The head of Brazil's indigenous affairs agency, FUNAI, is to make an emergency visit to a remote Amazon outpost amid fears that members of an isolated tribe may have been "massacred" by drug traffickers. The move comes after a guard post protecting the "uncontacted" people was overrun by heavily-armed men, believed to be drug-traffickers from neighboring Peru. The post was ransacked and equipment destroyed. Fears mounted for the welfare of the indigenous bands after FUNAI workers found a rucksack apparently abandoned by one of the traffickers with a broken arrow inside. A rapid aerial survey has shown no trace of the uncontacted group, which made global headlines after being filmed from the air earlier this year. The post is located on the edge of the Xinane Isolated Indigenous Territory along the Río Envira in Acre state, some 32 kilometers from the border with Peru's department of Madre de Dios.

The Tripoli regime on Aug. 9 accused NATO of killing 85 of civilians, including several children, in an air attack on a village in western Libya. The remote village Majar, lies south of the town of Zlitan, on a ridge overlooking the rebel-held city of Misrata. A BBC correspondent reports that he saw about 30 body bags at a local hospital, but it was unclear how the people died. NATIO says the target was a military one, with civilian deaths unlikely. "NATO had very clear intelligence demonstrating that former farm buildings were being used as a staging point for pro-Gaddafi forces to conduct attacks against the people of Libya," the alliance said in a statement. "We do not have evidence of civilian casualties at this stage, although military casualties, including mercenaries, are very likely owing to the nature of the target." (The Telegraph, VOA, BBC News, Aug. 9)

Lebanese singer Zeid Hamdan of the band Zeid and the Wings was briefly jailed July 27 on charges of defaming President Michel Suleiman, who is a former commander of the armed forces, in his single "General Suleiman." From his cell, he managed to get out the following Facebook message: "Dear friends, I am now in the prison of the police station of the Palace of Justice in Beirut because of my song 'General Soleiman'. They are prosecuting me for defammation of President Soleiman. I dont know, until when I am staying in prison. Please mobilize!" There was an immediate outcry, and Hamdan was released after a few hours—and the charge seemingly dropped. The song's lyrics go, to a catchy reggae beat: "General Suleiman, Peace be upon you, General Suleimen. Put your weapons down, put your weapons down, now it's time to leave your warlords behind." The song ends: "General Suleiman, go home." (The National, UAE, Aug. 8; LA Times; Babylon & Beyond blog, July 28)

On Aug. 2 Honduran president Porfirio ("Pepe") Lobo Sosa announced that Honduras plans to support an effort by the Palestinian Authority to win recognition for Palestine as a state during the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September. Israeli officials reacted immediately. On Aug. 3 the ambassador to Honduras, Eliahu López, called the statement "a dagger wound in the heart of Israel." In Jerusalem the Foreign Ministry called in Honduran ambassador José Isaías Barahona to express "surprise" and "disappointment." According to the Jerusalem Post, Deputy Director General for Latin America Dorit Shavit "reminded the ambassador that Israel stood by Honduras two years ago when it went through a constitutional crisis that led to widespread worldwide condemnation"—apparently a reference to the June 2009 military coup that overthrew former president José Manuel ("Mel") Zelaya Rosales (2006-2009). [Israel was apparently one of the few countries to recognize the de facto regime after the coup.]

Workers at Chile's Escondida copper mine voted on Aug. 5 to end a 15-day-old strike despite failing to win their demand for a bonus of 5 million pesos ($10,562). By a 65.5% majority they agreed to settle for a 2.6 million peso bonus ($5,492)—less than management's earlier offer of 2.8 million pesos ($5,916)—but the company,the Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton corporation, is to pay the workers for the days they were on strike. Union officials admitted the members were worn out after two weeks without pay.

Aug. 4 brought the most violent day yet in more than two months of protests by Chilean students determined to end a system of heavily privatized and decentralized education instituted during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. According to official figures, there were 874 arrests nationwide by the end of the day, and 90 militarized police agents had been injured.

Provincial police forcibly removed some 200 families on Aug. 5 from land they had occupied a month earlier in Villa 9 de Julio in the northwestern Argentine province of Tucumán. Acting on a court order from Judge Nora Wrexler, the agents destroyed homes that the 500 squatters had improvised out of canvas, cardboard and sheet metal when they moved in from different neighborhoods in the north of the nearby provincial capital, San Miguel de Tucumán.

An estimated 300,000 marched in cities and towns across Israel Aug. 6—the biggest mobilization yet in a growing movement for economic justice. More than 200,000 marched in Tel Aviv alone—one of the largest demonstrations in the history of the Jewish state. Even after the march ended, a hardcore of several hundred protesters blocked the intersection of Rehov Kaplan and Ibn Gvirol, two of the city's main arteries, singing Jewish songs late into the night and and chanting the movement's token slogan: "The people demand social justice!" (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 7) Israel's progressive 972Mag shows a photo of a giant banner from the rally with the word "Go!" in Arabic—a key symbol of the protest movement that brought down Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, and a clear reference to Benjamin Netanyahu. Below, in Hebrew, are the words: "Egypt is here!"