Louai Sakra, a supposed al-Qaeda operative held responsible for the November 2003 bombings in Istanbul and plans to launch attacks against cruise liners carrying Israeli tourists in Turkish ports, was arrested by Turkish authorities in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir last week. The apprehension of the Syrian national was hailed by the British embassy as "a significant success in the global struggle against Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations." (MSNBC, Aug. 17)

Family representatives and advocates for Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian man shot dead on the London Underground, are accusing Scotland Yard of misrepresenting the circumstances of his killing. A police report leaked to the British press leak reveals that eyewitnesses saw de Menezes being held by officers in his seat before being shot in the head. Initial police accounts of his death claimed he ran from officers, vaulted a ticket barrier and was shot on the floor of the train car.

With the northern border town of Nuevo Laredo occupied by Mexican federal agents following a wave of deadly violence between rival drug mafias, the resort city of Acapulco in southern Guerrero state may be headed in the same direction. Under a deal Guerrero politicians negotiated last week with the federal government, Acapulco will be the first beach resort to receive teams of federal agents and soldiers, under the same "Operation Safe Mexico" program created for Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas state on the Texas border, and Culiacan, Sinaloa. Already, 100 federal police have arrived to boost security, officials said. Guerrero's new governor, Zeferino Torreblanca, said federal help is needed in light of some two dozen suspected drug-related killings in recent months. But he said he doesn't want army tanks along Acapulco Bay, visited by 1.5 million tourists every year, including 150,000 US citizens.

A military jury at Fort Bliss, TX, spared an Army reservist prison time but reduced his rank Aug. 18 for abuse of a detainee who later died at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Prosecutors had asked that Pfc. Willie V. Brand, 27, be sent to a military prison for 10 years with a dishonorable discharge for the December 2002 beating. Instead, the panel reduced his rank to private, the lowest pay grade in the Army, and set him free.

A Katyusha rocket fired from Jordan landed near the airport in the Israeli city of Eilat Aug. 19, and at least two more rockets narrowly missed the USS Ashland, a US Navy ship moored at the Jordanian port of Aqaba near a US Navy ship, killing a Jordanian solider. Two US Navy vessels had been on a joint training exercise with the Jordanian navy, and left the area shortly after the attack. An Internet statement took responsibility for the attack in the name of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades.

Cindy Sheehan's brave protest encampment down the road from the Bush ranch in Crawford, TX, where the commander-in-chief is vacationing as the corpses pile up in Iraq, has succeeded in grabbing national attention in a way that countless of unimaginative anti-war rallies never have. All too predictably, this success is being met with violent harassment--including intentional desecration of the "Arlington West" cemetery activists have established, made up of hundreds of white crosses emblazed with the names of soldiers killed in Iraq (including, of course, Cindy's son Casey). Reports William Rivers Pitt in an on-the-scene Aug. 16 account for TruthOut:

A New York Times business section story Aug. 14, "The Oil Price to Be Scared Of," notes that the current price shock has significantly lowered the bar for what constitutes a crisis:

Once upon a time, not too long ago, the prospect of crude-oil futures hitting $50 a barrel sent waves of anxiety over consumers, business executives and politicians, evoking the specter of gasoline rationing, not to mention a global recession and general economic mayhem.

An Aug. 18 Christian Science Monitor story, online at TruthOut, reports that some 300 small bombs exploded in cities across Bangladesh the previous day, killing one, wounding at least 100, and raising fears of a surge of Islamic militancy. The bombs mainly targeted government offices, bus and train stations, and markets in 63 of the country's 64 districts. No one formally claimed responsibility, but copies of a leaflet found at most of the sites carried a call by the group Jaamat-ul-Mujahideen for Islamic rule in Bangladesh.