Afghanistan's interior ministry says US-led forces killed 76 civilians in an Aug. 20 operation—directly contradicting the US military, which said 30 suspected Taliban died. "Seventy-six people, all civilians and most of them women and children, were martyred during the operation by coalition forces in Shindand district of Herat province," the ministry said Aug. 22. "Nineteen women, seven men and the rest children all under 15 years of age," were killed in the operation, the statement said—one of the highest civilian deaths tolls since the 2001 US-led invasion.

A Los Angeles Times report, "US debates going after militants in Pakistan," mostly quotes unnamed US officials as saying direct intervention in Pakistan is being viewed with greater seriousness as the country spins out of control. One attributed quote is from Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said some two months ago a team of up to 30 advisors would be sent to Pakistan this summer to operate out of a base near Peshawar, where a "significant number" of Pakistani military and Frontier Corps personnel would be put through a counterinsurgency training program. (LAT, Aug. 23)

The International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI) has called for an international campaign on behalf of several labor activists in Iran who have been sentenced to public whipping, prison terms and even death—mostly for participating in a May Day march in Sanandaj, and protests against the march's repression. The sentences were announced earlier this month. IASWI provides the following list of persecuted activists:

Mauritanian authorities re-arrested ousted prime minister Yahya Ould Ahmed El Waghef Aug. 21 after he led a protest march in opposition to this month's military coup. Deposed president Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi has been held by the army since the Aug. 6 coup. Waghef was freed five days later and vowed to campaign to restore Abdallahi to power. He was arrested as he traveled to the northern port of Nouadhibou for another march. The Aug. 20 march in Nouakchott, the capital, was one of the largest in Mauritania's history, bringing out some 15,000. A group of political parties and civil organizations opposed to the coup have formed a National Front for the Defense of Democracy (FNDD), which reports police have seized its campaign banners and prevented it from holding protests in recent days. (BBC, Reuters, Aug. 21)

Via NYC Indymedia, Aug. 19:

August 19, 2008, New York – A group of 52 local activists today announced a $2 million settlement in their lawsuit against the City of New York. The activists were illegally arrested on April 7, 2003 while protesting against the Iraq war in front of a military contractor's offices in midtown. The settlement in Kunstler et al v. New York City follows the dismissal in 2003 of all criminal charges brought against these individuals and four costly years of delays by the City in negotiating an end to the civil lawsuit.

From the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), Aug. 21:

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) and the West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) today welcomed the removal of Col. Burhanuddin Siagian from his command in West Papua. Siagian faces two indictments in East Timor for crimes against humanity committed in 1999. "Col. Siagian's removal from Papua is a welcome move," said John M. Miller, National Coordinator of ETAN. "Indonesia should take the next steps and suspend him from any command and then hand him over for trial for the crimes he committed in East Timor."

A 24-hour general strike in Bolivia's opposition-controlled departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, Tarija and Chuquisaca Aug. 19 paralyzed a large swath of the country's east. Clashes broke out in the city of Santa Cruz, where protesters armed with sticks and stones fought with loyalists of President Evo Morales, and police fired tear gas. Young strike enforcers were reported to be patrolling the streets of Santa Cruz with baseball bats, while Morales supporters stood guard outside the working-class district of Plan 3000. Schools, shops, airports and private vehicular traffic were largely shut down in the five departments. Morales accused opposition leaders of using demands for the return of funds from the Direct Hydrocarbon Tax (IDH) as a "pretext" to try to divide the National Police force. But Cabinet Minister Juan Ramon Quintana lauded authorities in Tarija and Chuquisaca for not supporting the strike, despite being part of the regional opposition alliance, the National Democratic Council (CONALDE). (LAT, Aug. 21; InfoBae, Argentina, Prensa Latina, Aug. 20)

Margarita Mbywangi, a 46-year-old Ache tribal chief who says she was captured in the jungle and sold into forced labor as a child, has been appointed Paraguay's minister of indigenous affairs by President Fernando Lugo, who was inaugurated Aug. 15. Mbywangi, a mother of three, told Paraguay's Channel 2 TV: "When I was a girl, four years old, the whites kidnapped me in the jungle and I was sold several times to families of hacienda owners. They sent me to school, so I can read and write." Upon winning her freedom, she began to seek her origins "until I found my people in the community of Chupapou." She said she will immediately begin to work on titling indigenous lands. According to government figures, about 90,000 Paraguayans say they belong to one of the country's 400 indigenous communities. (The Guardian, Aug. 19)