US Marines and Afghan forces uncovered and destroyed hundreds of tons of poppy seeds, opium and heroin in southern Afghanistan this month in raids that officials say are part of a shift in counter-narcotics strategy. Marines in Helmand working alongside DEA-trained Afghan police seized 297 tons of poppy seeds, 77 pounds (35 kilograms) of heroin and 300 pounds (135 kilograms) of opium in raids in mid-July. Some 1,200 pounds (550 kilograms) of hashish and 4,225 gallons (16,000 liters) of chemicals used to convert opium to heroin were also seized. Said US envoy Richard Holbrooke: "This wasn't an accident. This was planned interdiction."

Kyrgyzstan's incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev claims an 85% of the vote in the weekend's presidential election. But challenger Almazbek Atambayev is questioning the results, and flew to Moscow to discuss the issue with Russian leaders. The Union of Civic Organizations, an independent Kyrgyz election monitoring group, said it had documented several violations, including "massive ballot stuffing." Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has yet to congratulate Bakiyev on his victory. Neither Russia nor the US has explicitly commented on the conduct of the election.

Rebels of a group known as the "Nigerian Taliban" expanded attacks against security forces to three northern states July 27, leaving at least 80 people dead in two days of clashes. The attacks began a day earlier in Bauchi state, apparently in retliation for the arrest of local leaders; they have now spread to Yobe, Kano and Borno states. The group is formally known as Boko Haram, which is said to translate as "Western education prohibited," and wants to impose sharia on all of Nigeria.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said July 25 that it is verifying reports about the signing of a protocol between the US and parties of the "Iraqi resistance"—without the Iraqi government's knowledge. The aim was apparently including these parties in the political process and allowing them to participate in the upcoming legislative elections, due to be held in January. Iraqi media have quoted from a protocol allegedly signed in Istanbul on March 6 between US diplomats and representatives of the "Political Council of the Iraqi Resistance." When the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat asked the US Embassy in Baghdad whether these reports are true, it received the terse reply: "We have no comment."

On July 25, the day after the vote, an opposition party claimed there had been violations in the presidential and parliamentary elections in Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region. The opposition front called Goran ("Change") is seeking to shake up the political establishment in Iraq's three Kurdish-ruled provinces that have been dominated by two parties for decades. Early projections suggest the KDP and PUK retain their parliamentary majority, while the Goran list scored big in the city of Sulaimaniyah, a stronghold of the PUK led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Change is led by Nosherwan Mustafa, a former PUK insider who broke with the party.

A prominent presence at the protests demanding the return of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya are Garifuna drummers, singing and chanting in their traditional language. The Miami Herald reports they are especially motivated by Zelaya's plan to revise the constitution. "We have been in a continuous struggle for decades to have a voice, to be visible, to have representation," said Celeo Alvarez Casildo, president of the Organization for the Development of Ethnic Communities (ODECO), told the Miami Herald. "It's not that we supported Zelaya—and much less the events that led to his ouster—but we have our own very good reasons for wanting a constitutional assembly."

A day after his symbolic 30-minute return to Honduras, ousted President Manuel Zelaya has established a camp near the border in Nicaraguan territory. In a speech inaugurating the camp July 25, Zelaya invoked Central American liberation icons Francisco Morazán and César Sandino, pledging to return and reclaim the Honduran presidency. De facto President Roberto Micheletti dismissed the affair as a "silly" "publicity stunt," and the army released a statement saying Zelaya would have been arrested if he had proceeded into Honduran territory. The daytime curfew in the border zone has been extended. (BBC News & World Service, July 26)

In a minga (popular mobilization) called in response to growing violence on their territories, some 10,000 indigenous residents of Colombia's Cauca department marched 140 kilometers between the towns of Santander de Quilichao and Corinto July 23-4. On July 19, Corinto was the scene of a clash between FARC guerillas and government forces in which three local residents were killed and 17 wounded. Jorge Arias of the Association of Indigenous Cabildos of North Cauca (ACIN) told the crowd in Corinto at the march's end: "We come here to honor the memory of our dead, and to say to the armed groups, legal and illegal, enough with all this violence!" (El Tiempo, Bogotá, July 24)