The Philippine military has deployed helicopters and spy drones with the help of US intelligence to search for Muslim rebels who kidnapped Italian Catholic priest Carlo Bossi of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in the Zamboanga peninsula. Bossi was taken at gunpoint after saying Sunday mass in Payao town June 10. Bossi, 57, is the third Italian priest to be kidnapped in the area since 1998. The other two were released after some months and it was not clear if a ransom was paid. Philippine security forces said the kidnappers, led by a certain Commander Kiddie, were linked to either the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) or Abu Sayyaf. A MILF spokesperson said Khidi's real name is Abdusalam Akiddin and he is a loyal commander of imprisoned MNLF leader Nur Misuari. "He was once an MNLF member, but when the organization had a peace agreement with the government, this Akiddin formed his own group," said MILF spokesperson Eid Kabalu. (Asian Journal, June 10; Reuters, June 11; Sun Star Network, June 12)

From Reuters, June 10:

TEHRAN - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who wants more aid from the United States, called on Sunday for a new world order to replace "capitalism and imperialism", at the start of a trip to arch U.S. foe Iran.

For those who remember when Albania was a hermetically sealed communist dictatorship under Enver Hoxha, the spectacle of George Bush receiving a hero's welcome in Tirana was a surreal one. An easy appeal to ethnic nationalism on the issue of Kosova was a sure way to win applause. "The question is whether or not there is going to be endless dialogue on a subject that we have made up our mind about," Bush said while visting Prime Minister Sali Berisha June 10. "We believe Kosovo ought to be independent. There just cannot be continued drift, because I'm worried about expectations not being met in Kosovo." But in a none-too-subtle equivocation on actual independence (and a warning against too strident demands for it), he called on Berisha to use his "good contacts" among Kosovar Albanians to help "maintain calm during these final stages." (EU Observer, June 11)

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), publisher of the journal Science, has teamed up with Amnesty International for a project to monitor the Darfur conflict by satellite. From Medical News Today, June 10:

A pioneering AAAS program that provides technical expertise to human rights groups is helping Amnesty International USA with a new online effort to monitor threatened settlements in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan and provide evidence of destroyed villages.

The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) in Chiapas reports that it has received a document prepared by the Mexican government for the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) concerning the November 13, 2006 slaying of four peasants at the jungle community of Viejo Velasco Suárez. The document acknowledges that some 300 Chiapas state police were mobilized to Viejo Velasco on the day of the massacre. While the document fails to make clear whether the troops were dispatched before or after the attack, Frayba says this corroborates the claims of witnesses that the killers—a band of 40 masked men in civilian clothes—were backed up by hundreds of uniformed men with high-caliber rifles, some also wearing masks, who followed close behind. (Frayba, June 5)

The government of Mexican President Felipe Calderón has issued a formal request to the US Congress for a huge increase in military aid to combat narco-gangs. The request came in a recent US-Mexico Inter-Parliamentary Meeting held in Austin, TX, and was revealed to the Mexican daily La Jornada by Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), leader of the House Intelligence Committee. La Jornada called the request a "Plan Colombia" for Mexico, although without an actual US military troop presence. (La Jornada, June 8)

From Long Island Press, June 8:

Teen Drives Into Sunrise Mall
On June 7, an Amityville teen was arrested for reportedly driving a car into the main entrance of Sunrise Mall at around 7 p.m.

The headquarters of the Iraq Freedom Congress, a civil anti-occupation coalition, were raided by US troops June 7. The premises were damaged when the soldiers forced down the door, and five of the office's guards were arrested and their weapons confiscated. Documents were also seized in the raid.