The Polish government signed a deal Aug. 14 to host a 10 interceptor missiles at a site along Poland's Baltic Sea coast as a part of the US "missile shield" plan. The site, staffed by US forces, would complement a US radar installation to be based in the Czech Republic. Washington says those facilities, to be operational by 2013, would complete an anti-missile system already in place in the US, Greenland, and Britain. In return, Poland will receive "enhanced security cooperation"—most significantly, a separate missile defense system for its own armed forces. A US Patriot missile battery is to be relocated to Poland from Germany for this purpose, to be initially operated jointly with the US. (NYT, RFE/RL, Aug. 15)

Russia says it is gathering evidence for charges of genocide against Georgia, accusing it of driving 30,000 refugees out of South Ossetia. Georgia responded by filing a case against Russia at the International Court of Justice for ethnic cleansing between 1993 and 2008. (London Times, Aug. 13) Human Rights Watch reports that on Aug. 12, its researchers "saw ethnic Georgian villages still burning from fires set by South Ossetian militias, witnessed looting by the militias, and learned firsthand of the plight of ethnic Ossetian villagers who had fled Georgian soldiers during the Georgian-Russian conflict over the breakaway region of South Ossetia." (HRW, Aug. 13)

A suicide car bomb attack on security forces killed eight civilians and injured 19 at Zemmouri, Boumerdes province, 30 miles east of Algiers, Aug. 9. The checkpoint blast outside a barracks targeted troops of the Coast Guard and National Gendarmerie. Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said the attack appeared to have been in retaliation for an army ambush that killed 12 rebels late last week. The ambush was said to be part of the army's pursuit of rebels behind a car bombing in Tizi Ouzou on Aug. 3 that wounded 25 people. (Reuters, Algeria Watch, Aug. 11) Three Gendarmes were also injured when a remote-controlled bomb targeted a patrol near Tassalast beach in Tizi Ouzou province Aug. 9. Two other bombs were dismantled by security services on Aug. 10 in the area of Tigzirt in Tizi Ouzou. (Magharebia, Aug. 12)

Sheikh Abdul Aziz, a leader of the separatist Hurriyat Conference, was killed as some 100,000 Muslim Kashmiris made an unprecedented attempt to breach the Line of Control (LoC) Aug. 11. In Chehel, about 28 miles from the LoC, where Abdul Aziz was shot, marchers pushed aside barricades and clashed with security forces, who fired on the crowd. One other marcher was reportedly wounded. Two armored cars were burnt in the nearby town of Baramullah. (London Times, NYT, Aug. 12) Twelve protesters were shot to death in different parts of India-controlled Kashmir Aug. 12—at least four of them at the funeral for Abdul Aziz in Bandipora. (Dawn, Aug. 13) The Press Trust of India places the two-day death toll in Kashmir at 21—mostly protesters shot by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). (PTI, Aug. 13)

With the Olympics in Beijing in full course, three security officials were killed Aug. 12 at a road block 30 kilometers from Kashgar, Xinjiang. The official Chinese press agency “Xinhua said assailants jumped from a vehicle passing through the checkpoint and stabbed the agents. "These were just some terrorists," said a local police officer in Yamanya, Shule county, where the attack occurred. A fourth security official was wounded in an attack in Yamanya town, according to the New China News Agency. The assailants remain at large. (WP, Aug. 13; AGI, TVNZ, Aug. 12)

British Petroleum has closed both the Baku-Ceyhan and Baku-Supsa pipelines through Georgia, while denying that either of them have actually been damaged in the fighting. The closure of the Baku-Supsa or Western Route Export Pipeline (WREP) further limits BP's export options from the Caspian Sea after a fire (caused by a guerilla attack) damaged its key Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) link to Turkey last week. The Shah-Deniz field in Azerbaijan is effectively shut down, and operations have been reduced at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oilfields. (Reuters, Aug. 12)

Pakistani warplanes and helicopters bombed Lowi Sam and other areas of the Bajaur Tribal Agency near the Afghan border Aug. 10, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes. Witnesses said seven people were killed and dozens of houses were damaged in Lowi Sam and adjacent localities. The air-strikes were said to target homes being used by thelocal Taliban commander Faqir Mohammad. Taliban militants started moving towards Khar, the regional headquarters, where they have dug trenches and seized a section of the main highway. Nine soldiers have been killed over four days of fighting and over 100 militants, authorities said. (Dawn, Pakistan, Aug. 11)

Chinese police shot and killed five people who hurled homemade bombs at a police station and the office of industry and commerce in Kucha, Xinjiang, early Aug. 10. Two police officers and a security guard were reportedly wounded in the attacks. The oasis city is on the northern rim of the Taklimakan Desert, about halfway between Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi and Kashgar, where a deadly attack took place last week. (WP, Aug. 10)