The Colombian Army's Third Brigade, based in Cali, was deeply penetrated by drug trafficking mafia, according to a recent criminal investigation. "What the prosecutors' investigation has shown as it progresses," reported Bogota's Semana magazine Aug. 4, "is that 'Don Diego' [a drug mafia kingpin] didn't just buy these officers in exchange for one-time favors, but that many of them belonged to his organization. They were part of the mafia and put their jobs in the Army at its service." Brigade commander Leonardo Gomez Vergara resigned Aug. 16 as a result of the investigation, and a dozen other officers have been arrested or are under investigation.

Starting Aug. 20, Presidents George W. Bush and Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met in Montebello, Canada, to discuss North American integration. The purpose was to advance the little-known second phase of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), called the "Security and Prosperity Partnership" (SPP).

On Aug. 9, 98 detainees at the federal immigration detention center in San Pedro, California refused to return to Pod 5 in an act of peaceful protest for health and dignity in their living conditions. Over 100 police, immigration and Coast Guard officials responded with threats and aggression against the protesters, according to activists from the Los Angeles-based group Homies Unidos, which organized support for the detainees. Homies Unidos activists said Coast Guard snipers armed with M-16s were on the roof of the detention center and in boats surrounding the facility during the protest, and one detainee was beaten by guards. Detainees' demands included adequate and nutritional meals; proper clothing; adequate medical treatment; respect and dignity; an end to persistent overcrowding; provision of necessary hygiene supplies; timely processing of their immigration cases; and recreation equipment to ensure mental and physical health. (Homies Unidos media alert, Aug. 12 & e-mail alert, Aug. 14)

On the afternoon of Aug. 19, ICE agents arrested activist Elvira Arellano on a city street in downtown Los Angeles and deported her to Tijuana, Mexico within hours. Arellano became an activist shortly after she was arrested in 2002 during a federal sweep at O'Hare International Airport, where she cleaned airplanes. She gained national fame when she took sanctuary in a Chicago church on Aug. 15, 2006, in an effort to avoid being deported away from her US-born son Saul, now eight years old. Her activism has since spurred churches around the US to initiate what they are calling a "new sanctuary movement" to defend immigrants and end deportations, especially those that separate immigrant parents from their US-born children.

The LA Times reports Aug. 25:

U.S. forces firing from helicopters Friday pursued militiamen loyal to a radical anti-U.S. Shiite cleric into a west Baghdad district, killing at least 18 people, reportedly including some civilians...

The New York Times reports Aug. 25: "The number of detainees held by the American-led military forces in Iraq has swelled by 50 percent under the troop increase ordered by President Bush, with the inmate population growing to 24,500 today from 16,000 in February, according to American military officers in Iraq." A smaller AP story published the same day stated: "The number of Iraqis who have fled their homes under threat of sectarian violence has more than doubled since the start of the year, despite the increase in American troops that began in February, a humanitarian aid organization said Saturday. The number of displaced Iraqis has shot upward from 447,337 on Jan. 1 to 1.14 million on July 31, according to the Iraqi Red Crescent Organization."

A string of blasts tore through the southern Indian city of Hyderabad Aug. 25, killing at least 38 people and injuring 60. Three bombs exploded in a packed auditorium where a laser show was under way at Lumbini Park, an amusement park filled with weekend crowds. Minutes later, two other bombs ripped through a Gokul Chat restaurant, a popular eatery also filled with a Saturday night crowd. Indian President Pratibha Patil said the attacks were aimed at disturbing harmony in the city which has a mixed Muslim and Hindu population. (AFP, Aug. 25; IANS, BBC, Aug. 26)

A car bomb exploded outside a Guardia Civil barracks in the town of Durango in the Basque region of northern Spain Aug. 24, wounding two officers and causing considerable damage to the building and vehicles. Authorities said the attack was likely carried out by the separatist group ETA, which ended a ceasefire in June. The blast came days after Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba warned that an ETA attack was imminent. Recent weeks have seen the arrests of a number of ETA suspects, mainly in France, with 400 kilos of explosives seized.