil strike, launched May 31 to demand an end to the Conga project. (AQP Soluciones, July 7; Noticiera Bambamarquino, July 6)

Right-wing and Islamist political leaders and activists united under the Difa-i-Pakistan Council (Pakistan Defense Council, DPC) launched a cross-country march from Lahore to Islamabad on July 8 to oppose the resumption of NATO supply lines to Afghanistan through Pakistan. A convoy of some 200 vehicles is accompanying the march of some 8,000. The DPC is made up of several Islamist parties, including the Jamatud Dawa, Ahle Sunnat Waljamat (formerly known as Sipah-e-Sahaba), Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI), and Jamat-e-Islami. (Pakistan Observer, July 9; Pakistan Tribune, The Nation, Pakistan, July 8)

With elections underway in Libya, "federalists" demanding a greater share of power in the east of the country are blocking roads and oil terminals to enforce their call for a boycott. A helicopter carrying election materials was shot at, and an official from the High National Electoral Council (HNEC) who had been onboard was killed near Benghazi. Polling stations in Brega and Ajdabiyah were unable to open due to the incident. The federalists are demanding an equal distribution of National Assembly seats between Libya's three historic provinces of Barqa, Fezzan and Tripolitania. The current allocation of seats gives Tripolitania—where more than half of Libyans live—109 seats in the 200-member body. The three regions appear to be based on the Ottoman-era administrative divisions, with the name Cyrenaica changed to Barqa—probably to de-emphasize Cyrenaica's status as a self-governing territory at various times in Libya's history. (See map.)