Jorge Noguera, former chief of Colombia's secret police, was arrested on charges of colluding with illegal paramilitaries July 7. Noguera, freed from prison three months ago because of procedural errors, was ordered detained again by Colombia's chief prosecutor, Mario Iguaran on charges of colluding with the paras—including providing them with information that led to several slayings. Noguera, who ran Colombia's Administrative Security Department (DAS) from 2002 to 2005, is the closest ally to President Alvaro Uribe to be imprisoned in connection with the scandal linking Colombia's political class to paramilitary forces responsible for some of the nation's worst atrocities. (LAT, BBC, July 7)

Millions marched in cities across Colombia July 5 to demand the release of all the estimated 300 captives in the hands of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and other armed groups, and that the remains be turned over of 11 lawmakers recently killed while in the FARC's hands. At midday, nearly the entire country came to a halt for five minutes as bells, sirens and cries sounded in unison. The protests were led by President Alvaro Uribe.

A shipload of Israeli weapons is busted in Spain—bound for Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan government denies knowing anything about it. Could they have been bound for some kind of neo-contra force? Talk about nostalgia for the '80s... From Prensa Latina, July 5:

Nicaraguan Police and Army denied their responsibility for a cargo of weapons made in Israel, seized in Spain's Port Algeciras, with the Central American nation as final destination.

Remember all the "not-about-Iraq" spewing after the July 2005 London bombings? Nobody's saying that this time around. From the Washington Post, July 6:

LONDON -- Bilal Abdulla, one of the two doctors arrested after a blazing Jeep Cherokee rammed into the Glasgow Airport terminal on Saturday, is a deeply religious Iraqi who was angry that his prominent Sunni family "lost everything" following the 2003 invasion led by the United States and Britain, according to a close family member.

Cindy Sheehan announced July 3 that she is asking people to join her in a 10-day walk from Atlanta to Washington DC, starting July 13 for a "people's accountability movement." On her blog, she said "the straw that broke my camel's back of exhausted ennui" was Bush's commuting the prison sentence of former vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby. "I tried to remove myself from the political realm of the U.S., what BushCo is turning into an Evil Empire, but the blatant audacity of George commuting Scooter's sentence ... has dragged me kicking and screaming back in," she wrote. The march will began after Sheehan celebrates her 50th birthday at her former protest site in Crawford, TX, where she will turn over the deed of her 5-acre lot there to its new owner, radio talk-show host Bree Walker. (AP via TruthOut, July 3)

The Iraqi Journalists Union said in statement last month that 227 journalists and media staff have been killed since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, with an additional 15 missing. The Union demanded that the Iraqi government and US forces "take necessary measures to protect journalists."

An urgent alert from the Iraq Freedom Congress informs us that at 3:00 AM Baghdad time on July 4, US and Iraqi government forces attacked the home of the head of IFC Safety Force, Abd-alhussein Saddam, causing serious injuries to him and his young daughter. He is now hospitalized, and we await further details.

Ostensibly, its only a dispute about fishing rights, but it has far deeper implications. Mohamed Ahmed Iman, director-general of Somalia's Ministry of Fisheries, has publcily dismissed as invalid ongoing talks between the governments of Yemen and Somalia's autonomous enclave of Puntland, protesting that he only became aware of the negotiations on fishing rights through the media. "We [Fisheries Ministry] knew nothing of this [Yemen-Puntland] deal regarding fishing rights and naval protection of the Somali coast," Iman said at a press conference in Mogadishu. "Any agreement that does not go through the Somali federal government will not be legal," Iman said, asserting that only the Federal Transition Government has authority sign agreements with foreign governments and companies.