A flood of red toxic sludge spilled by an aluminum plant in western Hungary has advanced along a secondary tributary to the Danube River and could reach the international waterway by the weekend, a local defense authority official said Oct. 6. One million cubic meters of sludge flooded the villages of Devecser, Kolontar and Somlovasarhely on Oct. 4 when a waste impoundment wall broke at the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant owned by MAL Magyar Aluminium in the town of Ajka, 160 kilometers southwest of Budapest.

Amnesty International urged Paraguayan authorities to return land to a threatened indigenous group, following a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights this week that the Xákmok Kásek community should be allowed to live on its traditional territory. Paraguay is the only country in the Americas to have been condemned three times by the regional human rights court.

On Sept. 29, a C-47 military plane arrived on Rapanui (Easter Island) with more Chilean troops to augment the already in-place armed forces set to remove indigenous Rapanui people from their ancestral lands. Since July 31, the Rapanui have non-violently re-occupied the land illegally taken from their grandparents and have been demanding their legal title to be restored. That same day, Marisol Hito, spokeswomen of the Hitorangi clan, presented her people's case to the Human Rights Commission of the Chilean chamber of deputies.

Some 20 thousand peasants marked the 50th commemoration of Indonesia's National Farmers Day and passage of the country's first agrarian law Sept. 24, with mobilizations to demand a new agrarian reform program. In actions promoted by over 40 organizations nationwide, protesters demanded the government to implement reforms promised by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2007. Indonesia, a country where 25.6 million family farmers only have an average of 0.4 hectares, has implemented market-based reforms mandated by the World Bank, without aiming to achieve food sovereignty, justice or land rights, the movement charges.

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman prompted the Palestinian mission to walk out of a UN General Assembly meeting Sept. 28 by saying "a long-term intermediate agreement...could take a few decades." He also called for redrawing the borders of the West Bank. Citing the "utter lack of confidence between Israelis and Palestinians," Lieberman told UN that any durable solution in the Middle East, as in the Balkans and East Timor, would require the separation of populations. "We should focus on coming up with a long term intermediate agreement, something that could take a few decades... To achieve final status agreement, we must understand that the primary obstacle is the friction between the two nations." Lieberman added that "the guiding principle for a final status agreement must not be land-for-peace but rather, exchange of populated territory. Let me be very clear: I am not speaking about moving populations, but rather about moving border to better reflect demographic realities." This notion, he claimed, has been accepted as a "virtual truism" in the academic community, which has coined the term "re-sizing the state." (Press TV, Sept. 29; Checkpoint Washington blog, WP, Sept. 28)

Israeli commandos intercepted a boat carrying Jewish activists who hoped to breach the blockade of the Gaza Strip on Sept. 28. Israeli navy boats blocked the catamaran Irene—dubbed the "Jewish Boat to Gaza"—which was carrying 10 passengers and crew, and diverted it to Israel's Ashdod seaport. The boat's cargo of medical equipment was intended for delivery to the Gaza Community Mental Health Program. Activists on board say they were shoved, manhandled—and in one case shocked with a Taser by the commandos. Yonatan Shapira—a former Israeli helicopter pilot who is well known locally for refusing to carry out his military duties—received Taser shocks while passively resisting arrest by sitting down and embracing another passenger, his brother Itamar Shapira said. (AP, JTA, Sept. 30)

From Human Rights Watch, Sept. 26:

Israel: Extend Settlement Freeze
Renewed Construction Would Have Severe Human Rights Consequences
JERUSALEM — Israel should make permanent and total the partial "freeze" on construction in West Bank Jewish settlements, Human Rights Watch said today. Israel's construction of settlements and their infrastructure violates its obligations as an occupying power and the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank, including unjustly limiting their ability to build homes and access their lands, Human Rights Watch said.

Ecuador's military staged a rescue late Sept. 30 to free President Correa, who was holed up in a hospital for more than 12 hours by the police uprising. As TV cameras rolled and pro-Correa crowds at the scene cheered, some 40 special operations troops who arrived in two trucks entered the hospital, and hustled Correa out and back to the presidential palace. Sporadic gunfire could be heard and five soldiers were reported injured. A defiant Correa appeared minutes later on the balcony of the presidential palace, where he told the crowd: "It's a day of profound sadness that I never thought would happen during my government. The police have been infiltrated by well-known political parties that want to conspire."