Joining the estimated 500,000 who took to the streets of Mexico City July 8 to demand a recount in the contested presidential elections is, of all places, the Financial Times. The upper-crust British daily supported the officially victorious conservative candidate Felip Calderon, but in an editorial noting populist challenger Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's demands for a total recount, opined: "That is exactly what Mexico's electoral authorities should do." (La Jornada, July 11; FT, July 10)

Despite the recent tensions between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, both governments seem equally paranoid about Western-backed subversion within their borders. And perhaps with reason. From RFE/RL, July 12:

A Tashkent court today ordered the closure of the Urban Institute, a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization.

It seems the Kyrgyz government, itself put in power by a US-sponsored revolution last year, is increasingly paranoid that Washington is brewing another one. And perhaps with reason. Note that negotiations over continued Pentagon access to Kyrgyz military bases are currently underway. Erica Marat writes for Eurasia Daily Monitor, July 13:

Dealing drugs was the least of Pinochet's crimes. But the poor family's delicate sensibilities have been offended by the accusation, it seems. From AP, July 12:

SANTIAGO, Chile - The son of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet filed a defamation suit Tuesday against the general's former intelligence chief, rejecting published accusations that Pinochet became rich off the production and sale of cocaine.

Another reason to love New York State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer. But, as we've said before regarding a similar case, getting Emmanuel Constant for mortgage fraud is kind of like nailing Hitler for tax-evasion. From Newsday, July 7:

A Queens man and former Haitian paramilitary leader, convicted of the 1994 massacre of slum-dwellers loyal to former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has been arrested and charged with committing mortgage fraud from the Melville brokerage where he works, Suffolk officials said yesterday.

The Srebrenica Genocide Blog notes the July 11 ceremony at the Bosnian town to commemorate the mass murder that took place there precisely 11 years ago—an anniversary largely overlooked by the world media, despite some important new developments in the survivors' ongoing search for justice:

A statement from the Iraq Freedom Congress, June 26:

Dissolving Al-Maliki Government Rather than Initiating 'National Reconciliation'
Is the solution for ending the Iraqis’ Burdens

The pro-occupation prime minister of Iraq has come up with an initiative to end the violence, naming it National Reconciliation.

This optimistic June 26 analysis by Kavi Chongkittavorn in Thailand's The Nation is one of the very few accounts we've been able to find that even mentions the question of Nepal's indigenous peoples in the new order which is emerging. We've highlighted the reference to the Madeshi tribal people of the lowland plains of the country's southwest side. Our own observations will follow.