Despite recent denials by the Ethiopian regime, Der Spiegel corroborates June 11 that "terror suspects have been questioned by US officials in Ethiopia after being transferred from Somalia and Kenya. The captives included Europeans who were detained, interrogated and then released without charge." Up to 100 suspects are thought to have been transferred to Ethiopia in the process known as "extraordinary rendition." Der Spiegel spoke with Swedish citizen Munir Awad, 25, who was released from Ethiopian detainment three weeks ago. He told Der Spiegel that he had travelled to Mogadishu in December with his girlfriend Safia Benaouda, 17, also a Swedish citizen. He said that after Ethiopian forces invaded they fled to Kenya, where they were arrested by local militia, handed over to US troops and sent to Addis Ababa.

On May 28, some 200 Nicaraguan women marked International Day of Action for Women's Health with a protest in Managua to demand the decriminalization of therapeutic abortion. Dozens of vehicles formed a caravan that drove past the Supreme Court, the National Assembly, the offices of the main Nicaraguan media and the headquarters of the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), the party of Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega Saavedra. The lead vehicle carried a poster of a pregnant woman being crucified, referring to the increase in the number of women dying during pregnancy or childbirth so far in 2007. The protest was organized by the Feminist Movement, the Nicaraguan Human Rights Center (CENIDH) and the Association of Gynecologists and Obstetricians, among others.

On June 1 a group of Mexican soldiers opened fire on an extended family riding in a van in Sinaloa de Leyva municipality, in the northwestern state of Sinaloa. According to the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA), the soldiers fired when the driver of the van, Adan Abel Carrillo Esparza, failed to obey an order to halt at a roadblock. The barrage killed five family members: Griselda Galaviz Barraza, 25; Alicia Esparza Parra, 17; and Joniel, Griselda and Juana Esparza Galaviz, ages seven, four and two, respectively. The driver was wounded, along with Teresa Flores Carrillo Esparza, 16, and Jose Carrillo Esparza, five.

As of June 6 Mexican authorities had still not arrested four suspects in the May 15 murder of environmental activist Aldo Zamora, despite pressure from Greenpeace Mexico, human rights groups and federal legislators. Four assailants ambushed Zamora and his 16-year-old brother Misael Zamora around 6:30 pm as they were driving in Santa Lucia, Ocuilan municipality, in Mexico state, killing Aldo and wounding Misael. Misael was able to identify two of the killers as people who had been engaged in illegal woodcutting in the area.

A suspected suicide blast in the middle of a Nairobi street June 11 has left at least one dead and dozens injured. The blast occurred during rush hour near the Ambassadeur Hotel in the city's packed central business district. It shattered shop windows and damaged a nearby bus. Kenyan anti-terrorism police are investigating the attack, with suspicions pointing to either Islamist Somali militants or the local Mungiki cult, which has been the subject of a crackdown in recent weeks. The blast took place blocks from where a bomb killed more than 200 at the US embassy in 1998. It appears to be Kenya's first terrorist attack since 15 were killed in a blast aat an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa in 2002. (Reuters, June 11)

The rights group Global Witness charges in a new report that cocoa profits fueled the brutal civil war in Ivory Coast just as diamonds did in Liberia, with both the government and rebels profiting from the trade. The study finds that 30% of the government's military costs during one six-month period were funded by cocoa proceeds, while rebels have reaped some $30 million per year from cocoa since 2004. Global Witness wants companies exporting cocoa to make public the origin of the beans. The industry is resistant. "Tracing or labelling individual beans is, as a practical matter, impossible," said Susan Smith, spokeswoman for the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, a trade group that includes Nestle and Hershey's.

Buddhist monks and other Thais rallied over the weekend to have Buddhism enshrined in the constitution as the national religion of Thailand. [Some 5,000 blocked traffic outside the parliament building in Bangkok.] With ongoing violence in Thailand's predominantly Muslim south, such a move is only likely to alienate the country's religious minorities further. [Reuters, June 10] Three school teachers, all Buddhist, were killed by gunmen in the south [Srisakorn and Rangae districts, Narathiwat province]. Teachers are becoming an increasingly common target in the region. [The Nation, Thailand, June 11]

A bomb blast outside a shop in Istanbul wounded at least 14 people [June 10]. Turkish security forces believe that Kurdish separatists are behind the attack. [Reuters, June 10] Ongoing fighting in the Turkish southeast between the army and Kurdish separatist fighters of the Kurdish Workers' Party [PKK] has left several dead. [Reuters, June 10]