Earlier this month, Tibetan environmentalist Rinchen Samdrup was sentenced to five years in prison by a Chinese court, found guilty of inciting separatism by posting a pro-Dalai Lama article on his website. Samdrup, the third brother in his family to be jailed, told the Changdu Intermediate People's Court that he did not post the article himself. His lawyer, Xia Jun, was quoted as saying: "It was a mistake, but not a crime." The website is devoted to protecting the environment in the Himalayan region.

Eyewitness accounts confirm that Chinese security forces used disproportionate force and acted with deliberate brutality in the wave of Tibetan protests that began on March 10, 2008, Human Rights Watch says in a new report. The report charges that many violations continue today, including disappearances, wrongful convictions and imprisonment, persecution of families, and the targeting of Tibetans suspected of sympathizing with the protest movement.

From Amnesty International, June 21:

Amnesty International has today called on the Israeli authorities to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes and other buildings in the West Bank, after a further 74 were destroyed in the Jordan Valley earlier this week.

Five Yemeni soldiers were killed in in a suspected ambush by "al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula" while on patrol in the Shabwa province in southern Yemen July 21. A day earlier, dozens of pro-government tribesmen were killed in clashes with Shi'ite Houthi rebels in northern Saada province, including tribal leader Sheikh Zaidan al-Maknaiee, his son and four bodyguards.

Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega on July 20 accused Colombia of granting exploration permits to oil companies on Nicaraguan territory. Ortega was referring to disputed waters along the Caribbean maritime border between the two countries. The Colombian government sold permits to 80 foreign companies for 230 sites across the country last month—including in the disputed waters. A case over the dispute is still pending at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Some 5,000 indigenous campesinos from across Colombia marched in downtown Bogotá July 21 to protest a pact that gives US forces greater access to Colombian military bases. The "Patriotic March" on Plaza Bolívar came the same day as 30,000-strong celebrations in the capital city's central square marking the nation's bicentennial. President Alvaro Uribe presided over the official rally. The campesinos marched on the plaza from the National University campus, which has served as a staging ground for the protest, and where classes are suspended.

Police in Yulin, Shaanxi province, detained eight people following a July 17 clash at a coal mine that left dozens injured. The eight suspects include both residents of nearby Fanjiahe village, Hengshan county, and workers at the Shandong Coal Mine. The clash involved nearly 200 and left 87 injured, authorities said. It began when more than 100 villagers, armed with shovels and other tools, entered the mining site and smashed equipment in a bid to stop production.

In what is possibly the worst oil spill in China's history, some 430 square kilometers of the Yellow Sea are covered with a slick following a July 16 explosion at a pipeline terminal in the northeast port of Dalian. At least one worker has drowned in crude during the clean-up operation. The slick has doubled in size despite earlier government assurances that it was being contained. Supplies have been cut to two local PetroChina refineries. The terminal receives crude from Yellow Sea rigs run by the China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC). The Chinese government estimates the spill at 400,000 gallons. A Beijing-based biotechnology company, Weiyeyuan, is providing 23 tons of oil-eating bacteria to help clean up the slick. (BGN, WSJ, July 22; The Guardian, July 21; China Daily, July 20)