The indigenous Telengit people in Russia's Altai Republic (see map) are turning to the international community to help stop a new gas pipeline to China that would cut through their sacred lands and a UN-recognized World Heritage Site. When first announced in 2006 by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the 2,700-kilometer Altai Pipeline was slated to be complete by the end of 2011, but construction is only about to begin now due to cost disputes. Cultural Survival warns that the pipeline would bisect the Ukok Plateau, sacred to the Telengit, and the Golden Mountains of Altai, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as Kanas National Park in China's Xinjiang province, one of that country's last undeveloped wilderness areas.

Hundreds of activists from throughout South Korea have gathered in force on Jeju Island, off the country's southern coast, to hold a "peace event" aimed at halting construction of a naval base slated to be used by US forces. The event, including a concert and cultural activities, opened Sept. 3—one day after riot police dispersed protesters at the island's Gangjeong village, who held a sit-in to block construction equipment. After the blockade was broken, and 38 arrested, work crew commenced construction of a perimeter fence around the construction site.

The UN on Sept. 2 issued its its report on the deadly May 2010 Gaza flotilla raid, criticizing Israel for using "excessive and unreasonable" force but finding that the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip itself is lawful. Prepared by a panel headed by former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer for the office of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the report found:

Libya's provisional authority says five international oil firms are resuming operations in the country, VOA reported Sept. 2. National Transitional Council (NTC) member Aref Ali Nayed said the companies include Italian energy giant ENI. We noted yesterday that BP, at least, is waiting for stability to be restored—as members of the Tuareg minority were apparently just met with harsh reprisals by anti-Qaddafi fighters at the desert town of Ghadames, where BP hopes to drill. But The Guardian reported Sept. 1 that BP is already in talks with the NTC to expand operations in Libya. The Guardian also cites a report Sept. 1 in the Paris daily Libération of a secret deal with the TNC under which French companies would control more than a third of Libya's oil production.

Over the past days, more than 500 Tuaregs, including women and children, have crossed from Libya to Algeria, claiming they were forced to flee their homes by anti-Qaddafi fighters. The Tuaregs have taken refuge at the Algerian desert town of Debdeb, where they are receiving aid from the Red Crescent. Many fled from the Libyan desert city of Ghadames after it was occupied by anti-Qaddafi forces. Refugees said the fighters wrote "Death to Tuaregs" on the city's walls, and killed one Tuareg resident. The governments of Mali and Niger meanwhile report that hundreds of former Tuareg rebels who had gone to Libya to fight for Qaddafi are now returning home. Qaddafi backed the Tuareg insurgencies in Mali and Niger in the 1990s, and then recruited former rebels to fight for him when the Libyan revolution broke out. The reports from Ghadames indicate some anti-Qaddafi forces are now taking retribution against Tuaregs indiscriminately. The Tuaregs are the indigenous people of the interior Sahara, their vast and sparsely populated homeland now divided between the nations of Libya, Algeria, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. (France24, Sept. 2; Ennahar Online, Sept. 1; AFP, Aug. 30)

Rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on Aug. 30 said in a joint press release that they have evidence the Sudanese army has committed war crimes in the country's South Kordofan region. Researchers from the two advocacy groups visited the Nuba Mountain region of South Kordofan where they "documented 13 separate bombing incidents in Kauda, Delami and Kurchi towns alone, in which at least 26 civilians were killed and more than 45 others injured since mid-June." The researchers claim bombings occurred on a continuous basis during their time in the region. They argue that the use of unguided bombs dropped from high altitude on nonmilitary targets is a violation of international human rights law. Amnesty International's Erwin van der Borght called for the UN Security Council to "condemn in the strongest possible terms the ongoing human rights violations in the Nuba Mountains, and mandate an independent inquiry to investigate abuses committed by parties to the conflict in Southern Kordofan since 5 June."

AlJazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from Tripoli Aug. 31, claims to have uncovered documents at the ransacked offices of Abdullah Alsinnousi (also rendered al-Senussi)—Qaddafi's intelligence chief (and in-law), now wanted for war crimes—implicating elements of the United States government in supporting the strongman, in violation of official policy. Damaged in a NATO air-strike before being overrun by rebel troops, the office is now in chaos. Elshayyal claims that among the thousands of once-secret documents now littering the floor, he found some that name US political figures as quietly backing the Qaddafi regime—including Rep. Dennis Kucinich. Writes Elshayyal:

The president of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdel Jalil, denied Aug. 30 any presence of elements of the Polisario Front in the country, in response to a question at a Benghazi press conference about claims aired by Moroccan media that TNC forces have arrested some 556 members of the Western Sahara armed independence movement. The Sahrawi government and the Polisario Front last week said they denied categorically the charges made by the Morocco Board News Service Aug. 25 that Polisario fighters serving as mercenaries for Qaddafi had been detained in Libya. The joint statement called for an urgent independent inquiry into the allegations, and invited the new Libyan authorities to issue a denial. (Sahara Press Service, Aug. 31)