A Syrian rebel offensive targeting Alawite villages close to President Bashar Assad's hometown of Qardaha in the coastal governorate of Latakia has seen some 200 people killed and left nearly 3,000 families displaced since the start of the month. Both the Free Syrian Army and jihadist factions including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham and the Mujahedeen Brigade are taking part in the "battle to liberate the coast," the Alawite heartland where support for Assad runs deepest. FSA military commander Salim Idriss told Saudi-owned news network Al Arabiya that his forces are fighting against regime troops, not Alawite civilians, and pledged that there would be no reprisals. Rebel forces have taken control of 11 Alawite-majority villages since the offensive began, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (Al Arabiya, Aug. 13; Al Bawaba, Aug. 7)

A 48-hour bandh, or civil strike, called by the United Naga Council (UNC) has shut down the ethnic Naga areas of India's northeastern Manipur state, with roads blocked and most businesses closed. The UNC called the bandh to press demands for a "separate administrative set-up" for Manipur's Nagas. Amid the strike, the Kuki State Demand Committee (KSDC) announced it would launch its own 48-hour bandh in the ethnic Kuki areas of Manipur to press demands for creation of a new "Kukiland" state, to be carved out of Manipur. (PTI, Aug. 12) Meanwhile, the All Assam Adivasi Students Association (AAASA) is blocking the road linking Assam and Nagaland states to demand autonomy for the tribal peoples or adivasis whose lands straddle the border. The decision to launch the blockade came after an advasi man was killed in an armed confrontation with Nagas in June. (NNN, June 6)

The Addameer Prisoner Support & Human Rights Association reports that its lawyer Fares Ziad recently visited three of the 12 Palestinian political prisoners currently on hunger strike in Israeli facilities. Ziad confirmed that the health of all three continue to rapidly deteriorate, with one hunger striker savagely beaten by five Israeli soldiers. All three have been on hunger strike for 99 days. Prisoner Mohammad Rimawi in Suroka Hospital at Beersheba was informed Aug. 5 that he would be moved to another section within the hospital. Upon enquiring about the reasons for the proposed move, Rimawi had his hands and legs shackled and was then thrown on the ground and savagely beaten by five Israeli soldiers who were guarding him, according to Addameer. Ziad confirmed that that the bruises on Rimawi are still clearly visible. Mohammad has since been moved to another section, shackled to the bed, and threatened with being force-fed if he continues his strike.

Egyptian militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis claimed Aug. 10 that an air-strike that killed four of its fighters in the Sinai peninsula the previous day was carried out by an Israeli drone. But Egypt's military denied there had been any Israeli strikes in Egyptian territory, and later said its own aircraft had carried out the attack. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, with a following among the Sinai's Bedouin tribes, accused the Egyptian military of co-ordinating the attack with Israel. "Our heroes became martyrs during their jihadi duties against the Jews in a rocket attack on occupied lands," the group said in a statement. "How can the Egyptian army allow the Zionist unmanned planes to cross into Egyptian territory?" A motorcade funeral for the fallen fighters made its way through through several border towns in Sinai—with dozens of militants in pick-up trucks flying their black flag in defiance of the army. Egypt's armed forces have killed 60 jihadist fighters in the Sinai in the month since Mohamed Morsi was ousted.  (AFP, Al Jazeera, Aug. 10)

At least 28 Palestinian refugees were killed in Syria during July as refugee camps in the country continue to be dragged into the civil war. The UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, estimates that the homes of 44,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria have been damaged by conflict, and that half of the approximately 500,000 Palestinian refugees in the country are now displaced either within Syria or in neighboring countries. An UNRWA staff member was killed in Syria in July, the seventh to have been killed in the conflict; 13 of the agency’s staff in Syria are detained or have been reported missing.

Mexico's most notorious kingpin, Rafael Caro Quintero, was released Aug. 9 from Puente Grande federal prison in Jalisco where he had been incarcerated for the past 28 years. He left the facility at dawn, several hours before the release order was made public. The First Appellate Tribunal in Guadalajara found in March that Caro Quintero was improperly tried for the 1985 torture-killing of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, and that charges should have been brought at the state rather than federal level. Federal prosecutors immediately appealed to the Supreme Justice Court of the Nation, which refused to rescind the lower court's decision. The Third Circuit Tribunal, also in Guadalajara, has now followed through by issuing Caro Quintero an amparo—a judicial order barring any federal action against him. 

The area of land planted with coca leaf in Colombia has fallen by 25%, and is now about a third of that in 2001, according to the latest report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)'s Integrated Illicit Crops Monitoring System. The report finds that land planted with coca has dropped from 64,000 hectares in 2011 to 48,000 hectares in 2012, the lowest figure since monitoring started in Colombia more than a decade ago. Although the National Police actually eradicated less coca than in previous years, the force increased its presence in coca-growing regions, apparently preventing campesinos from planting coca in the first place. But while coca areas fell nationwide, they rose in three departments still especially wracked by armed conflict—Norte de Santander, Chocó and Caquetá.

An indefinite general strike in India's West Bengal state has brought production of the world-famous Darjeeling tea to a halt, threatening to send global prices soaring. The strike was called Aug. 3 by the  Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) to demand independent statehood for the region's Nepali-speaking Gorkha people in the Darjeeling hill district, to be called Gorkhaland. The strike has reportedly cost the industry £1.5m already, and state authorities have flooded Darjeeling region with paramilitary troops. "Our demand for Gorkhaland is an old one, and generations of our people have fought for it," said GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri. "Now we want it because we see no future for us in West Bengal."