The Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force, a militia group from Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta region, has seized a pumping station in protest of the arrest of its leader. More than 100 armed men in boats stormed the Idama flow-station, sources close to the Chevron oil company said.

A recent story in New Jersey's Asbury Park Press sheds light on a highly esoteric group which can make a claim to being an indigenous American form of Islam, the Moorish Science movement. The story concerns Lee S. Crudup, who now goes by his "Moorish-American" name of Nature El Bey. Earlier this year, he was charged with—and acquitted of—failing to cooperate with Asbury Park police by giving a false name. He was convicted of not registering or insuring his car, and served 14 days in jail. He has now filed a federal suit, along with the Moorish Science Temple of America, accusing Asbury Park authorities of kidnapping him and illegally depriving him of his property under color of law. His numerous unorthodox legal arguments include that police have no right to stop citizens—only the sheriff, who holds the sole law enforcement office created by the state constitution, can do so, El Bey told the newspaper. But the larger issue seems to be the Moorish Science doctrine that Moorish-Americans constitute a separate nationality and are not subject to US law—or only to a strict constitutional interpretation. This doctrine has also brought followers of Moorish Science into frequent conflict with the IRS.

The polling stations closed last night in what was hailed as Afghanistan's first free parliamentary elections since 1969. Overseeing the security of the elections in the capital was the special Kabul Multi-National Brigade (KMNB VIII), composed of units from 24 countries, together with the Afghan National Army (ANA) and Kabul City Police (KCP). KMNB VIII patrols of Kabul's streets started at daybreak, with the police and Afghan army supervising the polling stations. Three days before the vote a large number of 107-mm rockets were found along with some surface-to-air missiles and other explosives in a joint Italo-French operation on the outskirts of Kabul, on the road to Bagram. A few hours before the vote, Kabul's chief of police and four officers were killed in the city center. Yesterday morning the Counting Center, where ballot boxed are due to be opened and counted was hit by two rocket attacks, which both failed to cause significant damage. According to initial estimates by the multi-national Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), turnout was as high as 55%. For the transportation of ballot boxes a variety of vehicles are being used, from four-wheel drive trucks to a fleet of 1,250 donkeys, 300 horses and 20 camels, allowing even the most remote villages to be reached. The KMNB operation will continue until the counting of the votes ends on October 9, with a declaration of results due on October 22. (AGI, Sept. 19)

Violence is reported in Athens, with riot police clashing with left-wing anarchists. The masked protesters threw petrol bombs and stones, and police responded with tear gas. The street-fighting in the student quarter followed a rally by neo-fascists demanding that Turkey be barred from joining the European Union. Right-wingers from across Europe have gathered in Greece hoping to attend a two-day rally, Euro-Fest 2005, despite a government ban.

Disasters

by Jordan Flaherty

September 15, 2005

New Orleans was not devastated by a hurricane. From my travels around New Orleans and surrounding areas, it's clear that very little damage was done to my city by hurricane Katrina.

Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, Gulfport and other Gulf cities have suffered extensive hurricane-related damage. However, the damage to New Orleans came from brutal negligence - a lack of planning and a stunningly slow response, created by a federal government that didn't care about the people of New Orleans, and still doesn't. Academic Cornel West has called it Hurricane Povertina. Poet Suheir Hammad has referred to the "survivors of the rescue," others have referred to the displaced as "victims of hurricane FEMA," or simply "Michael Brown's victims." The houses of New Orleans were not hit by 35 foot tall waves or 200 mile winds. On the day after the hurricane, most of the city was in good shape, and many of us still in the city felt that New Orleans had once again come through battered and bruised but all right. Then, over the next few days, the levee broke and water rushed into the city, and relief rescue and repair efforts were far too little, far too late.

Sarah Ferguson reports for the Village Voice Sept. 12 on how the conspiracy set crashed the official 9-11 commemoration:

The anguish was palpable at Ground Zero yesterday, as family members made their way down a long ramp into the vast emptiness of the World Trade Center site, then took turns reading out the names of their lost loved ones.

Premier Dalton McGuinty pledged to axe a peneding law to establish a conflict-settlement program based on shariah law in Ontario, and also promised to outlaw existing religious tribunals used for years by Christians and Jews under Ontario's Arbitration Act.

A new round of violence—the worst to hit the province in a decade—broke out in Belfast Sept. 10 following a decision to restrict an Orange Order parade. Police said surveillance footage of that violence showed paramilitaries armed with automatic weapons and explosive devices, and members of the Orange Order attacking police and orchestrating the violence.