From the Indiana Daily Student, Aug. 23:

Officers killed in charity ride accident

A traffic accident during a charity bicycle ride killed two police officers Tuesday afternoon and injured three others.

Don't dismiss this as a local story, as similar reports are growing around the world. From the New York Times, Aug. 23:

NEWPORT, Ore., Aug. 17 — On the north shore of Yaquina Bay rests the rusty fishing fleet of this small Pacific port, scores of boats whose captains seek salmon or rockfish, shrimp or crab.

Directly across the bay, on the south shore, sits the Hatfield Marine Science Center, a small campus of Oregon State University that provides a seaside outpost for scientists who study the water and the life within it.

The natural divide has seemed particularly fitting this summer, with the two groups, who rarely share the same view anyway, drawn farther apart by a recent discovery. In a large section of shallow ocean water near the shore, scientists at the university measured record-low levels of oxygen this month, so low that most marine life cannot be sustained there. Countless crabs and other crustaceans have died, and fish have simply disappeared from some spots.

"With the world's eyes on Iran's nuclear ambitions, the deteriorating human rights situation in the country is being forgotten," writes Robert Tait for the UK's Guardian, Aug. 23 (emphasis added):

Seven years ago, he was the symbol of a brave new dawn of student protest in Iran. Famously featured on the cover of The Economist waving the bloodied T-shirt of a fellow demonstrator beaten by security forces, Ahmad Batebi seemed emblematic of the raw courage of the country's pro-reform student movement in its clamour for greater freedoms from a repressive Islamist government.

The trial of Saddam Hussein is once again in the headlines. The first case against him, concerning the 1982 mass arrests and killing of Shi'ites at the town of Dujail, has been concluded. Presiding Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman charged Saddam with the deaths of nine villagers, torture of women and children, ordering the razing of farmlands and arresting nearly 400 Dujail residents. He was not charged in connection with the deaths of 148 people who were executed after being found guilty by Saddam's Revolutionary Court for their involvement in an assassination attempt against him. (Jurist, May 15) Now the second phase opens, concerning the far more horrific attacks on the Kurds in the 1987-8 "Anfal" campaign. Saddam could continue to be tried posthumously if he is found guilty and sentenced to death on the Dujail charges, in which a verdict is expected in October. If a death sentence is upheld on appeal, it must be carried out within 30 days, and this could occur before the second trial is concluded. (Jurist, Aug. 19)

The Bush administration has been meeting with quite a few reversals at the hands of the judiciary lately, as we have noted. From CNN, Aug. 21:

MIAMI -- A federal judge in Miami on Monday dismissed a terror count against Jose Padilla, the U.S. citizen once identified as a "dirty bomb" suspect and detained as an "enemy combatant."

Simon Romero writes for the New York Times, Aug. 21 (emphasis added):

Venezuela, Tired of US Influence, Strengthens Its Relationships in the Middle East
CARACAS — Venezuela has long cultivated ties with Middle Eastern governments, finding common ground in trying to keep oil prices high, but its recent engagement of Iran has become a defining element in its effort to build an alliance to curb American influence in developing countries.

Peru's populist hero of the left faces charges in an atrocity from the "dirty war" against leftist guerillas in the early '90s. From Lima's La Republica via Living in Peru, Aug. 16:

Arturo Campos Vicente, district attorney of Tocache, has finally decided to formally press penal charges against Peru's ex-presidential candidate and retired Army commander Ollanta Humala Tasso related to the events at Madre Mia in 1992.

From AP, Aug. 22:

Close election in Chiapas spurs another protest
TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, MEXICO - The dispute over Mexico's presidential vote took a new twist Monday as a gubernatorial candidate backed by the ruling party vowed to protest a state race where the main leftist party held a slight edge.