In a deal signed in Quito Aug. 3, the government of Ecuador and the UN Development Programme agreed to establish a trust fund to protect Yasuni National Park from oil development in exchange for payments in compensation for foregone revenue. Proponents say the accord will prevent the discharge into the atmosphere of more than 400 million tons of carbon dioxide that would have resulted from burning oil from the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) fields in the area.

Community activist and hip-hop artist Marcelo Pimienta Sánchez AKA "MC Chelo," 23, was shot dead by unknown assailants Aug. 6 near his home in the conflicted Comuna 13 district of Medellín, Colombia. The father of a two-year-old boy, Chelo was a member of the group Hip-Hop Eskalones, and a recognized leader in social and cultural activities aimed at ending the endemic violence in the district, home to several armed factions. Chelo was the third member of the community group Red Cultural Elite Hip Hop to be killed in recent months. Andrés Felipe Medina was shot dead in Comuna 13 last month, and the artist known as"Colacho" was killed near the district nearly a year ago. (Red Juvenil, Boletín Alcaldía de Medellín, Aug. 6)

The long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost its hold on power in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca in gubernatorial elections last month, but the PRI's local apparatus of control may only be hardening—especially in the state's conflicted Mixtec region, where paramilitary groups terrorize peasant communities that have broken with the political machine.

Slovak police intervened Aug. 7 against a march by the far-right Our Slovakia People's Party (LSNS) in front of the castle in Bratislava. Ten were arrested, including Marián Kotleba, leader of the Slovak Brotherhood, an allied right-wing organization. Authorities allowed the event to take place, but police blocked protesters when they tried to march to the statue of Prince Svatopluk on the castle grounds. Local media reported that one detainee's head was bloodied.

Hundreds of Taiwanese indigenous villagers protested Aug. 7 against the government's resettlement plans ahead of the one-year anniversary of the disastrous Typhoon Morakot. "Guard the homeland" and "oppose forced resettlement," shouted protesters from central and southern Taiwan, as they gathered in Ketagalan Square near the presidential office in Taipei. Some 1,000 villagers camped in the square to press President Ma Ying-jeou hear their demands. "We are forced to move out of our lands and this will destroy our tribes and cultures," said organizer Omi Wiling of the Indigenous Peoples Action Coalition of Taiwan (IPACT). "We want to have a say in the resettlement process. The government neither understands nor respects our way of life."

The paramilitary Rapid Action Force is still patrolling Srinagar even as a curfew has been lifted elsewhere in Indian-controlled Kashmir after days of deadly riots across the territory finally subsided Aug. 6. The death toll of civilians since the new unrest began June 11 now stands at 50. Meanwhile, the disastrous floods that have devastated much of Pakistan hit Kashmir, with at least 130 killed, hundreds more injured, and rescue efforts ongoing. (VOA, Hindustan Times, Aug. 7; Hindustan Times, Aug. 6)

The Central Intelligence Agency transferred several high-profile prisoners to Guantánamo Bayto await trial in 2003, only to transfer them back into the CIA's network of secret prisons so they would not be entitled to lawyers and access to US courts, the Associated Press reported Aug. 6. Among the suspects reportedly on the September 2003 flight were prominent al-Qaedamembers Ramzi Binalshibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, who supposedly aided in the planning of the 9-11 attacks, and Abd al-Nashiri, who supposedly planned the 2000 USS Cole bombing. A commercial jetliner operated by one of the CIA's several airline front companies removed al-Hawsawi from the "Salt Pit" in Kabul, Afghanistan, transferred alleged 9-11 conspirator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to "Britelite" in Bucharest, Romania, and picked up the others at a facility in Rabat, Morocco, before landing in Guantánamo Bay.

Sheik Mohamud Ahmed Shurie, information secretary of the Ahlu Sunna (Sufi militia) for Somalia's Banadir region, held a telephone press conference with journalists in Mogadishu to declare war against Hizbul Islam and Harakat al-Shabab Mujahedeen for the coming holy Ramadan month. The Ahlu Suna Waljama'a clerics, African Union troops and the forces of Somalia's transitional government are battling al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam in the Somali capital and south and central regions of the country.