Bangladesh - The government has given in and promised to abide by the six major demands of environmental protesters, following the first day of a nation-wide general strike. The strike was planned in response to last weeks brutal repression of anti-mine protests in which six demonstrators were killed and hundreds more were injured.

Paramilitary forces fired into a crowd of 30,000 people who tried to storm the local offices of Asia Energy, a London-based mining company that claims ownership to 570m tonnes of coal in Bangladesh's Phulbari district. Some of that coal happens to lie inconveniently underneath the homes and communities of 40,000 to 100,000 people.

The shootings incited days of rioting in which barricades stalled rail and vehicular traffic throughout the district and the homes of Asia Energy's officials were ransacked and torched. At least on police officer was killed during the violence.

As part of the agreement the government has promised enact a moratorium on open pit mining, build a monument at Phulbari in memory of the deceased and grant amnesty to all the demonstrators who broke the law during the protests.

Athens, Greece - A McDonald's in the southern Athen's Palio Faliro suburb came under attack early yesterday morning. A window was broken and two petrol bombs were thrown inside. Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire before serious damages were sustained. US based companies, banks, and fascist, and government buildings are frequently bombed by anarchists in Athens.

Asheville, North Carolina, US - Investigators believe that Tuesdays fire at the Asheville West US Armed Forces Recruiting Station on Regent Park Boulevard was set deliberately. Firefighters responded to the blaze early Tuesday morning to find flames coming from the inside of a storage closet in the Marine recruiting offices of the locked building. Smoke also caused damages at the neighboring Army, Navy and Air Force recruiting offices, and a state lottery office.

“All the accidental causes have been ruled out, so it’s being deemed an arson fire,” Buddy Thompson of the Asheville-Buncombe Arson Task Force, said Thursday. Traces of what is believed to be a flammable liquid were sent to the State Bureau of Investigation in Raleigh.

Marine recruiter, Gunnery Sgt. Scott Guise said "our office is pretty much destroyed" and that he didn't know when they would be able to reopen. Damages are estimated at $50,000 and recruiters have been relocated to Hendersonville, 25 miles away.

Jeff Hogg

Eugene, Oregon, US - Federal Judge Michael Hogan refused to release Jeffrey Hogg, an environmental activist and 32-year-old nursing student, who has spent the last three months in jail without charge. Hogg is accused of being involved with an Earth Liberation Front (ELF) cell that the FBI is calling "the Family." Six members of the alleged cell pled guilty last month to numerous counts of arson. All six Kendall Tankersley, Darren Thurston, Kevin Tubbs, Stanislas Meyerhoff, Chelsea Gerlach, and Suzanne Savoie, signed plea agreements which requires them to assist the prosecution's efforts to arrest and convict other activists. At least three other unindicted co-conspirators Jacob Ferguson, Jennifer Kolar and Lacey Phillabaum are also assisting the prosecution. A number of the cooperating witnesses named Hogg as someone who had attended ELF planning meetings dubbed "book club meetings" by the participants.

Hogg was jailed by the court last May in order to coerce him into testifying before a grand jury. According to the law he may be required to stay in jail a total of 18 months or until the term of the grand jury has expired but only if the court believes to do so may coerce him into testifying. Hogg has missed his final exams and his grandfather's funeral while imprisoned. He testified under oath on August 15th that he will never testify at a grand jury proceeding. During the hearing a group of activists held a demonstration of support for Hogg outside the courthouse.

Asheville, North Carolina, US - A Buncombe County Republican Action Club immigration billboard decried as racist by critics was defaced and altered by anarchists. One of the two signs the group paid for has been vandalized on two separate occasions. The Patton Avenue billboard features an American flag turned upside-down beneath a Mexican flag and has a caption that reads "Had Enough?." An upside American flag is an international distress signal.

Last month someone blacked out the groups website and painted the word "RACISM" under the question "Had Enough?." Recently vandals returned and painted "They MEET AT RYAN'S RESTAURANT." Presumably the most recent addition is meant to allow people to confront the anti-immigration proponents face-to-face. At one point a circle "A" anarchy symbol was painted over the American flag.

Carol Montreuil

Lorraine, Quebec, Canada - Initiative de Resistance Internationaliste (IRI) has claimed credit for an explosion that destroyed a car that belonged to Carol Montreuil, an oil industry executive and spokesperson. An e-mail from the bombers blamed the oil industry for damaging the environment, financing an imperialist war that is "committing barbarous acts" in places such as Iraq, and holding consumers hostage while making record profits.

Initially police believed that the explosion and subsequent fire was caused by an electrical malfunction, but since the e-mail they have re-opened the investigation. IRI claimed credit for a bomb attack on a Hydro-Quebec tower last winter on the eve of US President George Bush's visit to the country.

Pohang, South Korea - 5,000 construction workers and other unionists clashed with police during a march to protest the death of another worker who was beaten to death by riot police during a July 16 peaceful sit-in. Korean Federation of Construction Industry Unions (KFCITU) member Ha Joong Keun died on August 1st after languishing in a coma for several weeks.

KFCITU members who work at the Pohang Steel Corporation (POSCO) have been on strike since July 13. POSCO is the world's fourth largest steel producer. Their employees are demanding a pay raise, a five day working week and the right to be treated with dignity and respect in the workplace. The strikers currently work 8 to 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. They live in undignified conditions, with only 7 bathrooms for 3,000 workers and are prohibited from eating while at work. Employees at POSCO plants are required to handle hazardous chemicals including asbestos.

Dario Ringach

Los Angeles, California, US - UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) vivisector Dario Ringach tells animal rights activists: "you win." Ringach had recently became a focus of animal rights campaigners when he received the go ahead to perform lethal experiments on 30 macaque monkeys in order to try and better understand how monkeys process what they see. The monkeys would have first been paralyzed, then coils would have been glued to their eyes, and after 120 hours they would be killed.

