More than 18,000 operators of construction machinery in South Korea are set to strike June 16 to press for cheaper fuel and higher pay, joining thousands of truckers who walked off the job last week, effectively shutting down the country's ports. About 14,000 truckers walked off the job June 13 after talks on higher pay and cheaper diesel broke down. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) also opposes President Lee Myung-bak's privatization and pension plans. Lee, elected by a landslide, has seen his popularity plummet after an unpopular deal to resume imports of US beef—which has also sparked massive protests in Seoul in recent days. (Reuters, June 16)

Traditional Aboriginal land-users from Borroloola, near Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria, are demanding compensation for land taken by the expansion of Xstrata's McArthur River zinc mine in the Northern Territory. A federal court June 13 rejected an appeal by traditional residents to halt the expansion of the mine, which involves redirecting five kilometers of the river. Justice John Mansfield decided former environment minister Ian Campbell was not in error when he approved the expansion. Indigenous land user Harry Lancen says sacred sites are being destroyed by the mine's operation.

From Human Rights Watch, June 12:

Ethiopia: Army Commits Executions, Torture, and Rape in Ogaden
In its battle against rebels in eastern Ethiopia’s Somali Region, Ethiopia's army has subjected civilians to executions, torture, and rape, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The widespread violence, part of a vicious counterinsurgency campaign that amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, has contributed to a looming humanitarian crisis, threatening the survival of thousands of ethnic Somali nomads.

Peru sent tanker ships carrying food and fuel June 13 to its southernmost coastal region of Tacna, where thousands of residents are stranded by a general strike over mining royalties in neighboring Moquegua region. More than 5,000 Moquegua residents have blocked roads, including the Panamerican highway, cutting off access to the Ilo smelter and Cuajone mine of Grupo Mexico's Southern Copper, the country's largest producer. They are demanding a greater share of profits for local governments in the region. Several provincial and district leaders have started a hunger strike in support of the campaign.

Mexican authorities are searching for 37 undocumented migrants from Cuba and Central America taken from a government bus at gunpoint by ski-masked men with assault rifles. Authorities say the gunmen belong to a human trafficking ring. Police found the empty bus, and no sign of the migrants or the assailants, on the morning of June 12 near Ocosingo, Chiapas. The seven guards and two bus drivers were left on the highway.

Argentine food outlets and gas stations are preparing for shortages as truckers, blocking highways to protest business lost to a farm strike, shut down the nation's road transport system. Traffic is halted on routes through the agricultural provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Cordoba and Entre Rios to press demands the government settle a three-month conflict with farmers that has cut shipping and reduced their income. Growers seeking to roll back new export taxes refuse to sell soybeans and corn harvests. (Bloomberg, June 12)

Spanish police and Civil Guards cracked down on striking truckers June 11, with 25,000 deployed to clear blocked highways, arresting dozens. Catalan provincial police joined with French law enforcement to clear an eight-kilometer line of trucks that had closed a border post at Biriatou. Tens of thousands of truck drivers launched strikes in Spain and Portugal June 9, demanding government help to cope with the rising price of fuel. The protests paralyzed roads, closed auto plants, left supermarkets bare, and petrol stations without gasoline. On June 10, two strikers were run over and killed at picket lines in Spain and in Portugal. (AFP, La Voz Digital, Spain, June 12)

Ignoring a "don't panic" plea from Downing Street, motorists across England and Wales lined up at gas stations to top off their tanks in preparation for a long weekend of industrial action. Tanker drivers supplying 10% of the UK's petrol stations are to halt deliveries June 13 as talks between the Unite union and haulers servicing more than 900 Shell stations broke down. (The Guardian, June 13)