Canadian lawyers for Guantánamo detainee Omar Khadr filed suit with the Federal Court of Canada Aug. 8 demanding that Prime Minister Stephen Harper intervene on behalf of the 22-year-old Canadian citizen, who has spent the past six years at the military camp. Lawyers are asking the court to require that Harper demand Khadr's release before his military tribunal begins in October. Khadr was 15 when he was captured in a 2002 Afghan firefight. He is alleged to have thrown a grenade during that battle that fatally wounded a US soldier.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva said Aug. 4 he hopes an agreement may still emerge from the Doha round of World Trade Organization negotiations. "I don't believe the round has failed. We still have enormous possibilities to negotiate," said Silva in a weekly radio address. The round was initiated in 2001 in Doha, Qatar, but collapsed July 29 at a meeting in Geneva, when the US, India and China failed to agree on agricultural policy. (Forbes, Aug. 5)

Bolivia reached a "friendly" agreement Aug. 8 to compensate Royal Dutch Shell for its stake in the nationalized gas pipeline company Transredes. The accord was signed by Energy Minister Carlos Villegas and Shell representative Jose Maria Linardi in the presence of President Evo Morales. The amount of the deal for Shell's stake in Transredes was not divulged by officials, but reports put the sum at $120.57 million. Bolivia's state-owned YPBF now assumes a 98% stake in Transredes, with the other 2% held by private partners. "YPBF has become owner of Shell's share in Transredes at a price established by the national government," Villegas said.

The Colombian government should ensure an independent investigation into misuse of the Red Cross emblem by security forces during the July 2 hostage rescue operation, Human Rights Watch said Aug. 7. A videotape made public Aug. 4 shows a soldier wearing a vest displaying the Red Cross emblem before the operation started. In response to images shown earlier of the soldier wearing the emblem during the operation, President Álvaro Uribe had said use of the emblem was a last-minute improvisation by a soldier, and not part of the plan. The new videotape contradicts those claims, suggesting that the Red Cross was deliberately misused from the start, in violation of Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions.

José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, a prosecutor who oversaw Mexico's extradition of drug traffickers, resigned Aug. 4—the second senior crime fighter to quit in a week. Santiago was Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor for two decades before taking his current position as sub-prosecutor for international affairs in the office of the Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR). Noé Ramírez resigned late last week as chief of the Special Sub-Prosecutor for Investigating Organized Delinquency (SIEDO), as part of a law enforcement shake-up by President Felipe Calderón. A US State Department statement welcomed the reorganization as part of the Mérida Initiative. (AP, El Informador, Mexico, Aug. 5; Milenio, Mexico, Aug. 3)

An Aug. 5 confrontation between the campesino group "Padre Guadalupe Carney" and landowners left at least nine dead at El Tilín, in the Honduran Caribbean coastal department of Colón. The Honduran Security Secretariat said some 200 armed peasants attacked the property of local police commander Henry Sorto, burning buildings, in a dispute over contested lands. Campesino militants also blocked roads, barring security forces access to the seized property. Campesino leader Rafael Alegría in a statement issued to the media called upon the national authorities to appoint a commission to mediate the conflict. (El Heraldo, Honduras, Aug. 6)

Georgia is calling home 1,000 of its 2,000 troops in Iraq for a general mobilization to fight Russian-backed separatists in South Ossetia. Georgia's national security chief Kakha Lomaia said Tbilisi ordered the withdrawal to "defend ourselves from Russian aggression." (AGI, Aug. 8) Late Aug. 8, Georgian officials reported at least one Russian air-strike, on the Black Sea port of Poti. They said Russian bombers were flying over Georgian territory and that the presidential offices and residence in Tbilisi had been evacuated. (NYT, Aug. 9)

Several separatist leaders are under house arrest in India-controlled Kashmir, as a complete general strike has paralyzed Srinagar for four days following the death of a protesting youth in the city Aug. 5. Separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Shabir Ahmad Shah were placed under house arrest to prevent their proposed march to the headquarters of the UN Military Observers Group (UNMOG). (Indo-Asian News Service, Aug. 8)