At least 85 people were killed and more than 180 injured by a car bomb and coordinated truck bomb in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk July 16. One car bomb exploded in a crowded market near an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the second went off in a commercial area. Later, a third bomber driving a Volkswagen Passat attacked a police patrol in southern Kirkuk, killing one police officer and seriously wounding 10 others. Many victims were women and children shopping in the busy street market. The attacks come amid rising ethnic tensions in Kirkuk, which is 60 miles west of Sulaymaniyah, the largest city in the PUK-controlled region of Kurdistan. Kurds have aggressively moved into Kirkuk since the 2003 invasion, angering Turkmen and Arab residents who fear PUK designs to annext the oil-rich city. (Al-Bawaba, Jordan; NYT, July 16)

With more than 70 killed in bombings over the weekend, Pakistan appears to be lurching towards civil war in the aftermath of the Red Mosque attack. A suicide bomber killed at least 26, including six police, and wounded over 50 others July 15 at a police recruitment center at DeraIsmail Khan in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) near the Afghan border. That same day, militants in North Waziristan, one of the NWFP's autonomous Tribal Areas, announced they are ending a 10-month-old cease-fire accord with the government. Follwing the Red Mosque raid last week, al-Qaeda's number-two man Ayman al-Zawahri called for jihad against the Pakistan government, which has sent thousands of troops into remote areas to try to keep a lid on rirsing popular anger. (Xinhua, LAT, July 16)

From Northern California's Redding Record-Searchlight, July 13, via BoingBoing.net, which notes "The D.E.A. working with National Guard troops and Blackhawk helicoptors set upon Shasta County, California this week to deal with the domestic terror threat of... pot growers":

The latest piece of overwrought effluent from Kurt Nimmo once again exemplifies the fundamental flaw with the Conspiracy Industry. Those sources from the mainstream media which support the Conspiracy Theory are taken as gospel truth; those which point the other way are dismissed as disinformation. It is a fundamentally dishonest as well as pathetically transparent propaganda trick. Alas, the Conspiranoids' legions of true believers never seem to get it. Nimmo writes, July 14 (emphasis added):

Indigenous people in Bolivia are marching cross-country from the lowland city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra to the judicial capital, Sucre, where the country's Constituent Assembly is meeting. About 400 men, women and children from the tropical zone's ethnicities, led by the Confederation of Indigenous People of Eastern Bolivia (CIDOB), launched their 608-kilometer march this weekend. CIDOB leader Adolfo Chávez said the marchers will take their demands for autonomy for indigenous peoples to the Assembly, which has been hashing out a new constitution for Bolivia since it opened in August 2006.

Katha Pollitt writes for her blog in The Nation, July 13:

2,4,6,8! This Beheading is Really Great!
Why is the anti-war movement so lacklustre when 70% of Americans want to bring the troops home by spring and George W. Bush is the least popular president in history?

Grupo Mexico SAB, the world's seventh-largest copper producer, said 30% of employees at the San Martin copper and gold mine (Zacatecas state) didn't report to work July 5 because of a national one-day protest. The strike also halted work at Grupo Mexico's Taxco zinc and silver mine. The National Mining and Metal Workers Union said about 80% of workers at mining and steel companies across Mexico joined the strike to support Grupo Mexico workers. Miners want the company to improve safety conditions. (Bloomberg, July 5)

Peru's National Federation of Miners, Metalworkers and Steelworkers called a nation-wide strike for July 10 and 11, in solidarity with more than 1,500 workers at the Casapalca mine who walked out in May. The conflict has claimed five lives so far. On July 13, the company owners agreed to sit down and talk with the workers and the authorities for the first time.