Organizers of the First International Congress on Islamic Feminism, now underway in Barcelona, are calling for a "gender jihad." Organizer Abdennur Prado Pavon of the Catalan Islamic board says the struggle for gender equality in Islamic countries involves refuting chauvinist interpretations of Muslim teachings. Prado says the conference hopes to refute the common conception in the West is that women's liberation is not possible in Muslim societies.

From Bloomberg, Oct. 27:

Spanish fishermen blocking the ports of Barcelona and Bilbao have refused to end their protest over soaring diesel fuel costs, threatening shipments to liquefied natural gas terminals in the cities.

The BBC is suspending its operations in Uzbekistan due to security concerns. All local staff are being withdrawn and the office in the capital Tashkent will close for at least six months pending a decision on its future. Regional BBC head Behrouz Afagh said the staff had been harassed and intimidated in recent months. "Over the past four months since the unrest in Andijan, BBC staff in Uzbekistan have been subjected to a campaign of harassment and intimidation which has made it very difficult for them to report on events in the country."

Sanjar Umarov, a prominent opposition leader in Uzbekistan, was arrested Oct. 22 on embezzlement charges, and is being held incommunicado. Members of his group, Sunshine Uzbekistan say they still do not know the exact whereabouts of their leader. The group, which is calling for free market reforms in the authoritarian Central Asian republic, says the charges are fabricated. The offices of the opposition group were searched by dozens of plainclothes police the same day as the arrest, and a large number of documents were taken away. Two other members of the group have also been arrested.

Baz Mohammad, a reputed Afghan drug kingpin who allegedly condoned selling heroin in the US in the name of jihad, has become the first person to be extradited from Afghanistan for prosecution. Upon his arraignment in Manhattan Oct. 24, Mohammad told US District Judge Denny Chin, "I am innocent." He was ordered held without bail.

Riot police dispersed an opposition rally in Azerbaijan's capital Oct. 23, beating and detaining protesters who defied an official ban on downtown demonstrations two weeks before parliamentary elections. Opposition groups say the government will try to rig the Nov. 6 vote and have been holding rallies nearly every weekend, clashing with police.

The Iraqi Bar Association has officially urged lawyers to suspend cooperation with the special court hearing the case against Saddam Hussein until the murder of a member of the defense team is solved. The association also passed a resolution calling a one-day strike for Oct. 26 to protest the killing of Saadoun Janabi, who was bundled out of his Baghdad office Oct. 20 by heavily-armed men and later found dumped on a roadside, dead of gunshot wounds.

Five people were injured when two ambulances crashed into each other in Naples Oct. 22 during a drill designed to test emergency services' response to a terrorist attack. Special anti-terrorism police, helicopters, fire engines, sniffer dogs and Red Cross volunteers took part in the exercise, which had recruited over 100 actors to play dead and injured. Two ambulances rushing to help the "injured" slammed into each other, resulting in five real injured, and two hospitalizations. Another casualty was a woman civil defence volunteer who had to be treated for a panic attack. The "Autumn Emergency 2005" drill followed similar exercises in Rome and Milan organized in the wake of the July 7 London bombings. (Reuters, Oct. 22)