The Palestinian team responsible for preparing the initiative for United Nations recognition in September has been given an independent legal opinion that warns of risks to Palestinian rights in the proposal. The initiative to transfer the Palestinians' representation from the PLO to a state would terminate the legal status held by the PLO in the UN since 1975 as sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, the document states—meaning there would no longer be an institution that can represent the rights of the Palestinian people in the UN and related international institutions. The seven-page opinion, obtained by Ma'an News Agency, was submitted to the Palestinian team by Guy Goodwin-Gill, a professor of public international law at Oxford University and a member of the team that won the 2004 non-binding judgement by the International Court of Justice that the route of Israel's wall was illegal.

As Libyan rebels continue to hunt Tripoli for Moammar Qaddafi—and to battle the remnants of his forces—the elusive strongman again delivered two broadcast messages during the night. In a speech carried by the website of the TV station headed by his son Seif al-Islam, he said he had abandoned his Tripoli compound after it had been bombed by NATO warplanes. "Bab al-Azizya was nothing but a heap of rubble after it was the target of 64 NATO missiles and we withdrew from it for tactical reasons," he said. The speech gave no indication of his whereabouts. In a later audio message on Syria-based Arrai Oruba TV, Qaddafi urged residents to "cleanse Tripoli of rats." He claimed he had walked the streets of Tripoli incognito, and was heartened by Libyans fighting back against the rebels. (Middle East Online, Aug. 24)

A nuclear power plant that was shut down after an earthquake struck central Virginia Aug. 23 had seismographs removed in the 1990s to save money. Officials said that the North Anna Power Station, which has two reactors, lost offsite power and switched to diesel generators to maintain cooling operations after the 5.9 quake. The North Anna plant, which was near the epicenter of the quake, is reportedly located on a fault line. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rates the plant as the seventh most likely to receive core damage from a quake, although it says the odds are very low. According to the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME), the Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory (VTSO) removed all seismographs from around the plant in the 1990s due to budget cuts. In February, Dominion Virginia Power announced plans to add a third reactor at the plant. (Raw Story, Aug. 23)

Libyan rebels on Aug. 23 stormed Moammar Qaddafi's fortress-like compound in Tripoli, the Bab al-Aziziya, blasting through the gates and meeting no resistance, after hours of gun-battles in the surrounding streets. The compound was overrun by rebels and Tripoli citizens generally. A statue of Qaddafi was dragged out and dismantled, his head thrown to the ground. One young man raided Qaddafi's bedroom, and was interviewed for the cameras while wearing the strongman's infamous gold-braided colonel's cap, gold chain and golden scepter. But there is no sign of Qaddafi or his family. State TV, apparently still in pro-Qaddafi hands, continued to broadcast audio messages from the missing strongman, but they were presumably pre-recorded. Rebel leaders say they believe Qaddafi is still in Tripoli, and they are determined to hunt him down.

A group of men armed with guns wounded seven indigenous campesinos during an hour-long attack Aug. 10 on an encampment in the Polochic Valley in the northeastern Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz. Three campesinos were seriously hurt: Martín Pec Taycon, who was shot in the abdomen; Carlos Ical, with a leg wound; and nine-year-old Elena Tec, with a bullet in her foot. The men also set fire to the campesinos' homes and possessions. The campesinos identified the attackers as members of the security group of the Ingenio Chabil Utzaj S.A., an agribusiness owned by the Widmann family

Campesino leader Secundino Ruiz was shot dead as he was leaving a bank in Tocoa in the northern Honduran department of Colón on Aug. 20. Ruiz was president of the San Isidro Cooperative, part of the Authentic Claimant Movement of Aguán Campesinos (MARCA), and he had just withdrawn 195,000 lempiras (about $10,260) to pay MARCA workers; because of the money, police attributed the killing to common criminals. Eliseo Pavón, the treasurer of the cooperative, was wounded, according to Julio Espinal, the commander of a police contingent sent to the area earlier in the week. (FoodFirst Information and Action Network, FIAN, Aug. 20, via Vos el Soberano, Honduras; Prensa Latina, Aug. 21)

About a thousand Honduran secondary students, along with parents and teachers, protested in and around Tegucigalpa on Aug. 15 against a proposed law that they said would lead to the privatization of much of the school system. In the village of Germania, south of the capital, the protesters blocked cars trying to use a major highway leading to El Salvador and Nicaragua. There was a confrontation with the police at another site, the Avenida de las Fuerzas Armada in the east of the city; agents hurled tear gas grenades and arrested some 20 students, although the students were apparently released later. Police blocked a protest near the presidential palace, where President Porfirio ("Pepe") Lobo Sosa was meeting with teachers' representatives about the proposed law.

Fears of a renewed global recession, coupled with concerns about public debt in Europe, forced down Latin American markets on Aug. 18. The most important market in the region, Brazil's BM&FBOVESPA (Bolsa de Valores, Mercadorias & Futuros de São Paulo), fell 3.52 % for the day, while in Argentina the MERVAL index plunged 4.11%. In Mexico City the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV) was down 2.36%; the IGBC index in Colombia fell by 3.15% and Chile's IPSA by 1.89%.