A crowd of about 300 villagers blocked a main road in eastern Afghanistan Aug. 12 and chanted "Death to the US!" The protest came after a raid by US forces in which they said three innocent villagers were killed at Zarin Khil, Sayed Abad district, Wardak province. Village elders said US troops stormed into a family’s house and shot three brothers—all young men—and then took their father into custody. Local police are said to be investigating the allegations. NATO forces rejected the claim, saying those killed in the overnight raid were "suspected insurgents", and that a local Taliban commander was detained.

President Barack Obama said Aug. 11 that the US can complete its combat role in Iraq safely at the end of this month and meet a deadline for removing troops from the country by the end of 2011. The statement came after a cabinet meeting which was addressed via video by the US commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno. But White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, in his comments after the meeting, acknowledged that Iraq has still failed to form a new government five months after national elections.

Colombia's new President Juan Manuel Santos met with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez in a first step to restore bilateral relations Aug. 10. In a symbolically charged move, the meeting took place at the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, a monument to Simón Bolívar near Santa Marta on Colombia's northern coast, where the liberator died in 1830.

A judge in Medellín acquitted ten soldiers on Aug. 6, including a colonel and major, of participation in the massacre of eight civilians at the "peace community" of San José de Apartadó in the northern Urabá region in February 2005. The case has been viewed as a critical measuring stick for the ability of the Colombian court system to render justice in the cases of thousands of killings of civilians in the country's armed conflict.

From the Amnesty International, Aug. 10:

The Taleban and other insurgent groups should be investigated and prosecuted for war crimes, Amnesty International said, following the release of a UN report showing a rise in targeted killings of civilians in Afghanistan by anti-government fighters.

For the past two weeks, 17 political prisoners in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison have been on hunger strike to protest constant abuse; solitary confinement; lack of phone call rights and family visits; and lack of access to medical care, books and newspapers. One hunger striker, photojournalist Babak Bordbar, has been released. The remaining strikers include student activist Majid Tavakoli and human rights activist Koohyar Goodarzi. In addition to protests by the families of these prisoners, a group of political prisoners including Mansour Ossanloo of the Tehran Bus Workers Union and journalist Issa Saharkhiz have issued an open letter to urge an end their hunger strike. The letter states that "the democracy-seeking Green Movement needs capable forces and prolific youth like you to build a free Iran."

In two raids week, personnel of the Israel Lands Administration, backed up by a large police contingent, demolished the homes of some 300 residents in the "unrecognized" Bedouin village of al-Arakib in the Negev. Most of them—Israeli citizens, including many children—were left homeless. No assistance or compensation was offered by Israeli authorities. In the second police action Aug. 3, the entire village was bulldozed, with many of the residents' cattle, trees and belongings lost. Al-Arakib, which had about 40 homes, was one of 45 Bedouin villages not recognized by Israeli authorities.

On July 30, hundreds students from the University of El Salvador took to the streets, accompanied by professors, staff and other sectors of the social movement. The march, filled with street theater, papier-mâché tanks and a 20-foot gorilla, was a commemoration of the the military regime's massacre of student protesters that occurred on July 30, 1975.