From the Lebanon Solidarity website:

U.S. Citizens, Internationals and Lebanese risk safety to bring humanitarian aid to devasted Southern Lebanon
On August 12, at 7 AM, Lebanese from throughout the country and international supporters who have come to Lebanon to express solidarity will gather in Martyr’s Square in Beirut to form a civilian convoy to the south of Lebanon. Hundreds of Lebanese and international civilians will express their solidarity with the inhabitants of the heavily destroyed south who have been bravely withstanding the assault of the Israeli military. This campaign is endorsed by more than 200 Lebanese and international organizations. This growing coalition of national and international non-governmental organizations hereby launches a campaign of civil resistance for the purpose of challenging the cruel and ruthless use of massive military force by Israel, the regional superpower, upon the people of Lebanon.

Received from the Iraq Freedom Congress:

Lets Make Zaafaranyia a Safe and Peaceful Town

For decades, people in the town of Saafaranyia, like all other Iraqi cities lived together in peace away from any kind of hatred and it was an example for humanism and peace. Recently criminal hands have reached this town trying to destabilize it using sectarian incite which rip the society into pieces and turn cities to a front for sectarian fight. Recently many leaflets have been distributed threatening families, ordering them to leave their houses.

Received from Houzan Mahmoud of the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq:

Appeal to all human rights, labour and political organisations worldwide
Support the protest movements of people in Kurdistan!

Urgent action required to support thousands of people in Iraqi Kurdistan
demanding basic rights

Over the last few days Iraqi Kurdistan has seen a wave of protests and gatherings of people in several towns. The protests started in Darbandikhan and Chamchamal - (August 7th) this protest movement has already spread to other places like Kefri, Sulaymania and Kalar.

Iraq's northern Kurdish autonomous zone, heretofore an island of relative stability, now also appears to be infected by the sectarian strife tearing apart the rest of the country. This attack took place in Basra, but the struggle for control of northern Kirkuk was at issue. From Reuters, Aug. 11:

Gunmen storm Kurdish offices in southern Iraq

KERBALA - Gunmen angered by criticism of a Shi'ite cleric ransacked offices of President Jalal Talabani's Kurdish party in southern Iraq on Friday after a newspaper claimed the cleric was fanning sectarian tensions.

Another heroic blow by the Iraqi resistance... against Shi'ite pilgrims. From the Los Angeles Times, Aug. 11 (links and annotation added):

NAJAF, Iraq — A suicide bomber struck Thursday at a checkpoint near a revered Shiite Muslim mosque here, killing 35 people and threatening to further agitate sectarian violence as U.S. and Iraqi troops intensified operations in Baghdad to rout militias and death squads.

For all of the endless talk about religion as a cause of war in the Middle East, it is rare that a media account mentions the actual resources that are being fought over. This welcome exception from the Los Angeles Times, Aug. 10:

QASMIYA, Lebanon — Israeli bombing has knocked out irrigation canals supplying Litani River water to more than 10,000 acres of farmland and 23 villages in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, prompting accusations here that Israel is using its war against Hezbollah to lay claim to Lebanon's prime watersheds.

From The Forward, Aug. 11:

JERUSALEM — Young Israeli activists are fighting back against Hezbollah — with a boycott on smoking hash.

This blurb appeared in the New York Times Aug. 8:

The authorities have banned a rights group founded in 2002 by a group of lawyers and led by Shirin Ebadi, the only Iranian to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The Interior Ministry said the group, the Center for Protecting Human Rights, had failed to obtain a valid operating permit. “Its activities are illegal and the violators of this decision will be prosecuted,’’ the ministry said. The group has defended dissidents and journalists and has repeatedly criticized Iran’s hard-line judiciary. Ms. Ebadi, who won the Nobel in 2003 and headed the Tehran City Court from 1975 until the revolution in 1979, after which women were banned from such posts, said her center needed no special permit under the Constitution. Last month, another of the center’s founders, Abdolfattah Soltani, was sentenced to five years in prison.