The Libyan government on July 2 released four International Criminal Court (ICC) staff members who had been detained for nearly four weeks. The release was announced while the ICC's president, Sang-Hyun Song, was visiting the country. The prosecution's office confirmed the release and noted that a hearing in their cases is expected on July 23. It added that the four staff members are expected at the hearing, but, even if that is not the case, a verdict will be issued in absentia. The release announcement came two weeks after the Libyan government started its investigation of ICC staff members. They had been accused of spying and attempting to smuggle documents to the imprisoned son of Moammar Qaddafi, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, from his former aide.

Mass protests greeted Chinese President Hu Jintao in Hong Kong July 1, as he swore in a new chief executive and cabinet for the territory. The official ceremony included a rare show of People's Liberation Army force in Hong Kong, with Hu reviewing passing columns of tanks and rocket launchers. The main demand of the demonstrators (estimated at 400,000) was an investigation into last month's suspicious death of labor activist and 1989 Tiananmen Square protester Li Wangyang. Police used pepper spray on protesters, and a reporter from Hong Kong's Apple Daily was detained after shouting out to Hu at a press conference: "Chairman Hu, have you heard that Hong Kong people hope to redress the June 4 incident?"—a reference to the 1989 protests. Hu's visit coincided with the 15th anniversary of Chinese rule over Hong Kong. (Epoch Times, VOA, NYT, July 1)

Despite a ceasefire signed earlier this year, new fighting broke out last week between Burma's army and both the southern and northern factions of the Shan State Army. Two Burmese soldiers were killed in a four-hour fire-fght with Shan State Army-North June 17 in Monghsu township, Loilen district. The SSA-S reported a clash with Burmese soldiers June 15 in Mongton township, Monghsat district. In both cases, the Shan State forces say government forces were the aggressors, with the SSA-S relinquishing a "forward operating base" to Burmese troops. "This puts doubt in our minds regarding building peace," said SSA-S spokesman Sai Lao Hseng. "How could we manage this if we cannot even build trust?" The SSA-S has sent a complaint letter to the government's Peace Making Committee.

More than 500 villagers held a march in eastern Cambodia's Kompong Cham province June 29 to protest a controversial dam project on the Mekong River in Laos that they charge is under construction despite a pledge to halt progress while officials conduct a new impact study. The protest against the $3.8 billion Xayaburi Dam was led by monks and included students, peasants, and activists nongovernmental organizations. The protesters called on the leaders of the four nations downstream from the dam—Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam—to demand a halt to construction at the site, citing concerns that the project would negatively impact millions of people in the region and irreparably damage the environment. Laos committed to the review by a Japanese firm in December at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Indonesia after drawing criticism that its own environmental impact study was inadequate.

Islamist fighters of Ansar Dine have completely pushed Tuareg rebels of the MNLA out of Timbuktu, the jihadist organization announced June 27—days after a loosely allied Islamist faction, the MUJAO, took control of Gao from MNLA forces. A convoy of Islamist fighters is now said to be headed to Gao from Kidal, to drive the last remaining MNLA forces from the territory. Ansar Dine fighter Oumar Ould Hamaha told AP by telephone that the group now commands the northern half of Mali, an area larger than France, and plans to fully impose Islamic law. "Our fighters control the perimeter. We control Timbuktu completely. We control Gao completely. It's Ansar Dine that commands the north of Mali," said Hamaha, chief of security for the group in Gao. "Now we have every opportunity to apply shariah." Last week in the city of Gao, an unmarried couple was publicly lashed 100 times by the militants, according to AP.

At their recent meeting in La Paz, Bolivia's Evo Morales and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed a bilateral agreement for the Islamic Republic to provide counter-narcotics aid to the Andean nation. According Bolivia's drug czar Felipe Caceres (officially vice-minister for Social Defense and Controlled Substances), the Iranian military will train 10 officers in intelligence and planning operations. Iran will also provide communications equipment for Bolivian anti-drug efforts. Reports did not make clear if the aid will be going to Bolivia's army or National Police. Caceres also credited Brazilian reconnaissance drones for recent successful raids on narco-traffickers in Bolivia's east, with more than 240 cocaine labs claimed destroyed in Santa Cruz department this month. Caceres did not provide details about the unmanned aerial vehicles other than to say they are Israeli-made, patrol the border, and also enter Bolivian airspace. (InSight Crime, June 21; AP, June 20)

Aymara comunarios (communal pesants) from the pueblos of Karikari and Calachaca, in Bolivia's Potosí department, on June 28 seized two engineers at the local Malku Khota mining operation, owned by South American Silver of Canada, to press their demand for the release of their leader Cancio Rojas, who was arrested late last month on charges related to protests against the mine project. A South American Silver statement said the two men had been "kidnapped," and that they are "at serious risk given the aggressiveness and intolerance with which these groups behave." Interior Minister Carlos Romero also said, "What they have done is a kidnapping, it's an offense, it's a crime." He added that Cancio Rojas "is detained by the order of a competent judicial authority because he is accused of kidnapping, torture and other offenses."

A "humanitarian caravan" from Bogotá arrived in Colombia's southern Andean department of Cauca June 28, bringing food and other aid to hundreds of indigenous campesinos who have been maintaining a protest encampment to prevent the military from establishing a new base at Tres Cruces, in a conflicted area of Miranda municipality. The caravan, which includes many international supporters from Europe and elsewhere, is being organized by former senator Piedad Córdoba's group Colombians for Peace. The same group on April 23 held a "Patriotic March" in Bogotá, attended by some 100,000, calling for a negotiated end to the conflict with the FARC guerillas. (AFP, El Espectador, Bogotá, June 28; FOR, June 1)