Nicaraguan newspaper El Nuevo Diario said Sept. 24 that one of its reporters, Silvia González, has fled to the United States following threats from supporters of the ruling Sandinista party. National Police spokesman Fernando Borge told Channel 12 TV that the case "had been investigated and she was given police protection." But González said in a call from Miami, told AP: "I am afraid that they will kill me...and that is why I left." The director of El Nuevo Diario, Francisco Chamorro, said the newspaper had complained to international press freedom groups about the threats. González said she had received menacing telephone calls and ext messages, including one that said, "Keep bothering us, we give you 48 hours to live." A severed chicken head with her name on it was also reportedly thrown onto González's patio.

In an unprecedented move, Burma's President Thein Sein yielded to a protest campaign Sept. 30, announcing cancellation of the controversial Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy River, already under construction by Chinese contractors. The Myistone Dam was to be the first of eight on the still-undammed Irrawaddy that were scheduled to be built in order to export power to China. The project has been opposed by a wide range of environmentalists, social activists, artists and others including Burma's most prominent dissident, Aung San Suu Kyi. Just days before the decision to halt the project, dissident writer U Ludu Sein Win warned in the Rangoon-based journal Weekly Eleven: "The people are demanding to stop the project. If the righteous demands of the people are ignored and they continue the dam project, the people will defend the Irrawaddy with whatever means possible."

In the wake of Burhanuddin Rabbani's assassination, Afghan President Hamid Karzai says trying to talk peace with the Taliban is futile, that the real power behind the insurgents is Pakistan, and that Afghanistan's best option is to negotiate with Islamabad. Hundreds of Rabbani's supporters marched in Kabul on Sept. 25 to protest his killing, chanting "Death to Pakistan, death to the Taliban!" They demanded the government scrap plans to hold dialogue with the insurgents. Preliminary investigations into Rabbani's killing, presented to Karzai by his intelligence chiefs that day, said the attack was plotted outside Afghanistan and named the Taliban’s Pakistan-based Quetta Shura as key suspects.

Heavy fighting is reported between the Syrian army and opposition activists in central Homs province, as anti-government protests continue. In Rastan, seven soldiers and police were reportedly killed battling troops who have defected to the opposition. At least 11 protesters were killed after thousands took to the streets after Friday prayers Sept. 30, activists said. (BBC News, Sept. 30) European nations have meanwhile dropped an explicit threat of sanctions against the Syrian regime in a bid to win Russian support for what would be the first UN resolution condemning the military crackdown on civilian protesters. Europeans diplomats meanwhile appealed to all sides in Syria "to reject violence and extremism." (UKPA, Sept. 30)

A military court in Bahrain sentenced a group of medical staff to up to 15 years in prison Sept. 29 for treating anti-government protesters. The doctors and nurses were convicted on charges including incitement to overthrow the government, stealing medicine and occupying a hospital. Dr. Fatima Hadji told the BBC she was beaten in custody and threatened with rape before being released on bail. At least 30 people were killed and hundreds injured when the regime, supported by troops rushed in from neighboring Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, cracked down on pro-democracy protesters in March. (Radio Australia, Sept. 30)

US-born purported al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki was killed Sept. 30 in a drone strike outside the town of Khashef in Yemen's Jawf province. At least three of al-Awlaki’s companions were also killed in the same strike, including fellow US citizen Samir Khan, editor of the slick al-Qaeda magazine Inspire. President Obama hailed the killing as "a major blow to al-Qaeda's most active operational affiliate," saying the death "marks another significant milestone in the broader effort to defeat al Qaeda." American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer said the killing was part of a US counter-terrorism program that "violates both US and international law."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sept. 28 rejected Western and Arab complaints that the newly announced construction of 1,100 Jewish homes in Gilo on annexed land close to East Jerusalem would hurt efforts to revive the peace process. "Gilo is not a settlement nor an outpost," Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev said. "It is a neighborhood in the very heart of Jerusalem about five minutes from the center of town." He asserted that in every peace plan on the table over the past 18 years Gilo "stays part of Jerusalem and therefore this planning decision in no way contradicts" the Israeli government's stated desire for peace based on a two-state solution.

More than 160 people were arrested in Bulgaria Sept. 27, in a second night of protests against the Balkan country's large Roma minority. The protests were sparked by the hit-and-run killing of a 19-year-old man by an apparent associate of the local self-proclaimed "Gypsy King" Kiril Rashkov in the village of Katunitsa near Plovdiv, but quickly spread to cities and towns throughout the country. (See map.) Protests dwindled the night of the 28th, after Rashkov was arrested. More than 2,000 marched in Sofia at the height of the protests. At least one incident of skinheads attacking a Roma man and his young son was reported, in the town of Blagoevgrad. Residents of Blagoevgrad's Roma neighborhood, hearing of the assault, armed themselves with axes and sticks and attempted to march on the center of the town to confront the protesters, but were blocked by police.