Latin America

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño announced in Caracas Monday that his country will approach the chairs of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to register a formal complaint against the US oil company Chevron for its attempts to evade legal proceedings arising from environmental damage caused in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

The Obama administration has acknowledged it had advance notice British officials were going to detain David Miranda, the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has revealed the National Security Agency’s massive spy practices. Miranda was held Sunday at London’s Heathrow Airport under Section 7 of the British Terrorism Act for nine hours — the maximum time he could be detained without charge. Miranda has just announced legal action against the British Home Office for his detention.

Mass violence continues in Egypt amidst the bloodiest period in the country’s modern history. Around 900 people have been killed since state forces attacked Muslim Brotherhood protest encampments five days ago.

Welcome to This Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for August 10th to the 16th, 2013. While Palestinian-Israeli negotiation teams met in Jerusalem this week, Israeli army and settler attacks targeting Palestinian communities escalated. These stories and more, coming up.

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood have called for a nationwide Day of Rage today after Wednesday’s security crackdown left at least 638 people dead and 3,000 people injured.

At least 525 people were killed in Egypt on Wednesday when security forces cracked down on two protest camps filled with supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

As President Obama proposed a series of changes to reform the government’s surveillance policies and programs, we speak to Jennifer Hoelzer, the former deputy chief of staff for Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, a longtime critic of the Obama administration for using a secret interpretation of the USA PATRIOT Act to allow the NSA to conduct domestic surveillance.