On Oct. 8, Maryam Namazie of the Organization of Women's Liberation in Iran (OWLI) , was awarded the National Secular Society's first Irwin Prize for "Secularist of the Year" in London . The £5,000 annual prize, sponsored by NSS member Dr. Michael Irwin, was presented by Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee at a lunch at London's Montcalm Hotel. The event also featured cabaret from stand-up comedian Stewart Lee, who is co-author of the controversial "Jerry Springer — the Opera," considered blasphemous by fundamentalist Christians.

More than 1,000 people marched in the western Puerto Rican town of Hormigueros on Oct. 8 to protest the killing of nationalist leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios there on Sept. 23 by agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The march was organized by pro-independence groups, including the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) and the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, but participants included people who want Puerto Rico to join the US as a state. Some marchers were local residents who knew Ojeda as "Don Luis" during the time he lived in Hormigueros clandestinely. "He was a beautiful person; he lived quietly on his little farm," said store owner Luis Garcia, who remembered Ojeda occasionally coming by to get a beer. (El Nuevo Dia, Puerto Rico, Oct. 9)

On Oct. 10 interim Haitian prime minister Gerard Latortue announced that the first round of this year's presidential and legislative elections will be rescheduled from Nov. 20 to a date several weeks later, probably the second week of December. "We've had problems," he said. "We've accumulated sizeable delays in implementing the logistics and in finalizing the list of candidates." Latortue insisted that the postponement won't prevent the next president from taking office on Feb. 7, as required by the Constitution. (Haiti en Marche, Miami, Oct. 12 from AFP)

On Oct. 10 in Santiago, Chile, nearly 4,000 people took part in a "Dignity March" called by Meli Wixan Mapu and other Mapuche organizations. The marchers called for the release of Mapuche political prisoners, and for Mapuche unity in the continued struggle for land and self-determination and against violations of indigenous rights by the Chilean and Argentine governments and by business interests. (Campana Continental Contra el ALCA, Oct. 12)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Oct. 16

At midday on Oct. 16, Orlando Valencia, an Afro-Colombian representative of the Community Council of Curvaradó in the department of Chocó, was arbitrarily detained and "disappeared," despite being protected by official measures of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The abduction took place immediately after the vehicle in which he was travelling with human rights observers and other members of the community, en route to a regional peasant assembly, was stopped by the National Police in the municipality of Belén de Bajirá. The police demanded the occupants' documents at rifle-point and briefly detained them. On the way to the local police station, they passed a truck filled with men they recognized as paramilitaries. They were released after several hours of interrogation, in which Valencia was accused of being a "reinsertado"—a demobilized guerilla fighter

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said at least 464 immigrants died crossing the border from Mexico into the US during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The death toll was 43% higher than the previous year. "This total by far exceeds any year that we have on record," said CBP spokesperson Mario Villarreal in a phone call from Washington. Villarreal said the main cause of death was heat exposure; more than half the deaths took place in Arizona during a heat wave in June and July of this year. Other causes of death included drownings or car wrecks. (Reuters, Oct. 3)

2005 will be the second or third warmest year globally on record. The prediction comes as climate concerns build among people in polar and low-lying areas and in the insurance and utility industries. "Whether it is second or third depends on how Siberia reacts between now and the end of the year," said Wayne Elliott, a spokesman for Britain's weather service, the Met Office. "1998 was the warmest ever, 2005 is looking at being second. It will be another very warm year generally, which is in line with global climate change research."

A witness at the trial of 15 people accused of organizing a rebellion in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijon testified that government troops opened fire on civilians during the crisis. It marks the first time in the trial that a witness has contradicted the government's version of events. Mahbuba Zokirova told the court that on May 13 she and her children had gone for a walk when, out of curiosity, she decided to join the protesters in the city square.