Since Jordan sealed its border with Syria, around 80,000 refugees have been stranded in a desert area known as the ‘berm’, subjected to sand storms and searing heat. They are still not receiving essential and life-saving assistance.

The Moscow Prosecutor General’s office refused to sign the indictment against Natalya Sharina and the case was sent back for further investigation. It is expected that Natalya Sharina’s house arrest will be extended on 26 August. She is a prisoner of conscience.

Shafik Rehman, an 81-year-old Bangladeshi journalist arrested on 16 April, is still detained without charge in Dhaka Central Jail more than four months after his arrest.

For the past month, Djiboutian authorities have been rounding up and detaining hundreds of Ethiopian asylum seekers and refugees with the aim of deporting them back to Ethiopia.

Ghina Ahmad Wadi, a 10-year-old girl seriously wounded by sniper fire at a Syrian government checkpoint on 2 August, was successfully evacuated to Damascus to receive the urgent surgery she needed.

On 19 August, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution to Jeffery Wood, who was scheduled to be executed in Texas on 24 August.

12 individuals from northern Thailand face trial in a military court and up to 22 years imprisonment each for alleged involvement in the mailing of thousands of letters critical of Thailand’s draft constitution.

Algerian activist Slimane Bouhafs started to serve a five-year prison term after a court in Sétif, eastern Algeria, charged him with insulting Islam and Prophet Muhammad for posts he made on Facebook.

Iranian postgraduate student Hamid Babaei is being denied access to the specialized medical care he needs, including medication.

On 17 September an Egyptian court will rule on whether to freeze the assets of leading human rights defenders and members of their families as part of the “foreign funding case”.