Ringach promised not to do anymore experiments on animals in an email he sent to the Animal Liberation Front Press Office. In July the Animal Liberation Front claimed credit for crudely constructed fire-bomb that was left on the Bel-Air porch of a neighbor of one of Ringach's UCLA colleagues Lynn Fairbanks. The bomb which did not go off was intended as a warning for Fairbanks who also experiments on primates

Tucson, Arizona, US - Environmental activists with the group Earth First! Rod Coronado and Matt Crozier were sentenced today for disrupting a 2004 mountain lion hunt in Sabino Canyon. The pair were convicted in December for spreading false scents and pulling up a sensor and a trap set by forest rangers. The charges are conspiracy to impede or injure an officer of the United States, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of interfering with a forest officer and depredation of government property.

Coronado who served four years in prison in 1995 for another sabotage and arson case was sentenced to eight months in prison, three years supervised probation, and was ordered to pay $100 restitution. Crozier was sentenced to three years probation and 100 hours of community service and fined $1,000.

Both are barred from writing or doing interviews about animal rights or environmental activism that is deemed violent. They are also not allowed to associate with members of the civil-disobedience group Earth First! to which they belong. The prosecution and the judge agreed that the activist's disruption of the hunt was violent. Those conditions will be in effect for the duration of their probation.

Since his conviction Coronado has been indicted on other charges including a felony charge of demonstrating how to use a destructive device during a presentation he gave in San Diego that covered how he had set fire to a laboratory in 1992.

More recently he was charged with violating the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by possessing eagle feathers. Coronado is a Native-American member of the Pasqua Yaqui tribe who see eagle feathers as religious symbol on par with the Christian cross. Tribal members are legally allowed to posses feathers but Coronado apparently did not first obtain a necessary permit.

Guelph, Ontario, Canada - Investigators suspect that the radical Earth Liberation Front (ELF) may be responsible for yet another suspicious fire at a newly constructed development. This would mark the third arson in less than two months, but there have also been numerous cases of sabotage at construction sites in the area. Responsibility for many of the other actions were claimed on behalf of the ELF. The most recent fire was extinguished quickly and only caused $8,000 to $10,000 in damages.

Guelph, Ontario, Canada - Police arrested Matt Soltys, a 23-year-old environmental activist and campus radio DJ for painting a bulldozer on a wall of the Matrix social housing complex. He has been charged with mischief and is scheduled to appear in court on September 11th. Police allege that Soltys used a stencil to paint the bulldozer and was about to use another stencil that said "eco-terrorist" when he was apprehended.

Ed Pickersgill, who manages the Matrix building were the image was painted, doesn't consider the graffiti offensive or criminal. "I see that Matt has been charged with mischief and I don't understand what the mischief would be," said Pickgersgill. "It's not as good as some of the other artwork," added Pickersgill of the bulldozer. "Obviously its graffiti interuptus. We would hope if there is going to be more graffiti it would be on the higher end, on the art scale."

Soltys says the image of the bulldozer juxtaposed with the words eco-terrorist was meant as a "satirical comment to get people rethinking the politicization of the word eco-terrorist." The term "eco-terrorist" was coined by big business advocate Ron Arnold as a way to marginalize radical environmentalists.

The term is most often used to describe the radical Earth Liberation Front whose adherents have claimed responsibility for numerous arsons and acts of sabotage in the Guelph area in the past year. Soltys says that he is not connected with any of that activity and only wanted to make a statement.

Rancho Cucamonga, California, U.S. - Arto Ylikangas, 19, Jason Riley, 19, and a 17-year-old male whose name has not been released were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of vandalizing schools throughout the city. Investigators with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department suspect that the three belong to a group known as "The Public Education Society" that painted anti-war slogans on schools.

School administrators estimate that the group has caused $50,000 in damages to school property. Police were led to the three after interviewing several eye-witnesses. They may face felony vandalism charges.

Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico — A group of about 350 women and children, armed with only wooden spoons, have taken control of the state-owned television station Channel 9. The women are members or supporters of the teachers union who have occupied the city's main plaza for a number of months.

In June a large highly militarized and brutal police force attempted to disperse protesters them. During the assault at least one child and one teacher were killed and other have been reported missing or "disappeared." Police have kept a very low profile in the city since but there have been a number of incidents were individuals suspected of being police have fired weapons in the air in order to threaten or intimidate demonstrators.

The women are now using the station to broadcasting on two radio frequencies and airing a video of the June 14th police action on Channel 9. Every government building has been occupied by the demonstrators who are now calling for the resignation of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.

Josh Wolf

San Francisco, California, US - Freelance video journalist, Josh Wolf, was jailed today after refusing to surrender footage of a July 2005 clash between San Francisco police and anarchist demonstrators. U.S. District Judge William Alsup found Wolf, 24, in contempt of court for failing to comply with a subpoena that the grand jury issued in February. An edited version of the tape in question was sold to local news channels and posted on Wolf's own website.

Prosecutors claim that the tape might help them determine which of the demonstrators is responsible for burning a police cruiser. A police officer was also seriously injured during the protest but that offense is out of the jurisdiction of federal prosecutors.

Wolf could remain behind bars until next July, when the grand jury's term expires. Alsup denied his requests for bail or for a 10-day stay while he asks the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the contempt order.

Civil liberties and journalist groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Reporters Without Borders, and the National Lawyers Guild have condemned the U.S. Attorney's office for misusing the grand jury. Prior to today's court hearing Wolf said that he was "prepared to go to jail,'' and that surrendering the videos would turn him into "a surveillance camera for the government.''