Two days after two Spanish aid workers and one Italian were abducted by suspected al-Qaeda militants at the Sahrawi refugee camps of Tindouf in western Algeria, Spain on Nov. 1 called for a UN investigation to evaluate the security situation in the camps, and to probe possible corruption in the distribution of international aid there. "We have asked the United Nations to send a mission to Algeria to assess the security situation in the camps of Tindouf," Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez told reporter after talks in Rabat with her Moroccan counterpart Taieb Fassi Fihri. The camps are under the control of the Polisario Front, which seeks the independence of neighboring Western Sahara from Morocco. Algeria, which traditionally backs the Polisario Front, has reportedly deployed both ground and air forces in an "urgent" operation in the remote Saharan region to prevent the escape of the kidnappers. (Al-Arabiya, Oct. 25)

Indigenous and peasant communities in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao are protesting the armed forces' proposal to allow mining companies to establish their own militia force to secure their operations. The Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center is calling on President Benigno Aquino to bar private companies from forming what are to be known as Special CAFGU Armed Auxiliary (SCAA) units, arguing that it is the indigenous peoples and rural communities that are in dire need of protection from violence and attacks, not mining corporations.

Tanzania's last remaining hunter-gatherer tribe won an unprecedented victory over development interests who claimed they were extinct, acquiring a certificate of "customary rights of occupancy" (CCRO) to their communal lands in the Yaeda Chini area of the Great Rift Valley. In announcing the move Oct. 30, Doroth Wanzala, assistant commissioner for land in Tanzania's Northern Zone, said: "We have resolved that the Hadzabe should be given official title deeds to ensure that the country's last hunter-gatherers are not troubled by land-hungry-invaders particularly in the wake of scramble for land." The United Arab Emirates' Safaris Ltd has been seeking to buy the 2,267 square kilometers of virgin bush in northern Tanzania for commercial hunting and tourism. The Hadzabe have resisted efforts to relocate them and "civilize" them since the 1960s by fleeing deeper into the bush.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said Nov. 1 it had begun injecting water and boric acid into Reactor No. 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, after detecting signs of fission. The injection was ordered after analysis of gas samples from the reactor building indicated the presence of xenon 133 and xenon 135, byproducts of a nuclear reaction. "We cannot deny the possibility of a small nuclear fission reaction," TEPCO spokesman Hiroki Kawamata said. The temperature in reactor No. 2 had been brought to below 100 degrees C, one of the conditions for the utility to declare "cold shutdown." TEPCO and the government had said they were on track to bring the damaged reactors to cold shutdown by the end of the year. (AFP, Bloomberg, Nov. 2)

Abdurraheem el-Keib, a dual US-Libyan citizen, was elected prime minister of Libya by leaders of the National Transitional Council who voted in a televised event Oct. 31, dropping ballots into a transparent box. Keib, described favorably as a "technocrat" by the Washington Post, attended the University of Tripoli in 1973, earned his MS at the University of Southern California in 1976, and his Ph.d. at North Carolina State University in 1984. He has taught at the University of Alabama and the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Most recently, he served as chair of the Electrical Engineering Department at the UAE's Petroleum Institute before joining Libya's interim council in the spring. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the US Department of Energy (DoE), Southern Company Services (SC), and the Alabama Power Company (APCO). (AntiWar.com, Nov. 1; WP, Oct. 31; The Petroleum Institute)

Colombia's Department of Administrative Security (DAS) was officially eliminated Oct. 3 after years of scandals concerning paramilitary ties, assassinations, illegal wiretapping and corruption. President Juan Manuel Santos and DAS director Felipe Muñoz formally announced the disbanding of the agency at the Presidential Palace in Bogotá. Replacing the 58-year old DAS will be a new intelligence agency headed by former commander of the navy, Adm. Alvaro Echandia. Interior Minister Germán Vargas Lleras said on Twitter that it will be called the "National Agency of Protection." Meanwhile, 2,300 DAS employees will be transfered to the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) of the Fiscalia, Colombia's justice department.

Kyrgyzstan's newly elected president, Almazbek Atambayev, announced upon his victory Oct. 31 that he will close Manas air base, which has been critical to the US campaign in Afghanistan. Atambayev said the lease for the US lease will not be renewed after it expires in 2014. He told the BBC: "The US base should be shut down. What if there is a war between the US and Iran, and in response Iran bombs the Manas? What will happen to us?" Atambayev served as prime minister under interim leader Roza Otunbayeva following last year's revolution, and has steered a course closer to Russia, which also has military forces in Kyrgyzstan.

Gustavo Petro, a former leader of the M-19 guerillas and longtime socialist legislator, was elected mayor of Bogotá in polling Oct. 30. Petro's campaign emphasized clean politics and reform—pressing issues as outgoing Mayor Samuel Moreno is in prison on corruption charges. "This is a victory of the desire for change of the city of Bogotá, which demands immense challenges of the 21st century, like overcoming an administrative crisis," said Petro. He won a sweeping victory over Green Party centrist Enrique Peñalosa, who gained approximately 25% of the votes. Independent Gina Parody came in third with 17%. Although a harsh critic of President Juan Manuel Santos, Petro called on the president to dialogue on cooperation. "There are things to talk about with the president," Petro said, stressing the importance of cooperation between the capital district and national government. He also called for a "plan to mitigate the effects of the TLC," the new Free Trade Agreement with the US. (Colombia Reports, Colombia Reports, Miami Herald, Oct. 30)