Bolivia's government said Sept. 17 it had recovered full control of the country's network of natural gas pipelines after 17 days of anti-government protests. Protesters who occupied the Vuelta Grande natural gas processing plant and a pipeline control station in the southern Chaco region of Chuquisaca department surrendered the facilities early Wednesday after the government signed a deal to start talks with opposition leaders. "Today, the pipeline to Argentina has been reopened and full pumping levels will be reached starting on Friday," an Energy Ministry said in a statement.

The US military said Sept. 17 that three soldiers have been charged with premeditated murder committed in an unspecified incident in or near Baghdad in March or April 2007. Sgt. John E. Hatley, 40, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph P. Mayo, 27, and Sgt. Michael P. Leahy, 26, all formerly assigned to the 1st Batallion, 18th Infantry Regiment, are also charged with conspiracy to commit premeditated murder and obstruction of justice. Two of the soldiers had said in sworn statements that the three had killed four handcuffed and blindfolded Iraqi prisoners with pistol shots to the head beside a Baghdad canal. Hatley and Leahy have also been charged with premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder over a separate incident in or near Baghdad in early January 2007, according to the statement from the 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command based in Graefenwoehr, Germany. (AFP, BBC, Sept. 17)

The number of confirmed cases of cholera has risen to 107 in central and southern parts of Iraq since an outbreak of the disease in late August. Ihssan Jaafar, director of Iraq's Public Health Directorate, said cases have been confirmed in Baghdad, Babil, Karbala, Najaf, Diyala, Basra and Maysan. Jaafar said health authorities are raising awareness about the disease through posters and TV spots. (IRIN, Sept. 18)

Presumed al-Qaeda militants attacked the US Embassy in the Yemeni capital Sana Sept. 17, exploding a car bomb and firing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades in an assault that left 16 dead—six militants, six guards and four civilians. Three police officers and seven civilians were injured, including children in a residential compound across the street from the embassy. It was the deadliest attack on a compound that has been targeted four times in recent years by bombings, mortars and shootings. With the attackers—some dressed in army uniforms—unable to penetrate the compound's massive security barriers, civilians waiting in line for visas outside the embassy were among the casualties. Susan Elbaneh, 18, a US citizen from Lackawanna, NY, recently wed in Yemen in an arranged marriage, was killed along with her husband. (AP, Sept. 17; The Scotsman, Sept. 18)

Twelve Mauritanian soldiers are either killed or missing and possibly taken captive following a Sept. 15 clash with presumed militants of "al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb" in the remote north of the country. The location of the attack was variously cited as Tourine or Zouerat, close to the border with Western Sahara. Hundreds of military reinforcements were sent in after an army convoy was ambushed. Nine suspected militants were arrested by security services in Nouakchott over the weekend.

Bolivian soldiers arrested the opposition prefect of Pando department, Leopoldo Fernández, on Sept. 16. He was flown to La Paz to face genocide charges in connection with last week's massacre of at least 16 peasant supporters of President Evo Morales. In response to Bolivia's political crisis, the US evacuated its 2,500 Peace Corps volunteers from the country. (AP, Sept. 17)

On Aug. 25, the workers of the sugar cane industry in the Colombian departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca held an assembly in the town of Candelaria, Valle, attended by more than 7,000, where the decision was taken to strike to press demands that the owners of the sugar industry and their Asocaña business chamber negotiate on a list of grievances presented on July 14. Since the Candelaria meeting, the sugar mills of the region have been completely militarized; the workers are being followed by motorcycles with armed men wearing balaclavas, and several have been threatened.

From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Sept. 16:

On September 4, party workers from the Salvadoran FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) were assaulted in San Salvador, resulting in the hospitalization of four individuals. The attack, carried out against members of the FMLN's Communications Brigade, was attributed to armed supporters of Norman Quijano, the right-wing ARENA party candidate for Mayor of San Salvador.  The aggression took place on the street of San Jacinto a neighborhood that is only few miles south of San Salvador's downtown. The victims included Otilia Matamoros, Assistant Coordinator of the FMLN Women's Secretariat.